Posts Tagged “food literature”
We all know the name and his impeccable political credentials (he was an American Founding Father and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence; he was the third President of the United States). But Thomas Jefferson lived a full life of controversy outside the political arena. Jefferson served as a diplomat, stationed in Paris…
Grub Street should be applauded for introducing a new generation of food lovers to Arto Der Haroutunian. It might be a name unfamiliar to any but the most enthusiastic of cookbook collectors, but he is considered as worthy as, say, Elizabeth David in his own sphere. He died suddenly in 1987 at the age of…
Into every cookbook reviewer’s life comes a publisher who says “I saw this and thought of you.” And so it was that I was the recipient of Little Old Lady Recipes. It’s a charming book written by the aforementioned sassy gals, and is evidently considered a book to be enjoyed by this Little Old Lady….
It’s obvious that those visiting my site love food. Mostly Food and Cocktails gives a clue with its name that the bias will be in the direction of meals, recipes and ingredients; but the ‘Mostly’ opens the door to other possibilities, and it’s travel that is standing on that literary threshold. People who love to…
Pronounced ‘keen-wah’, quinoa is a frequently overlooked and relatively unknown superfood, containing a perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids. It is gluten-free and a great source of protein. Derived from the Spanish spelling of the Quechua name ‘kinwa’, this ancient grain originated in the Andes. It was successfully cultivated for human consumption 3000…
Cheese! The savoury equivalent of chocolate. Yes, it offers similar emotions to so many people – craving, greed, joy of tasting and guilt. It’s one of the foods, along with chocolate, that weightwatchers least want to give up. We cook with it and eat it fresh – there are our traditional favourites but lots more…
She was and still is one of our most celebrated food writers. Her first book was published in 1950 in those dark days after the Second World War finished and before normal life began again. One could liken her work to the equivalent of colour TV arriving in our sitting rooms. Yes, we had enjoyed…
This is surely a prize-winner among this year’s food-related books. One would think that it would be a dry and worthy tome. The sort that many own and none read. The Flavour Thesaurus has the linen hard-cover of dusty library volumes, but a peek inside and anyone with even a slight interest in food will be…
Elizabeth David is for many the Grande Dame of British cooking, although she is more famed for her writings on the cuisine of the Mediterranean at a time when the prospect of many Brits travelling to those sun-drenched climes was slim. Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen takes us a little further afield…
There can be few of us who are not aware of the changing shape of the younger generation. They are often taller but more of them than ever are overweight, not by just a pound or two but by enough to significantly impair their health. The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization in Australia)…
Sounds as though it should be a chapter from Chaucer. Probably lots of Anglo-Saxon expletives and doing something rude with milk. Well, no. The Cheesemonger’s Tales is just a thoroughly good read with no need for a PG rating. It concerns the life of a cheese and wine man, and here lies the strength of…
This is a lovely book to snuggle up with on these long winter evenings. Forgotten Fruits has a beautiful cover and the feel of an old-fashioned quality volume. The off-white paper suggests a well-loved tome kept in a glass-fronted bookcase in a Victorian drawing room. But what is it all about? Forgotten Fruits could be…
I am not a lover of any particular ethnic cuisine. I have no national preferences. It’s all about taste. I do, however, find myself drawn to the food of India (we in Britain have had a love affair with food of the subcontinent for generations), North African food (my years living in France have introduced…
This book should be republished and retitled THE History of Food. It’s probably the most remarkable book on the subject I have ever had the pleasure of reading. A History of Food is huge in size and comprehensive in depth and breadth of subject. The author, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, is a celebrated historian, journalist and writer…
This is the second book in the new Apple Press series of Cooks Guides, which it has been my pleasure to review, the first being The Cook’s Guide to Fish. The Cook’s Guide to Meat has the same hand-book-size and leatherette finish as the fish guide and also enjoys the benefits of the same illustrator,…
I see many cookbooks every week and hundreds every year. Most are very nice, some are inspiring, there are a few that would be better left as trees, and then there are the gems. Apple Press have done it again! This publisher never seems to put a foot wrong. They present books that are marvellously…
Sicily – Culinary Crossroads is one of a series of books on Italy’s food culture by Oronzo Editions. They are a publisher that specialises in translations of Italian cookbooks and they certainly seem to have filled a gap in the market with this volume. This is the second in the series and takes a look…
I love bottling, jam-making, marmalade-making and the like and I have quite a few books on the subject but Preserved is a little different. It considers all preserved foods and doesn’t have a focus just on making tasty sweet things, although there are still plenty of those to be found within these covers. Nick Sandler…
Mark Bittman is a much celebrated American food writer with more than a dozen cookbooks to his credit. He is a regular journalist with the New York Times and has oft graced the US TV screens on such programmes as The Today Show. How to Cook Everything is in fact Mark’s second shot at the…
The cynical might suppose that this is a pamphlet or at best a very small volume, being light on both pages and interest. You, my misguided reader, are in for a surprise. The full and rather grandiose title is Food in England – A complete guide to the food that makes us who we are….