South Wind through the Kitchen or Wines of Hungary

South Wind Through the Kitchen: The Best of Elizabeth David

Author: Elizabeth David

An irresistible, charming, and inspired selection from the work of one of this century's great food writers.

Like M.F.K. Fisher and Julia Child, Elizabeth David changed the way we think about and prepare food. David's nine books, written with impeccable wit and considerable brilliance, helped educate the taste (and taste buds) of the postwar generation. Insisting on authentic recipes and fresh ingredients, she showed that food need not be complicated to be good.

A Book of Mediterranean Food, published in 1950, introduced the ingredients of a sunnier world (olive oil, garlic, eggplant, basil), celebrating their smell and taste and above all highlighting the concept that food reflects a way of life and should be a source of joy.

Subsequent books on French and Italian cooking and a stream of provocative articles followed. Later, David's monumental English Bread and Yeast Cookery became the champion of the Real Bread movement. Her last book, Harvest of the Cold Months, is a fascinating historical account of food preservation, eating habits, and the astonishing worldwide food trade in snow and ice.

Many of the recipes and excerpts here were chosen by David's friends and by the chefs and writers she inspired (including Alice Waters and Barbara Kafka). This collection will enable some of us to discover and others to remember what made David one of our most influential and best-loved food writers.

Book Magazine

Not as well-known in this country as her American counterpart M.F.K. Fisher, Elizabeth David changed the way post-war Britain thought about food and prepared it. A Book of Mediterranean Food, her first cookbook published after an intense period of rationing and shortages, brought a sunnier world of ingredients like olive oil, eggplant, garlic, basil and crusty bread to a people just beginning to dream about travel and the pleasures of the table. That 75 cent Penguin paperback was followed by French Country Cooking and Italian Food. These books and the six more that she wrote until her death in 1992 were essays on food and not simply formulas for dishes or elaborate instructions for creating approximations of food served in expensive restaurants. Rather, David's books were about how people ate, the background of many dishes and an explanation of the concept of what the cook is about to prepare.
This volume is a reconfiguration of many of her recipes and excerpts from her most provocative essays. Selections and recollections offered by her family and friends, admirers and advocates make this a personal tribute both to the woman who restored morale to a war-weary nation by reminding them that only a few miles away lemon trees blossomed, and to a writer who inevitably assumed curiosity and intelligence on the part of her readers. Add to this her stunning genius for writing and the reader will conclude with cookbook writer Richard Olney in his introduction that the best of David is Elizabeth herself.
-Joan Reardon

Julian Barnes

E.D. wrote as she cooked: with simplicity, purity, color, self-effacing authority, and a respect for tradition. — Julian Barnes, The New Yorker

Saga Magazine - Derek Cooper

Of all the food books published this year, the best read is South Wind through the Kitchen, an exhilarating anthology of Elizabeth David's finest pieces... Although there are recipes galore, it is the prose which lifts the heart.

Jane Grigson

The best food writer of her time. —Jane Grigson, The Times Literary Supplement

The Daily Telegraph - Paul Bailey

There is not a dull word in these pages... The reader is struck once more by David's belief in simplicity, her loathing of the unnecessarily fancy. A complete newcomer to the kitchen could produce something delicious by following one of her recipes to the letter.

Newsday - Lisa Cohen

As South Wind Through the Kitchen demonstrates, again, she was simply a superb writer.

Clare Flowers

"Elizabeth David's legacy cannot be underestimated. From the perspective of this decade, with its food scares and scandals, much of what she wrote decades ago can be seen as sounding a warning bell. This volume is a wonderful introduction. It is stocked with enough recipes to justify its place on the kitchen shelf alone. But the place to keep it is by the bed. A chapter or two will send you off into the most delicious dreams."— Clare Flowers, The Scotsman

What People Are Saying

Jane Grigson
"The best food writer of her time."— Jane Grigson, The (London) Times Literary Supplement

Look this: Cooking for Two or Karma Cookbook

Wines of Hungary

Author: Alex Liddell

Hungary has 22 wine regions, and a once-proud tradition that had to be completely reinvented after 45 years of communism—during which time the entire structure of grape growing and wine production was altered beyond recognition. This fascinating reference details that readjustment, which continues to this day, and shows how it has developed through privatization, foreign investment, and the dedication of small producers who struggle to achieve quality standards despite a chronic lack of capital. More than 300 wine producers are featured, not only from the famous regions like Tokaj and Villany, where significant progress has been made, but also from the lesser-known regions that may yet have the potential to make world-class wines.