Rachel de Thample

Head of Fantastic Food at Abel & Cole

I'm fascinated by food history, in particular the Middle Ages edging toward the latter part, when Henry VIII was on the throne. I picked this book up at Hampton Court, read it cover to cover on the train home and made half a dozen recipes from it for a Sunday lunch the next day and was blown away by the flavours, all the spice and wine. What makes this book so special is how Maggie Black has taken complex manuscripts from a diverse cross-section, drawing on Geoffrey Chaucer, the Goodman of Paris (a rich Parisian writing in about 1393) and John Russell, Marshal to Duke Humphrey of Gloucester up to 1447, and made their work so accessible. This is a really easy book to use and it opens the door to 'a period when British cooking was amazingly inventive' (to quote Heston Blumenthal, who endorses the book on it's cover). My favourite recipes are the Fried fig pastries, Barley bread, Braised spring greens (with sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon), Pork roast with spiced wine, and Rose pudding, to name but a few...