“The main point of eating out, unless your kitchen has burnt down, is having fun, and the most important ingredients in having fun are the people with whom you eat. Though forget not, good food is important, too.”

—Peter Machamer

Why would a gourmet who has lived in Florence, Paris, and London choose to settle in Pittsburgh?

“It’s a big enough city that there’s a wide variety of many, many things here that are open for you to explore,” Peter Machamer says. “All that just makes for the ambiance of the city.”

A wine and food critic as well as a professor who studies perception, Machamer might be expected to hold definite opinions on the best places to enjoy life in this city—and he does. Machamer’s recently self-published book, Eating, Drinking, and Living Well in Pittsburgh: Some idiosyncratic notes about City spots ($11, see accompanying article for availability), features his wide-ranging comments on various Pittsburgh places, culinary and otherwise.

As the book’s title indicates, Machamer’s guide reflects the author’s personal tastes, and it does not claim to be objective. But then, he has the credentials for good taste: Machamer, professor and former chair of Pitt’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science, was the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s wine columnist for 15 years. Before that, he was a food and wine critic at Pittsburgh Magazine.

Growing up in New York City, Machamer originally worked in the theater, then decided he “oughta go and get smart,” he says. He chose to major in math as an undergraduate at Columbia University “because it was the farthest thing from theater.” After graduating from Columbia, Machamer won a fellowship to Cambridge University, where he studied art history and psychology, turning down a lucrative advertising job to do so. He received the Ph.D. degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago.

While studying at Cambridge, Machamer traveled to France’s Burgundy wine country, where he began his love affair with wine. His passion for cooking, on the other hand, has been with him since childhood—mainly out of necessity. “My mother was a terrible cook,” he says. “It was self-preservation more than anything.” Machamer went on to teach cooking even in such gastronomically advanced lands as Italy and France.

Eating, Drinking, and Living Well in Pittsburgh: Some idiosyncratic notes about City spotsis available at www.livingwellpgh.com and at local bookstores, including the Pitt Book Center (4000 Fifth Ave.), Jay’s Bookstall (3604 Fifth Ave.), and Caliban Bookshop (410 S. Craig St.). One dollar from each copy purchased is donated to the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Machamer’s Eating, Drinking, and Living Well in Pittsburgh is no “best of the city” list like the annual compendia featured in various local papers: You actually have to read the book to find his hidden picks. For example, his favorite breakfast in the city is served at Deluca’s in the Strip; the best fish, he says, is the Dover sole at Baum Vivant in Shadyside.

In person as well as in his book, Machamer is a font of tips on where to go and what to do. For a romantic dinner out, he says, try Le Pommier on the South Side. Want to take some cooking classes? Check out Crate in Green Tree.

Machamer is now at work on a cookbook—“a very chatty, philosophical cookbook,” he promises. He updates his Web site, www.livingwellpgh.com, monthly with changes to restaurant listings and such features as a food and drink of the month.

Some of Machamer’s tips for “Living Well” around Pitt:

• A Few Pitt Gems

Machamer calls the interior of the first floor of the Cathedral of Learning “extremely impressive” and the building’s nationality rooms “glorious.”

Pitt’s Kuntu Repertory Theater is listed under “unusual or under-noticed theater, dance, and arts” and praised for its “fine plays.”

WPTS is rated a “cool radio station,” but you already knew that.

• Oakland Eateries

Oakland has “lots of small little interesting places that make it fun,” Machamer says. His book’s first Oakland listing is described as “maximally quick, cheap, good food right next to the University of Pittsburgh.” Of course, he’s referring to Scotty’s Hot Dog and Chicken Stand; under the umbrella on the corner of Bigelow and Forbes, in front of the Hillman Library, it offers “good hot dogs, sausages, and sumptuous chicken sandwiches,” Machamer writes. “And almost best of all, a chance to listen to Scotty talk.”

Though Machamer’s book lists too many Oakland restaurants to include here, during an interview Machamer singled out several places, all of which happen to be on Atwood Street: La Fiesta, Spice Island Teahouse, and Maggie’s Mercantile. (“It quite amazes me that vegan cooking can be this good.”)

• Schenley Park

Snow shouldn’t keep you from enjoying life in Oakland, Machamer advises: Buy a take-out lunch, grab a blanket and some hot mulled wine, and head out to Schenley Park for a winter picnic. (“It’s better if you go with somebody you wanna ‘snuzzle’ with, ’cause that’ll keep you warm, too,” he says.)

• Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre (PICT)

Tickets to this company’s “excellent productions,” staged at the Stephen Foster Memorial, are available through ProArts Ticketing Service at www.proartstickets.org or by phone at 412-394-3353. For more information on PICT, visit www.picttheatre.org.

• Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh

International touring ensembles play early music on period instruments at Synod Hall, 120 N. Craig St. “At times, superb heights,” writes Machamer of these concerts. More information is available at 412-682-7262 or at www.rbsp.org.

• Parking

In case you’re driving around to do all this, Machamer has some advice on parking in Pittsburgh: “Park in parking lots, always and forever. No matter how much you think it costs, it’ll cost less than a parking ticket. Trust me on this one.”