Famous Vegetarians & Their Favorite Recipes: Lives & Lore from Buddha to the Beatles

I was really surprised by some of the people who were vegetarians. It's nice to know that such highly-regarded people of intelligence, compassion, and strength, were vegetarians. It's strange that in our modern society, people who are vegetarian or vegan are often looked down upon as idiotic or somehow aberrant; I suppose it comes with the territory of living a mostly cruel world full of bitter and jaded folks, but this book proves them all wrong. The recipes are also quite good. I would certainly recommend this book for all vegetarians and those curious about famous vegetarians.

a time or feeling fast fading from the landscape. The earnest pen-and-ink drawings of famous vegetarians, the surprisingly fresh biographical sketches, and a general feeling of creativity and gentility all call forth an era for which the word "nostalgia" may too soon apply. As you may gather, the recipes are just part of the appeal, although many (have even vegetarians become so jaded?) seem to have forgotten the homely joys of well-prepared grains and vegetables. Cloris Leachman's baked potato recipe sounds good & I'll probably get a charge from eating asparagas a la Plutarch. But it's Berry's fine sensibility, along with a delighful expansiveness (exemplified by the inclusion of early transcendentalist philosopher Bronson Alcott), that earns this book a place on my shelf, where it would make sense between a John Muir or Emily Dickinson collection and "Walden."

The author has come up with authentic recipes(or reasonable fac-similes thereof) reflecting the tastes of famous vegetarians throughout the ages. Anecdotal sketches give life to each of the 32 celebrities from Plato and Pythagoras to Tolstoi, Gandhi and George Bernard Shaw along with "contemporaries" like Paul McCartney and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Mr.Berry writes gracefully, and the 80 recipes are not only fascinating, but have been kitchen tested tested by the author for "savoriness." Many recipes are unfired. The book is fully referenced with footnotes(in the back). This is a superb book!