Each essay is based on a recipe, from one for bread from the wall of Senet's tomb in Egypt, through Roman and medieval times through the famous 18th, 19th and early 20th-century writers such as Hannah Glass, Brillat-Savarin, Mrs Beeton, Fanny Farmer, Elizabeth David, Julia Child and Robert Carrier, to more recent celebrities such as Delia Smith, Madhur Jaffrey, Marco Pierre White, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. He includes recipes from websites such as epicurious.com and food-as-entertainment television, and comes full circle with Heston Blumenthal, best known for his molecular gastronomy but now running Dinner, a restaurant featuring historical British cooking albeit made with modern techniques. The older recipes are not reworked for modern kitchens, although of course the more recent recipes are quite usable.
This is not an oxymoron but a fascinating and very readable exploration of (mostly British) immigrant cuisine, from the search for a national dish (perhaps kangaroo tail soup), through early settlers' exploration of edible native flora and fauna, the rage for picnics, and chop picnics which morphed into barbecues, and mutton then lamb, baking (lamingtons, Anzac biscuits), pies to Australian-made popular products such as Minties, milk arrowroot biscuits, Vegemite and Milo.
She includes photographs and little snippets of contemporary writing, whether diaries, news clippings, poems or sketches and cartoons.
Prof Santich concludes that Australian culinary history reflects "the shifting fortunes of the land and the stories of its diverse population", and traditions brought by immigrants whether convicts, early European settlers, or later Asian ones, have been "Australianized" with typical Aussie willingness to adopt, improvise and reinvent. It's a story that could be paralleled this side of the Ditch.
Porschen is a cake decorator as well as owner of a cake shop and cake cooking and decorating school in London, and her book is as much about making her baking look beautiful as the recipes themselves.
Whether it's cupcakes, grand cakes, biscuits, little pink heart-shaped macaroons, gingerbread Christmas tree decorations, or even a simple banana
Sweet Paris is as much about Paul's photographs and where to find the best and most mouthwatering chocolate, macaroons, millefeuilles or tarte au citron as a collection of recipes. In fact, recipes are relatively sparse, but the rich descriptions and photographs of gateaux such as L'Opera, baba au rhum, St Honore and Paris-Brest, Mont Blanc and religieuse, tartes aux fruits, brioche, croissants, and more humble treats like madeleines, financiers or friands, tarte tatin and mousse au chocolat will make your mouth water.
Definitely a coffee table book.
