The Dining Room - by John Ota (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Join one architectural writer's journey through history to some of the world's most iconic dining rooms in pursuit of the ultimate design.

What makes the perfect dining room? Come along as bestselling author of The Kitchen and architectural writer John Ota travels the globe to twelve of these storied spaces, delving into the architecture, interior design, and dining experiences he finds there.

The journey starts in 1790 with George Washington's first cabinet dinner with the founding fathers and ends in the present day with the ultimate farm-to-table meal in a Canadian forest. In between, John tours a 19th century Japanese tatami mat-clad samurai home, Edith Wharton's gilded age anomaly in bucolic Massachusetts, and Claude Monet's garden-view Giverny dining room from the dawn of the 20th century. He finds greatness both in opulence at the real Downton Abbey in Hampshire, England, and in modesty in small-town Ontario where Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote her beloved Anne of Green Gables.

Imagine joining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s inspiring conversation around his Atlanta childhood dinner table, then Frida Kahlo's birthday in her vibrant Mexico City home, Casa Azul, built in 1939. Eagle-eye architectural descriptions and detailed menus drop you right into Frank Sinatra's mid-century modern Palm Springs patio, Jackie O's trend-setting 1962 White House dinner, and a contemporary architect's own inspiring dining room.

The Dining Room offers readers a one-of-a-kind experience:

• Share in an unparalleled personal expedition from John's firsthand accounts.
• Explore a spectrum of dining rooms throughout time and cultures.
• Recreate era-accurate meals with one delicious recipe per chapter.

With the ultimate goal of redesigning his own dining room for his wife's upcoming birthday, John also uncovers the surprising impact of dining rooms and our time gathered in them. Heartwarming and informative, The Dining Room is an enlightening celebration of how one room has evolved over time.

About the Author

John Ota has been involved with architecture and design since 1978, with degrees from Columbia University and the University of British Columbia. His bestselling book The Kitchen was a 2021 Taste Canada Awards finalist. After working in architecture in Toronto, New York and Vancouver, and as government lead on multiple projects at the Ontario Ministry of Culture, John now loves to travel the world visiting historic houses, cooking regional food, and meeting people of all backgrounds.