First, Catch cover

First, Catch

by Thom Eagle

The thing to do is just begin. The question, of course, is where? So opens Thom Eagles' glorious *First, Catch,* a cookbook without recipes, a journey into the digressive mind of a chef at work, and a hymn exalting a festive nine-dish spring lunch. A return to a lost tradition of food writing *First, Catch*, a mouthwatering celebration of cooking. In twenty-four wonderfully digressive chapters, Eagle extols the virtues of salting food liberally, waxes lyrical about lost spices and forgotten ingredients, explains the seventeen different stages of boiling water, and ponders philosophical questions about the ethics and aesthetics of cooking. Beautifully illustrated and brilliantly researched, First, Catch is the ultimate in armchair cooking, sure to please readers of M.F.K. Fisher, Alice Waters, Nigel Slater, and Samin Nosrat. It offers us inspiration to savor both in and out of the kitchen.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?