Jane GrigsonReseñas

A coffee table art book, this seems to be a Charlotte Knox book of beautiful illustrations that needed text to fill it out and Knox asked friend Jane Grigson write the filler. Written in 1988 shortly after the newer refrigerated containers spread produce worldwide, "exotic" means new to the local non-ethnic British store. Articles range from "what is this" Wikipedia-style squibs; hearsay of Knox asking questions from a British museum expert that responded that he didn't know; fond memories of Grigson having the ingredient as a child; researched history following use in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome from a significant dietary item, to neglected weeds, to modern comebacks; ingredients that are world-wide with a different name everywhere with different customs of cooking; and some of Grigson's favorites that she's had been using for decades. Many articles read like a collection of notecards with no transitions, using alternate names for the ingredient in each paragraph and another version in the recipes.
Recipes are presented in several styles: how to pick at the market then cut and peel; this ingredient must be good if harvested today, but by the time it travels to a British market and you must try it, then sauté in some butter; mentioned in the text to make the text longer; and standard cookbook recipes with title, list of measured ingredients, and preparation instructions. Some recipes are Grigson's, some credited to other authors, some modified to British tastes.
Warning: despite the book's title, most of the recipes are meat heavy.½

Mushroom barley soup, in the Middle-European manner, Michael Field, p.58; split into two batches, one with chicken stock, one with vegetable stock; ok, chicken stock version slightly better.

Jane Grigson, the Contributing Editor of The World Atlas of Food, was brought up in the northeast of England, Which has a high reputation for its good food. After taking an English degree at Cambridge, she worked in art galleries, then in publishing offices and as a translator from French and Italian. A Visit to France in 1961 started her professional interest in cookery. The author of many cookery books she has been, since 1968, the cookery correspondent for The Observer magazine. Jane Grigson lives in Wiltshire, with her family, in a seventeenth-century farmhouse. Her main concern, as a cook, is the true quality of a food and how to bring out its basic flavour. She believes that the first necessity for a good cook is curiosity.
Like the classic The World Atlas of Wine, this companion volume is based on a simple idea: that pleasure is related to knowledge and understanding. So this superlative cookery book leads you to its 500 recipes by way of the gardens and orchards, the grain fields and pastures, the rivers, lakes and oceans that provide the good ingredients of all cuisines. Here are the reasons behind the recipes, the explanations of Why national cuisines differ and how the great dishes of the world came to be created. Through 80 pages of superb fullcolour paintings, a team of international writers, headed by Jane Grigson, explores everything edible from apples to zucchini. But this book is also an atlas that covers every major gastonomic region in the world. Sixty-five superbly detailed two-colour maps illustrate how special features of geography, climate and culture influence regional cuisine, how different cultures use the same foods and Why certain foods and food combinations are so satisfying that they occur over and over again in countries oceans apart. Hugh Johnson, author of The World Atlas of Wine, writes about the outstanding Wines and drinks of the world. And James Beard, one of the most famous of all food writers, gives an account of his own epicurean adventures around the world, ranging from the simple pleasure of eating grilled lamb in the streets of Athens to that of ordering the most sumptuous meals in Paris, London and New York. This, then, is much more than a cookery book. It is, as well, an encyclopedia of food and a culinary atlas. It is the most comprehensive book of its kind ever published, the ultimate book for all those who want to heighten their understanding of food and their joy in eating.

This is a fun, and yet exasperating book. Some of the recipes I'd have liked the most are brief mentions, rather than recipes. It has a good, honest, old-fashioned recipe for mincemeat (although it will be hard for the modern cook to find a source for beef suet), but often gives short shrift to various honorable mentions in the description of a country.

James Beard wrote the introductory pages (1-80), and is listed along with the other contributors.
There are so many contributors listed for this book that I decided to list none of them.

This is a well set out book, taking you on a logical journey through English food. Some recipes are treasured and familiar to most already, others less so but you can easily imagine your ancestors delighting in them.

Yet again (for me) another book I can't wait to try recipes from. What a pity Jane Grigson is no longer with us to dispense such useful historical information and sound advice.

Still the best book on fish cookery. Inspired, proper writing. A classic.

Especially good on Jefferson's epicureanism and Dumas' gourmandizing.½

I've only had this for a short time, but all recipes I've tried so far are both simple and tasty, making full use of the individuality of the vegetables used. Especially if you have a CSA box ("groentetas") you have to have this.

Not only will it tell you what you can do with a cardoon or hop shoots, but it will also give you 17 ways to prepare cauliflower. The recipes are not spectacular but usually very nice.

The only thing I could do without is a bit much emphasis on presentation, but that's easy to ignore.½

Invaluable. Whenever confronted by an unusual vegetable, this is the book I look for. As well as recipes, it has much useful information about choosing and preparing vegetables, and some wonderful historical snippets too. MB 7-vi-2007

Although I have labelled this vegetarian, it is more a book of how to cook vegetables (with lots of interesting variations).

See also Spinach by same author.

Six recipes featured in BBC series. Gingham covers. Frontis & vignettes by Glynn Boyd Harte. 475 copies. Scarce. 195.

75.

Battered and splattered kitchen copy of many years

1st ed.

Jane McIntire Grigson, husband George, 13 Mar 1928-12 Mar 1990, Glowcester England.