Roger Ebert dies at 70: Film critic was also a food fan

Film critic Roger Ebert died at age 70 after a long battle with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands. Best known for his witty movie reviews, Ebert was also a food enthusiast who, among the more than a dozen books he wrote, penned “The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker.�

The book was published in 2010, four years after surgery that damaged his carotid artery left him with a hole in his throat and unable to eat, drink or speak. He was fed liquid paste through a tube in his stomach, but undeterred (the quality for which he was so widely admired), he finished the book that started as a blog post.

“To be sure, health problems now prevent me from eating,� he wrote. “That has not discouraged my cooking. Now cooking is an exercise more pure, freed of biological compulsion.�

Photos: Roger Ebert on food movies

A food fan, Ebert wrote at length about the hamburger chain Steak ‘n Shake in his autobiography, “Life Itself: A Memoir.� “If I were on death row, my last meal would be from Steak ‘n Shake.� He once old the New York Times, “Food for me is in the present tense. Eating for me is now only in the past tense.�

And he really did love the rice cooker; he’d even traveled to the Sundance Film Festival with it. “You can cook about everything but a souffle.�

Among the recipes: macaroni and cheese, spicy beef chili and mushroom risotto, all meant for the busy cook trying to get dinner on the table, whether for one person or for a family.

And, yes, the recipes include plenty of movie references. For example, “You can substitute any grain of your choice. Even amaranth, seen as the favorite side dish in ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.’�

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