A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean from the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Corsairs, with More than 500 Recipes

by Clifford A. Wright

Book Overview

A groundbreaking culinary work of extraordinary depth and scope that spans more than one thousand years of history, A Mediterranean Feast tells the sweeping story of the birth of the venerated and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688153054
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
• Length: 840 Pages
• Weight: 4.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 2.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Magnificent Encyclopedic Gastronomy

The Mediterranean is its own country and most positively well known for its cuisine. But it wasn't always like that. At one time peasants would be routinely found dead, face down, their teeth stuck in the earth. Wright brilliantly traces the evolution of the Mediterranean gastronomic sensibility from the times of famine and shows how trade, politics, religion and technology influenced the creation of the cuisine so many of us revere and enjoy. He shows how the Mediterranean psyche finds food a deeply sensual experience, and how appreciation of History and Culture is to be savored in every bite of a dish. He explains also why it's never proper to look down your nose at meat dishes when travelling in these countries. Recipes, most modern, some old, grace the book generously with blurbs on the ingredients and their interactions. Many are just delicious. I tried my versions of the leek stew, the cabbage rolls, and the salted cabbage with mint dressing and simply adored them. I can't wait for what the next three quarters of the book have in store for me, over time. This isn't a volume to just check out of the library. This is one to have on hand for whenever the mood or the necessity strikes you.

INCREDIBLE BOOK,Author a treasure for the culinary world

At 24.50 dollars this book is the bargain of the century. And that is not an exaggeration. Almost a thousand pages filled with meticulously researched information. For example Boullaiblaise is not an easy dish to make away from the Mediterranean sea. The author makes sure you will choose suitable substitutions to create this aromatic and beautiful dish in your American kitchen while giving you detailed history and background on the recipe. Perfect!I have the highest praises for Mr. Wright's work. There are many "Mediterranean" cookbooks written by those who have a very superficial understanding of the region. One monumental example to this would be Joanne Weir's 1994 "From Tapas to Meze" book which was just filled with errors. Another lightweight book on Mediterranean cooking was Renee Salaman's cookbook. If you've tired of these poor quality books on the region, please go buy Clifford's book. I promise you'll thank me. A++++++

Food scholarship

This is an amazing resource, a thorough compendium of Mediterranean foodlore. Perhaps the most valuable aspect is the ethnographic research, with many unique folk recipes from the author's own observations. Almost equally valuable is the amazing bibliography, which lists all the significant historical works on food in the region, including medieval Arab titles. The author is far too modest on p. 567 when he claims to be a mere "food writer" and "consumer of scholarship." The scholarship here is superior and incredibly up-to-date on matters ranging from wheat taxonomy to Meccan trade. A few tiny errors have crept in (foxtail millet is NOT panic millet...). I disagree with the negative reviewer, above, on everything except one point: the organization of the recipes in the book is beyond rational analysis. But one can use the indexes, where everything is arranged for the cook.

brilliant tour de force And Delicious Food

This tour de force is not your usual cookbook. It is a story, a history, told through recipes, the recipes acting much the same way illustrations do in an art book. The recipes are authentic and some are difficult and some are very easy. I tried the bouillabaisse recipe and it was as good as what I've had in Marseilles. The organization of the book is also untraditional. It's not organized like a cookbook but like a history, so the recipes appear as illustrative of the various historical trends that the author is writing about. This book is simply the best cookbook I've ever seen, the singularly most informative, and a real treasure that seems endless in its depth and information. A library without this book is like a library without a dictionary.

Could be one of the greatest cookbooks ever written.

This is one of the great cookbooks of all time. "A Mediterranean Feast" is just that, a rich stew that one could feast on for years. The recipes are woven into the history of the Mediterranean and its foods, from the history of macaroni, to the spice trade, and the economic and social forces behind the cuisine; this is an altogether new approach to the cook book. The book itself is beautifully done, and the recipes look mouth-watering...everything from complex ones to a simple pasta with homemade ricotta cheese, ground pistachios and almonds and how to make a proper couscous. A fascinating culinary history with recipes.