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Product Description
Barry Forshaw
As we grow more obsessed with cuisine, it was inevitable that books would appear detailing the history of this modern preoccupation. And Nicola Humble's detailed (but highly accessible) Culinary Pleasures is as balanced a look at the subject as one could wish. Humble conjures the early history of the field, via a portrait of the venerable Mrs Beeton (from an era which now seems impossibly remote to us), before having some affectionate fun at the expense of the eccentric menus of the day, taking in the beginning of food tourism with Lady Jekyll's 1922 kitchen essays.
Humble is equally diverting on the modern phenomenon of TV celebrity chefs.
But as well as the social history, there is a choice selection of menus, which will have the reader springing out of the armchair into the kitchen. Unlike so many cookery books, the language here leaps off the page, as in this description of the modern sexual division of cookery writing:
The genre emerged as very gender-specific, with women placing eating and cooking in the context of familial life, while men glossed it with the allure of macho adventuring. The latter tendency is typified by Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, which notoriously revealed the violence, dirt and deceptions of the restaurant kitchen in a swaggering, macho punk style that AA Gill described as ‘Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino’..
The final effect of Humble's diverting book is actually tinged with a certain pride in culinary Britishness. She argues that we have been too long ashamed of our cultural heritage, typified by the fact that we all tacitly accept that British food has only recently been saved from terminal decline. Not so, Culinary Pleasures argues: we have long had plenty to celebrate. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"'This book deserves the attention of every thoughtful foodie... An excellent account of the revival of our native culinary traditions which have, since the war, shrugged off their sense of inferiority to fancy foreign food.' Independent on Sunday 'A terrific book: a thoughtful, intelligent, highly readable account of the influence of the written word on Britain's culinary habits.' Literary Review"
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book starts relatively late in the history of cookbooks, in the mid-nineteenth century, because Humble is looking at the influence of cookbooks on our lives, and the first really influential cookbooks - Beeton and Acton - are published about this time. It doesn't pretend to be a bibliography of cookbooks, but an illuminating selection.
Extremely enjoyable to read, and very witty at times, anyone who likes cookbooks, especially old cookbooks, will find this a delight. It wears its erudition lightly but along the way we learn a lot. Perhaps the best indication of the potency of this book is that it makes one want to go and read - and in many cases buy - the books she looks into. It is thus also a good introduction to the subject for anyone just discovering an interest.
The text and illustrations are high quality and the book is a pleasure to handle. I will re-read it many times, and have ordered several of the books mentioned too!
Extremely enjoyable to read, and very witty at times, anyone who likes cookbooks, especially old cookbooks, will find this a delight. It wears its erudition lightly but along the way we learn a lot. Perhaps the best indication of the potency of this book is that it makes one want to go and read - and in many cases buy - the books she looks into. It is thus also a good introduction to the subject for anyone just discovering an interest.
The text and illustrations are high quality and the book is a pleasure to handle. I will re-read it many times, and have ordered several of the books mentioned too!
12 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was tempted by the title of this book. To portray history through cook books I regarded as a delightful idea. I had quite recently found in an antiquariate a history of Sweden as seen through menues and dinners as they are described by contemporary authors, and it gave me immense pleasure. Quite frankly, the book I received from Amazon was a disappointment. It gives a picture of the culinary "esprit du temps" from the 1860's until today. A readable book, but what a far cry from that ambitious title! I am going to keep it, and might well read it again sometime, but I would not have bought it if I hadn't been misled by the title.
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