French Provincial Cooking

The most critically lauded of all Elizabeth David’s books is French Provincial Cooking - as seminal to British food as St Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band was to music in the same decade and both stand test of time. Published in 1960, French Provincial was not David’s first book, but it’s certainly her most comprehensive, never has a country’s cuisine been so painstakingly recorded in a recipe book. The unique regionalism of French food is explained and celebrated alongside extracts from literature and history and definitions of equipment and ingredients. It’s hard to imagine a time when shallots or rocket were items necessitating an explanation of taste and appearance - just as a method of clarifying a consommé would involve two chairs, a bowl and a clean bed sheet!

But among these pages of antiquities, sit fantastic, relevant and accessible recipes like six regional variations of cassoulet, classic sauces and meat dishes and a chapter on vegetables that couldn’t be better suited to this generation of organic box deliveries.

A Book of Mediterranean Food

As the first of her books, A Book of Mediterranean Food launched Elizabeth David from passionate gastronome to published author and started the journey that would make her an inspiration to future generations.

In ration-restricted Britain, her writing evoked the ingredients and flavours of far-flung shores which could only be imagined in a country where even staples like butter and sugar were in short supply. Some could not see the beauty of a book that aspired to an unattainable variety in the post-war lacklustre diet. Fortunately others, including her publisher, recognised the rich and beguiling combination of literary reference with descriptive recipes that spoke of exotic tastes and experiences.

A Book of Mediterranean Food stills stands up today as an inspiring collection of recipes from France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece and Egypt – a must for people whose love of food transcends the mere mechanics of cooking.

English Bread and Yeast Cookery

From dumplings to doughnuts, rich yeasted cakes and regional classics - Elizabeth David shares her deep knowledge and passion for all things bread.

Much more than a collection of traditional recipes, David spent five years researching her work and it shows. Informative guides include everything you ever wanted to know about grinding grain, choosing flour, and demystifying yeast. This is no serious work for the academic – David’s light touch and entertaining style of writing has earned her worldwide acclaim with food lovers from all walks of life.

It’s not all about the anatomy of a grain of wheat. An evocative chapter on toast elevates grilled bread to star status, and her homage to muffins and teacakes tempts even a novice into the kitchen.

Honest and direct, she suffers from “combat fatigue” when baking croissants …“It is a process which gives me no pleasure”. David is happily rooted in reality - if you buy only one book on breads - make it this one.

Italian Food

Next to French Provincial Cooking, Italian Food is probably Elizabeth David's most famous and best loved book. Written at a time when garlic, olive oil and parmesan cheese where still relatively exotic ingredients some of the language feels a little old fashioned but, despite that, the quality, warmth and intelligence of the writing leaps off the page.

For a book written in 1954 the recipes still feel amazingly modern and fresh without pretension and high on big gutsy flavours. The result is an indispensable collection of wonderfully written recipes which is still invaluable if you want to lift your knowledge and practice of Italian cooking above Wednesday Mystery Pasta and the occasional risotto.

French Country Cooking

Elizabeth David starts by setting the story straight: “a certain amount of nonsense is talked about the richness of the food to be found in all French homes”. Having lived with a French family while studying over there, Elizabeth David brings first-hand knowledge to this short yet concise guide to provincial French cooking.

The book is divided into sections of meat, fish, vegetables, sauces and so on, with an entertaining and informative introduction to each. But it’s the collection of regional recipes that follow that made this book such a treat for 1950s Britain.

Published more than fifty years ago, Elizabeth David used this book, among others, to unleash ingredients and recipes on the Britain’s bland palette. Many people of that era had never experienced anything other than British cooking – meat, two veg and a nice steamed pudding.

The book reveals the immense diversity of the cuisine through recipes that range from the primitive peasant soup of the Basque country to the refined Burgundian dish of hare with a cream sauce and chestnut puree.

Elizabeth David abandons the traditional format of recipe writing, instead delivering methods complete with details of the region, tradition and people.

Is There a Nutmeg in the House?

This anthology of Elizabeth David’s writings is a book to be treasured, collecting together a selection of the doyenne of food writers’ work spanning four decades. As well as a selection of her journalism and recipes, it contains previously unpublished essays found in her files, letters to friends, notes on recipes and pictures documenting influences on her life.

Famous for reawakening post-war British palates, David’s writing explores the cooking of the time, and the places and people that shaped it. She talks about the scatterbrained and excitable cook who gave her her first cookery lesson as a child, the utter uselessness of garlic presses, whether a stock cube will ever ‘do’ and her habit of asking for a grating of nutmeg over her food in restaurants, hence the name of this charming book.

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