Great British Food [Hardcover]

Heather Hay Ffrench (Author), Gordon Summerfield (Foreword)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: Quiller Press Limited (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1899163565
• ISBN-13: 978-1899163564
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,609,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2.0 out of 5 stars Geographically Challenged, February 9, 2009

By 

Kevin Campbell (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great British Food (Hardcover)

According to the dust jacket the author is a well known TV foodie, so it must be my ex-pat location that means I've never heard of her. I was a bit put off by her choice of geographical groupings: Hampshire and The Cotswolds, for example, don't strike me as particularly obvious - especially when you realise that they are not adjacent to each other.

Concerns about the authors grasp of geography are confirmed by the map presented early on; my home town of Southampton lies directly beneath the number which the legend proclaims to represent "The South East", yet Kent has it's own spot and numeral on the map, over in the South East where one would expect to see it. Hampshire and The Cotswolds meanwhile appear to center around Bath.

Now extra curious I thumbed directly to the chapter on my home county (and The Cotswolds) only to discover that Salisbury had somehow moved to Hampshire, presumably causing something of a stir in Wiltshire where it had been when I last visited. Never mind, what about the first recipe to represent my homeland? Some french dish famously associated with the Tarn but, I kid you not, "equally delicious when prepared in Hampshire". Yes, that's right, a foreign meal can qualify as traditionally British providing it tastes just as nice when you make it there. Oh dear.

My energy waning I leafed through the section on Scotland where I was encouraged to try Scottish seafood "with a local wine". We've owned a small home in Scotland for 5 years and visit pretty regularly, but I have never encountered "a local wine" in Scotland. I wager it may come as something of a surprise to many Brits to know there is even such a thing as a local wine North of the border - perhaps something from the Loire would qualify provided it is purchased and consumed locally?

This is a confused and confusing book, and does little to promote the cause of British food and cooking, though it does plug by name many commercial suppliers. Floyd on Great Britain is but one of many, many, better choices.