Description
“In the past, as now, the cook’s room was the very hub of the house. The fire burned continuously and all the important events of the day were discussed around the large kitchen table that stood in the middle of the room.” In The Cook’s Room eminent writers from around the world describe what it was like to live and work in the traditional home kitchens of their country or region. They write about the atmosphere within the kitchen, the role of the cook in the household, the classic dishes that were prepared, and the way in which cooks all over the world have coped with pnrrunve conditions, adapted to new equipment, and always produced marvelous food. There are many intriguing sidelights: the ingenuity of the cooks in Alsace, who diverted smoke from the hearth fire through a cupboard in the loft to cure the family bacon; the superstition in the homage paid to stove gods in China or in the haunted Moroccan kitchen. The stunning tiles in Mexican kitchens display both skill and beauty, and in Canada there is pleasure in abundance, in the wealth of seasonal foods. Each contribution is packed with information, and all are enhanced by the collection of wonderful color photographs and historical prints, researched and commissioned from sources around the world. The Cook’s Room presents an eclectic view of the traditional kitchen in words and photographs. It is a book to treasure. Internationally renowned and authoritative food writers, food historians, and culinary researchers have contributed to this book. Some write of their childhood memories of grandmother’s kitchen, some describe their experience of a traditional kitchen, and some share their fascinating studies of the cook’s rooms of the past. The contributors are: Anneke Ammerlaan Gertrud Benker Antonio Carluccio Shirley Collins Sir T erence Conran Marie-Noele Denis Gunilla Englund M. F. K. Fisher Willie Graham Net/in Halici Geraldene Holt Richard Hosking Philip Iddison Maria Johnson Diana Southwood Kennedy Gerald Long Elisabeth Luard Elisabeth Lambert Ornz Sri Owen Alicia Rios Rosemary Ruddle lulie Sahni Rena Salaman Fuloia Sesani Mariti Jose Set/illa-Taylor R. E. F. Smith Anita Stewart Jill Tilsley-Benham Judy White Clio Whittaker Alan Davidson, General Editor of The Cook’s Room, is one of the organizers of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, and has written an entertaining introduction drawing out the similarities and highlighting the differences among the kitchens described in this absorbing collection. Hardcover. 240 pages. In very good preloved condition with the exception of some minor indentations in a small area of the front dust cover located near the upper right edge (near the spine). A beautiful book!