Customer Reviews

AN Omelette and a Glass of Wine (Penguin Cookery Library)

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British author Elizabeth David belongs with Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher as a culinary giant of her generation. Her cookbooks were not haphazard collections of recipes, but profoundly researched tomes dedicated to the purity of authentic cuisines, the ageless pleasure of good eating. An OMELETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE is, perhaps, the most personal of all her works. It is a compilation of three decades of her columns for various magazines -- but, more important, a book of her personal quest for wonderful food. The pilgrimage took her from her native England, to sunny France and Italy, to Greece, to Egypt, to the evocative flavors of bygone cities and ages. The essays take us to the quais of southern France in search of sardines, the kitchens of Italy and France, to little restaurants that exist no more, and to gardens that, like Paradise, are a remote memory in a modern world. But the book is perfect in evoking, recapturing, recreating a cuisine in the context of the life it is a part of. Take for instance her old friend, Norman Douglas. He was a character passionate about food. In eating a fig, he knew the exact garden in which it was grown, the tree, the branch it had been plucked from, the tempests and perfect sunny days that had visited it throughout its life. And for Elizabeth David, the search for the authentic sometimes led to the simplest places. The title essay has to do with the search for the perfect omelette -- and finally tracking down the famous Mere Poulard's authentic recipe...consisting only of eggs and a little butter. The glass of wine with the omelette is a kind of completion, the expression of the perfection of life lying in a kind of simplicity...an omelette and a glass of white wine. The river that runs through the book is this tireless pilgrimage through cuisine of all kinds, of all ages. In it, David herself accepts nothing half-rate, no half measures. In all, the reader will be satisfied, not only with the few recipes strewn throughout, but food that has a context of wonderful people, places, and times. Her other books are astounding, and are a must for any serious cook. Her English Bread and Yeast Cookery is the transcendently authoritative history of breads of all kinds in England. More useful in the kitchen are her French Country Cooking, French Provincial Cooking, Summer Cooking, and Mediterranean Food-- all of which contain a cornucopia of great recipes and wonderful flavors. David's cooking is a kind of patient perfection, not a guide to quick and easy cooking or a cuisine of substitutes, calorie-counting, low-fat remedies for the ills of the body. It is the cuisine of people who savor their food, appreciate it as art, love it for the context of good nourishment and good living it has in our lives.

This is my first Elizabeth David book, and I intend to read many more. I've been a fan of M.F.K. Fisher for many years and read and enjoyed her books thoroughly. David's writing is somewhat similar--though not as personal--at least AN OMELETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE is not terribly personal. Still, David shares many aspects of her work and travel that allowed me to feel connected to her in a personal way.

David was hired to write food/cooking/dining articles for various print media and paid very little initially. Her job involved traveling in France and Italy, visiting various inns and restaurants and markets--which she apparently enjoyed. I started to title my review "born to late" as I would have liked her job. Europe in the 1960s--especially France and Italy must have been wonderful (well my husband says it was and he lived there then). Imagine eating French cooking for a living!! Ah yes, another vicarious reading experience.

David tells of her travels to "job" locations--why I think this book is part travelog. Sometimes she has been preceded by Henry James or Marcel Proust, but most often by some obscure person who passed through in the mid-1800s or earlier and recorded their experiences for posterity. David describes the meals she and others have eaten, as well as food preparation (growing, transporting, cooking). Her book includes photographs of a few famous chefs. In most she cases provides information about recipes and lists ingredients--details that might help the reader replicate a dish. She warns the reader it is impossible to replicate a dish exactly owing to many conditions, not the least of which is the quality of the basic ingredients. She finds it amusing when a recipe is touted as being "old" and includes a modern ingredient like margarine.

Although many of David's recipes are historical and some ingredients can no longer be had, still I am tempted to try and replicate some of them. My knowledge of cooking has been expanded by what I've read. I now know more than I did about cheeses, mushrooms, wines, and other French foods. This little book is enlightening.

I'll store AN OMELETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE with my cookbooks in the kitchen, but it could just as easily be construed as a history/travel book as a cookbook. OMELETTE is filled with anecdotal information about food origins and interesting tidbits. For example, David says the French invented the pizza (it was called pissaladiere) not the Italians. She provides historical evidence Whiskey has been used as a key ingredient in some very upscale dishes. She sets the record straight on Sardines (from the sea near Sardinia) and Syllabub, and the differences between Parmesan and Gruyere--the former Italian and the latter French--but is one really better than the other or are they the same thing? I love this book and I will refer to it over and over.

I've always been scared to buy ED's books.
Why? Because most reviewers go out of their way to point out how intelligent she is (true), how ruthless she is in terms of staying authentic, how she fills her books with references to obscure and elite sources. She always seems to be described as less approachable then most food-writers, with a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue.
To that I say...

*NONSENSE!*

She's not an elite-writer, she's simply a very smart woman with a deep love for food. She doesn't seem rigid or overly strict with her recipies at all. She just seems like a lovely entertaining expert on all things edible, explaining why things taste better when prepared a certain way, making you ponder the truth in what she writes, and making you realise she's telling you things you should have already figured out on your own. She's a teacher, but a very loving one. Elegant without being prissy, experienced and willing to share.
I wish I had bought this book much earlier. It's filled with wonderful essays, thoughts and descriptions. It made me hungry and happy at the same time! If you like a book with more substance then just a HUGE index of 10.000 recipies -like some cookbooks are- then this is perfect.

When I first read this collection of articles written for various London papers and magazines, I couldn't see why Elizabeth David is so revered in the world of food writing; later my memory showed me. This book lingers in your mind like those taste memories it evokes. The best pieces in this book alternate their focus between rare foods (bruscandoli, wild hops shoots harvested for a brief moment at the end of spring in Venice) and easily obtainable ones (an omelette and a glass of wine). At either extreme, David evokes not only an interest in her subject but also a new appreciation of our own memories and new experiences. She defines "the best kind of cookery writing" as "courageous, courteous, adult. It is creative in the true sense of that ill-used word, creative because it invites the reader to use his own critical and inventive faculties, sends him out to make discoveries, form his own opinions, observe things for himself, instead of slavishly accepting what the books tell him"; her own writing lives up to these criteria. Appropriately, then, this collection contains few recipes to "slavishly" accept but instead offers many ideas to entertain.

My mother introduced me to the wonders of Elizabeth David 50 years ago! In her English country kitchen, with all the rigors of post-war shortages, she would pore over Elizabeth David's mediterranean recipes. In those days the basic ingredients available in a small village didn't extend to much more than carrots and potatoes. But David's recipes would inspire my mother's creativity, and we would eat the most amazing dishes, with the ingredients adapted to what could be unearthed in the village shop. Now, so many years later, this compendium of articles brings back vividly that - for me - happy time. It is a book to pick up, dip into, take note of her suggestions, try out the recipes. It transports you to France and back again, it gives sensible advice, brings a mixture of common sense and fantasy to the chaos which is modern living today. And yes, an omelette and a glass of wine (or two, as Elizabeth David so sensibly says) is my favorite meal! Thank you.

This is a work to be enjoyed on multiple levels and different occasions, as I am sure that I will do. Firstly the writing, the journalistic pieces, over decades of competent columns , addressing the subject of food and the selection, preparation and the cooking of her `stores'. David held strong views and expressed them strongly too! Her pieces for Vogue, The Sunday Times are full of historical references and facts, illuminating her pieces on the current fashions in cooking and eating.

Then there are the actual recipes, many of them her own but equally sharing others, be they contemporary peers or, quite literally, the historically famous from history. Few can write so authoritatively on Escoffier or Beeton as Elizabeth who surely earned her own place and standing among the `greats' in cuisine. I had not even finished reading the book before I began cooking from it!

Lastly, despite having been written in 1952, her views and guidance on food, the quality and the care in creation of dishes, of presentation, of the sheer enjoyment of food are very current and appropriate today.

Then there is a bonus for those of us who love France - the descriptions of trips, towns and visits to those compelling produce markets in France ... even if you have not yet discovered Elizabeth David, an author for `foodies', long before our `celebrity' TV Chefs, this book will delight you - on many levels.

Elizabeth David's "An Omelette and a Glass of Wine" is an entertaining read for foodies, although, containing some essays she wrote during the 1950s, it has a slightly dated feeling. The section on "potted meats" belongs in that category, as do the food market and restaurant prices she lists in many of the pieces.

You will find here David's writing about Mediterranean cooking which established her as an authority, and which opened up traditional British-style "cookery" with a new emphasis on simple, fresh ingredients. Included throughout the book are essays on presentation with continental flair, which can add to the enjoyment of meals.

"Mrs. Beeton," the guide for English cooks and household managers for nearly a hundred years, had been viewed by many as an elderly lady in a starched-stiff, black dress who dispensed advice on the "proper" way to cook. In David's book, she presents the real Mrs. Beeton-- a young matron in her twenties, brisk, practical and innovative.

You may not feel inspired to try all the recipes David brings to us, but you will be intrigued by her enthusiastic style and her chatty British approach.

I'm a total foodie and it's painful getting through this book. Instead of simply enjoying the pleasures of food and all the differences, Elizabeth David is defensive at every turn. She speaks of her experiences so delicately, and describes all around the food, so that you just want to plunge through the page, past the fences and loftiness she's encircled the food with. Granted, she was writing in that stifling time period for those stifled Brits who apparently knew nothing beyond pork pies. I know she must have thoroughly enjoyed her food adventures, but in her telling of them, she removes herself from the object of her passion. This book is a very frustrating read. I got so sick and tired of all the defensiveness. I wish she would have just allowed herself to write freely about her pleasures and enjoyment, rather than feel so much pressure from her invisible audience (she was a journalist) that she edited herself (even in the pieces that she re-wrote for this book) before anyone could complain. And although it's interesting to know the food prices in another time period, the constant iteration of cost and expensive versus not expensive places to dine became a nuisance. Of course, you do get glimpses into the world of food that she's been to and some good recipes, but if you think you're going to curl up in bed with her book and envelope yourself in literary foodie heaven, think again. You might just want to re-read your M.F.K. Fisher and Alice B. Toklas.

While I haven't had a chance yet to read "An Omelette and a Glass of Wine", the review from "cookyoberg" of Dickinson, Texas, made it very clear that this is a book I would enjoy reading. Being both familiar and fond of the works of MFK Fisher, hearing about Elizabeth David's collected essays has made me determined to add her works to my collection (ever-growing!) of cookbooks, books about cooking, and books about life through cooking. But then again, aren't all cookbooks about life? Many thanks to "cookyoberg"!!