Sacred Food: Cooking for Spiritual Nourishment [Hardcover]

Elisabeth Luard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Food nourishes our souls and is a vital part of our religious ceremonies and secular celebrations. Sacred Food explores the dishes that are traditionally served at significant moments in human life—birth, puberty, courtship, betrothal and marriage, death, burial, and remembrance—and explains why and how we celebrate with food. More than 40 recipes include pan de muertos, prepared for the Mexican Day of the Dead; piroshki from Slovakia, to celebrate the birth of a baby; cassava with chili and peanuts, to mark an African girl’s coming-of-age; and the honey cake, prepared for a Turkish wedding feast. One hundred stunning images bring to life a wealth of recipes and myriad cultures including those of Mexico, Japan, Spain, Italy, Indonesia, North America, the Middle East, Germany, Scandinavia, and Britain.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A beautiful collection" -- The Vancouver Sun

"Fascinating. . . .Sacred Food reaches beyond being a cookbook to foods foundation in the life of the spirit." -- Myrna Collins, The Post-Crescent

"For gourmets or anyone who longs to celebrate food and life...will delight, educate, inspire and feed the soul." -- Lisa Mohr, The Dispatch/The Rock Island Argus

"Sacred Food provides a fascinating look at these traditions world-wide with clear, detailed recipes." -- Marilynn Marter, The Philadelphia Enquirer

"Splendidly written, lavishly illustrated . . . Luard's passionate interest enlivens every page." -- Gourmet magazine

"The recipes are wonderful." -- Claudia Conlon, The Wine News

A combination of scholarship and good food, ranging in scope from the mystical to the practical. -- The Carteret County News-Times

Elizabeth Luard . . . used her lively intelligence and wide experience to write a book that is perhaps more ethnogastronomy than cookbook. -- Cookbook Digest

It will astound and astonish you. -- The Star-Ledger, Newark, New Jersey

About the Author

Elisabeth Luard is an award-winning food writer and author of The Old World Kitchen: The Rich Tradition of European Peasant Cookery, (nominated for the James Beard Award), The Flavours of Adnalucia (winner of the 1992 Glenfiddich Food Book fo the Year Award) and Saffron & Sunshine: Tapas, Mezze, and Antipasti, (winner of the 2001 Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year Award). She is a regular contributor to Gourmet magazine.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556523939
• ISBN-13: 978-1556523939
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,033,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than 40 sumptuous recipes to delight, January 9, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Food: Cooking for Spiritual Nourishment (Hardcover)

In Sacred Food: Cooking For Spiritual Nourishment, award-winning food writer Elisabeth Luard takes the reader on a fascinating and inspiring survey of dishes traditionally served at significant and celebatory moments ranging from birth, puberty, courtship, and betrothal, to marriage, death, burial, and remembrance. Along the way Luard illuminates how and why we celebrate such human milestones with food. Superb images showcase a wealth of recipes and myriad cultures from Mexico, Japan, Spain, Italy, and Indonesia, to North American, the Middle East, Germany, Scandinavia, and Britain. From Mushroom Piroshki for an Eastern European birth basket, to Kerala Coconut Curry prepared for an Indian wedding feast, Sacred Food offers more than 40 sumptuous recipes to delight, educate, and please the palate. Sacred Foods is highly recommended for culinary gourmets and students of the cultural role food plays in human societies around the world.

1.0 out of 5 stars Crass, Cursory, Insulting Waste of Time, December 29, 2011

By 

Ioriginale (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Food: Cooking for Spiritual Nourishment (Paperback)

Thank God I didn't purchase this book. Firstly, the concept for this book is a great one, which is why it is so unfortunate that this author did such bad job with it. I was interested in this book when, as I was preparing for the new year, I had the idea to prepare a spiritually nourishing new year's first meal. So I sought out this book for ideas. The organization of the book is flawed to begin with - grouping up wildly different cultures together under 4 categories. Although these are very important categories, the author betrays her cultural ignorance by this very approach. Her attitude and tone is typically patronizing, paternalistic and fetishizing of foreign cultures as if they all amount to these quaint folksy little traditions. She does this especially when she is referencing a culture from the so-called "third world". Her treatment of Africa is downright racist with its broad generalizations and crass, cursory, under-researched fair. I should have known that it would be from the very description listed on this site - amazon.com. In the amazon.com description, it references meals from Mexico, Slovakia and then refers to a meal used in an "African girl's" coming of age ceremony. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Africa is not one country with one tradition but a whole continent of 54 countries (and counting) with HUNDREDS of ethnic groups and THOUSANDS of traditions. Her inclusion of Africa seemed to be more or less out of obligation or perhaps pressure from her wanna-be politically-correct publisher. All in all, if you have any self-respect at all, avoid this book at all costs. Don't patronize ignorance!

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, January 21, 2008

By 

Queen Sharon "Queen Sharon" (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Food: Cooking for Spiritual Nourishment (Paperback)

I got this book as a requirment for my class. There are only 3 chapters in this book. I felt like it just dragged on and on. It really needed to have more breaks. It had very interesting topics about food and rituals, but it wasn't a very smooth read. It bored me. The pictures are great and I like how it includes some recipes, but this book won't be living on my shelf any longer.