Michele Cranston

Food stylist and magazine food editor

Reading this book is all about travelling back to a time when the world and its food was constrained by villages and customs, seasons and states. You can hear in the re-telling the excitement with which an English woman discovered the extraordinary flavours of provincial Italy and France and as a reader you can imagine how thrilling it would have been to have had, for the first time, the extraordinary blending of pine-nuts, fresh basil, garlic and Parmesan cheese. I also love the conversational tone of the recipes which reflect an era when a certain degree of knowledge was assumed.

Joan Nathan

Cookbook author and food journalist

Joyce Molyneux

Chef

Ben Tish

Chef