General
ANNE WILLAN’S BOOK
Pop quiz: Have you ever heard of Apicius? Taillevent? La Varenne? Careme?
Apicius wrote De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking) over 2000 years ago and lent his name to a restaurant in Paris. Taillevent was a medieval chef (and also the namesake of a Paris restaurant) and the author of Viandier, which has been in print for six centuries. (That I should be so lucky!) The 17th century chef La Varenne is credited with inventing modern French cuisine, while Careme rose from abject poverty to become the world’s first “celebrity chef”; he worked for royalty all over Europe.
In this stunning book (yes, it includes recipes), Anne tells the history of cooking–and humanity–through centuries of cookbooks. A must-read for a lover of food and cookbooks.