South Wind Through the Kitchen

South Wind Through the Kitchen is the best of British cookery writer, Elizabeth David. Selected from her nine books, here are classic essays on the food of Provence and of Paris, on Italian fish markets and Middle Eastern herb gardens. There are nearly 200 recipes: appetizers, soups, eggs, fish, meat, poultry, vegetables, sauces, breads, preserves, and desserts. Whether discussing the pains of rolling puff pastry or the ease of making pizza, railing against the practices of English bakeries or praising the sausage rolls at the Hotel du Midi, David always speaks her own mind. Best of all, she's a contagious enthusiast: she makes you want to rise from your chair to travel, shop, or try your hand at an omelette. Reading her, writes Julian Barnes, you have a strong sense of a person whose cardinal principles are truth and pleasure. Perhaps it is not absurd to compare her effect on a certain sector of tired, hungry, impoverished '50s Britain with Kinsey's effect on America.