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Author | Anna Thomas |
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Language | English |
Subject | Vegetarian cooking |
Genre | Cookbook |
Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 1972 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | |
Followed by | The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two (1978), The New Vegetarian Epicure (1996) |
The Vegetarian Epicure (1972) is a vegetarian cookbook by Anna Thomas, which was a highly influential vegetarian cookbook. [1]
Anna Thomas wrote her first cookbook The Vegetarian Epicure (1972) while still a film student at UCLA. It had a strong impact on the natural foods movement within the American counterculture. [2] [3] As noted in The Roanoke Times , "for many of the young people turning to vegetarianism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Anna Thomas was the guru in their kitchens." [4] Thomas later said that while she was a student at UCLA, she "wasn't eating much meat," and thus was focusing on vegetarian cooking. However, she states that there "weren't any good vegetarian cookbooks then. So I was just making things up in 1968 and '69, and somebody said, `Gee, Anna, you're such a good cook, you should write a cookbook.' And when you are 19 or 20 you say, `Yeah, OK, I think I will,' and then you do." [5] The success of the book was due to the fact that it turned away from the ascetic approach found in American vegetarian cookbooks, [5] and its ability to introduce pleasure to American vegetarian meals. [6] [7]
Thomas published a sequel called The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two in 1978. The update of the original, The New Vegetarian Epicure, was published in 1996. [8]