The Oxford Companion to Food [Hardcover]

Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food has been over 20 years in the assembling, but here it is; and it is superlatively worth the wait. In fact, superlatives fall silent. A huge and authoritative dictionary of 2,650 entries on just about every conceivable foodstuff, seasoning, cuisine, cooking method, historical survey, significant personage and explication of myth, it is supplemented by some 40 longer articles on key items. Davidson himself (no relation) contributes approximately 80% of the 2,650 entries, thereby guaranteeing high levels of erudition, readability and deadpan feline wit. Since this is a monument intended to last, nothing so frivolous as a recipe is included. A decision taken early in the development of the project to abjure issues whose significance is largely topical has also ensured an agreeable high-mindedness--nothing on those crucial but essentially dreary topics BSE and GM foods, for example.

If a fault could be found, it would only be that it's often difficult to read to the end of an entry, as the abundant cross-referencing all too easily sends one off to another entry, thence bouncing off to another, and all too soon the original is forgotten. A random alphabet of seductions might include: Aardvark, Botulism, Cup Cake, David (Elizabeth), Enzymes, Fat-Tailed Sheep, Gender/Sex and Food, Hallucinogenic Mushrooms, Ice Cream Sundae, Jewish Dietary Laws, Kangaroos, Lobscouse, Microwave Cooking, Norway, Offal, Puffin, Queen of Puddings, Roti, Scurvy, Termite Heap Mushroom (or Taillevant), Umeboshi, Vegetarianism, Washing up (a very elegant little article), sadly no X, Yin-yang and Zabaglione. As this might show, Alan Davidson's aim, borrowed from Dumas' great Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, that his work would appeal not only to persons of "serious character" but also those "of a much lighter disposition", is utterly fulfilled. --Robin Davidson

Far more entertaining, addictive and idiosyncratic than any reference book has a right to be. (Christopher Hirst, The Independent )

Monumental. (Christopher Hirst, The Independent )

There is no better way to stave off the winter blues than the second edition of Alan Davidson's The Oxford Companion to Food. Tom Jaine has taken over from the late Davidson and he is a worthy heir. This gem of food reference retains the wit, elegance, erudition and style that made the first edition so memorable. (Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday (Live - Night and Day) )

Seriously fascinating (Cathy Pryor, Independent )

No kitchen should be without The Oxford Companion to Food 2nd Edition. An absorbing culinary reference book, worth its weight in foie gras. (Image magazine Ireland, )

Extraordinarily comprehensive and detailed. As a reference book it is unlikely to be surpassed but it is also a fun book to dip into and every page includes masses of startling and original information. (Tom Jaine, Country Landowner Magazine )

The Oxford Companion to Wine - like the Food Companion it is detailed, scholarly and endlessly fascinating. (Tom Jaine, Country Landowner Magazine )

essential reference guide (Daily Express )

Brilliantly original

An astonishing encyclopaedia of food, food history and culinary knowledge...Enjoyable to read, enlivened by Alan Davidson's easy wit and humour... This book will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in food - Especially if they like their facts spiced with a little humour (Food magazine ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

"The 'O.C.F' is so entertainingly written that it's easy to forget it's a work of true scholarship. Published in 1999, it was received with great enthusiasm in and out of the food world and found its way onto thousands of bookshelves."--The New York Times Magazine

"From the day it was published--no, from the day the bound proofs arrived--it became the one basic reference work of food scholarship, the volume to which we will all turn first whenever we have a question about food--historical, cultural, or botanical.... It is undoubtedly the most important encyclopedic volume about food published in our lifetimes."--Vogue

"A food book for all time.... The canon of great food literature just got one fat volume greater.... A must-have for any serious food follower."--Gourmet

"The publishing event of the year, if not the decade.... Alan Davidson, the legendarily learned (and eccentric) former British diplomat and international authority on seafood...and godfather to food scholars around the world, has written most of the 2,650 entries, in itself a stupendous feat.... Everyone seriously interested in food must own this book.... A great achievement."--Corby Kummer, The New York Times Book Review

"It is hard to imagine a more congenial companion than Davidson.... This massive volume is nothing short of the grandest of SMORGASBORDS, a sumptuous BUFFET with more SAVORIES, ZAKUSKI and SWEETIES than your typical state dinner. Davidson spent 23 years working on this book, and one can see why: many of the 2,650 entries are worth a separate volume of their own, if not dozens.... A road map to food with a truly global reach... For serious food historians, this will no doubt become an irreplaceable companion. For those amateurs who are merely fascinated by food and who appreciate lucid and witty writing that seeks to deflate the pretensions of your average gastronome, it will provide hours of amusement."--Time Magazine

"A masterly work with a variety

An astonishing encyclopaedia of food, food history and culinary
knowledge. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Enjoyable to read, enlivened by Alan Davidson's easy wit and
humour... --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

No kitchen should be without The Oxford Companion to Food 2nd
Edition --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

An absorbing culinary reference book, worth its weight in foie
gras.
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

'seriously fascinating' --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

"seriously fascinating" --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

"The Oxford Companion to Wine - like the Food Companion it is detailed, scholarly and endlessly fascinating." --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

"essential reference guide" --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Twenty years in the making, here at last is the long-awaited magnum opus from one of the world's greatest authorities on the history and use of food and foodstuffs the world over. Food historian and author Alan Davidson has personally written an amazing 80 per cent of this unique work with additional articles by over 50 specialist authors from as far afield as the Philippines, Norway, and Australia. 2650 BRILLIANTLY READABLE A-Z ENTRIES over 40 feature articles highlighting staple foods of the world exquisite delicately drawn illustrations by laotian artist soun vannithone navigation chart to the companion theme- by-theme extensive bibliography the most wide-ranging coverage ever of foods and food products and how to use them from exotic vegetables and spices to edible fungi and fish of all kinds, from common-or-garden carrots to specialities, such as caterpillars, not for the squeamish famous cooked and prepared dishes and drinks from around the world with their main ingredients and method of preparation from cider, crocque-monsieur, and couscous to Sussex pond pudding, sherbet, and sonofabitch stew all the flavours, styles, and staples of national and regional cuisines, past and present, ranging from classical Greek and Roman, Inca, and Moghul cuisine to Parsi food and Jewish cookery, Cambodia, and Celtic feasting culinary terms, cooking techniques, and food science to enlighten amateur cook and professional alike from colour and curdling, to sushi and soffritto; from ice and irradiation, to listeria, and lactose intolerance the history of cookery books and food writers across 2000 years, including major surveys of English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and American cookery books the place of food in culture and religion, through fasting and feasting, dietary laws and mythology, fast food and soul food, wedding meals and washing up

Alan Davidson is a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired from the Diplomatic Service - after serving in, amongst other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Vientiane, where he was British Ambassador - to pursue a fruitful second career as food historian and food writer extraordinaire. With his wife Jane, he co-founded the food history journal PPC (Petit Propos
Culinaires) and with Dr Theodore Zeldin co-founded the annual Oxford Food Symposia, based in St Antony's College, Oxford. He is currently also Managing Director of Prospect Books Limited, the Chelsea-based publishing house specializing in food history and recipe books.