- An Exotic Cookery and Drinking Book (2 Volumes)
- Exotic Cookery Book or Around the World with Knife, Fork, and Spoon
- Exotic Drinking Book or Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask
- The summation of Charles Baker's culinary and drinking experiences abroad
- Previously-owned 1946 edition, no slipcase
Greatest Armchair Drinking and Dining Book of All Time.
We have acquired an extremely rare, bound set of Charles H. Baker's The Gentleman's Companion, including both an "Exotic Cookery Book" as well as an "Exotic Drink Book." In remarkable condition, the previously-owned 1946 edition provides a brilliantly-entertaining but nearly forgotten history of travel and leisure. Few books, before or since, have even approached this urbanely masculine treatise on gastronomy.
Town and Country magazine sent its distinguished writer, Charles H. Baker, on assignment around the world to find the very best food and drink. The result was this eclectic compilation, providing a provocative and insightful snapshot of the civilized 1940s. In The Gentleman's Companion, one volume is devoted to exotic drinks, the other to exotic foods. Baker outlines a grand cocktail tour that takes the reader on imaginative flights fueled by drinks like the Vladivostok Virgin, "being a risky little heart-warmer from out Frozen Siberia," or "the unpredictable Balloon Cocktail from Calcutta's smartest restaurant, Firpo's." His recipe for Soupa Augholemono, from the Grand Bretagne Hotel in Athens, is flavored with the memory of "young tireless, handsome, agile and elusive lady from Greenwich, whose name and genius it is not pertinent to mention." The author has created what is perhaps the greatest armchair drinking and dining book of all time.