M.F.K. Fisher, one of the premier wine writers of the past 100 years, lived the last 20 years of her life in Sonoma County, near Glen Ellen. Everyone who was anyone in cuisine— Jacques Pepin, James Beard, Alice Waters, Julia Child—made the pilgrimage to visit her at the Last House, the small cabin off Highway 12 where she lived between 1971 and her death in 1992.
Her influence in cuisine remains strong even now, 30 years later. Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher’s witty, polished prose brought food appreciation to life in books such as Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf (written during the war years, when rationing was common), The Gastronomical Me, With Bold Knife and Fork and many others. Several of them were collected in The Art of Eating, which serves as the title of a new documentary on her life and influence that will be presented upstairs at Little Saint on Sunday, Dec. 11.
Director Gregory Bezat and producer Gary Meyer, co-founder of Landmark Theaters, along with Chef Kyle Connaughton of SingleThread, will talk about the making of The Art of Eating and the impact Fisher had not only on the Sonoma community but the larger food industry and cooking itself. As she says in the film, “People ask me why I write about food. The easiest answer is that, like most humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that.”
The film is in its first round of screenings, its premiere having been held at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October. The Dec. 11 screening at Little Saint will be followed by a dinner from Chef Bryan Oliver, inspired by Fisher’s essays and this time of harvest and connection, along with wines paired to share a story of her journey.
Although the menu for the Sunday screening isn’t yet available, Chef Oliver said, “The menu is going to take inspiration from Fisher’s writings during her time in France and in California, along with SingleThread Farm’s current harvest.”
The event will begin at 4:30pm, and conclude about 8:30. Tickets are $225 per person, plus tax and gratuity, with a portion of the ticket going towards the making of the film. To order tickets, visit littlesainthealdsburg.com/happenings/an-evening-with-mfk-fisher.
