The Gentleman’s Companion

Charles Baker embarked on a journey around the world in search of unusual eats and drinks, in addition to meeting fascinating people with whom he could share them. The Gentleman’s Companion is the culmination of Baker’s culinary and drinking adventures that he had while travelling the world. It is written in the form of a drink travelogue as well as a cookbook. Baker accentuates his tales of high adventure with recipes for foods and cocktails that were considered unusual specimens in the 1920s and 1930s. These recipes are included in the book.

Baker was a captivating storyteller who wrote for a number of well-known magazines on topics related to food and drink. He recounts in this travelogue how well-known authors such as Hemingway and Faulkner were among his drinking companions.

The Gentleman’s Companion, which was first published in 1939, gives readers a one-of-a-kind look into the flamboyant and glamorous world of travel in the middle of the twentieth century. The book is both a culinary guidebook and an elitist memoir. These two volumes of the original work, The Exotic Cookery Book and The Exotic Drinking Book, have been combined into a single work for this edition.