Nancy Harmon Jenkins clearly belongs to the elite cadre of culinary writers who interpret Mediterranean cuisine for us. Foremost among these are Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden, Paula Wolfert, and Clifford Wright. And that doesn't include the many writers specializing in particular countries, such as Penelope Casas on Spain, Diane Kochilas on Greece, and Patricia Wells on France.
Each of these writers gives us a slightly different perspective on the same subject, so they rarely overlap in their general essays on the Mediterranean. Roden is the historian, Wolfert is the ethnologist, and Wright is the taxonomist. Jenkins' role seems to be the dietitian and synthesist, explaining what it is that makes Mediterranean cuisine distinctive and, in other works, what makes it as healthy as it appears in demographic studies of peoples and diets.
Of all the works I have read by these authors, this book is the most interesting to people interested in history and current events, but with only an average interest in cooking. The primary object of the book is to identify those foodstuffs that are central to the Mediterranean diet, and how they achieved that status. The main characters in this story are salt, olives, wheat and its products, wine and vinegar, legumes, peppers (chiles), tomatoes, pork, seafood, and milk (giving cheese and yogurt).
The first item, salt, may seem unexciting since every culture has used and valued salt. But, salt has played a larger role in Mediterranean history than in other cultures because the Mediterranean Sea happens to be a lot saltier than the broader `seven seas'. This means that it is a lot easier to harvest sea salt, which means that salt preserved foods become much more common. A perfect example of how simple things can make enormous differences.
Olives and olive oil are a no-brainer and anyone who has read at any length on Mediterranean food will not find a lot of new information here. The chapter on wheat was a major surprise on at least two counts. The first was biological. I knew there was a significant difference between durum wheat and other wheats, but I had no idea the difference was at such a deep genetic level and that durum wheat represents less than 10% of world wheat crops. The second surprise was historical. I am well aware of the difference between soft and hard pastas from the north and south of Italy respectively, but I had no idea that hard pasta (macaroni) was almost entirely limited in its production and distribution to southern Italy until after the end of World War II. This makes it clear that as important as bread is today as a Mediterranean starch, it once was much more important in Italy.
Almost every chapter had its little surprises. While I was skimming my way through the chapter on Old World beans, I was surprised by the discovery that there is a significant genetically based allergy to fava beans and that none other than Pythagoras banned their consumption. This may only be exciting to an avid reader of history and philosophy, but it certainly puts a new twist on how I think about fava beans the next time Mario Batali breaks them out on `Molto Mario'.
The list goes on. This book clearly fills a void in food writing by clearly defining a subject people often talk about without being really clear about their subject. As a result of the nutritional findings cited earlier, it becomes pretty important to know what it is that makes all those southern Italians so healthy.
One concern is that most of the book deals with Italy, southern France, and Spain. The author even concedes this point at the beginning, with the totally understandable statement that she is dealing with what she knows. On the other side of the coin, the range of the author's sources is very broad, including source material from many historical documents on peasant life in the Mediterranean in the last thousand years.
In addition to the essays on foodstuffs, the book offers recipes featuring each item. All are worthy, but the real value to the book is in the essays. That being said, I was really disappointed to find that although the book had a very good bibliography, there were references to authorities' names with no mention of them in the bibliography. The chapter on legumes for example refers to the anthropologist Sidney Mintz, yet no work by Mr. (Dr.?) Mintz appears in the bibliography. Not good reflections on Harper Collins' copy editors.
This is a small annoyance. Overall, the book gives a fresh, insightful view of Mediterranean cuisine. Almost all the recipes are classics, with relatively simple, straightforward instructions. Maybe not as authentic as Paula Wolfert, but definitely more authentic than Good Housekeeping.
Highly recommended for any foodie or even for History buffs.
