Mediterranean Seafood

This is the essential book about the cookery as well as zoology of the fish and shellfish that inhabit the Mediterranean; now published in more than a dozen languages and available in France, Italy, Spain, Greece and many other home territories. It combines natural history and cookery in a most enticing way, providing information for the fisherman and seafood enthusiast as well as for the cook. Its genesis was while the author was posted to the British Embassy in Tunis, his wife needed an overview of the local fish markets to plan her shopping. It was taken up with enthusiasm by Elizabeth David and has been required reading ever since. The book is split between a catalogue, with drawings and description of each sort of fish, together with cookery notes and any information that might put it in context; and a recipe section which draws on the best methods of cooking these types of fish from the many countries best acquainted with them. There is a full index and bibliography. The writing is matchless: exact, yet humorous; learned, yet light. It is one of the most inspirational cookery books to have been written in the last fifty years.

The late Alan Davidson was a diplomat until 1975, thereafter devoting his life to writing about food. He was a significant catalyst of modern British food studies. He also wrote three definitive studies of seafood and completed the celebrated Oxford Companion to Food (1999). He won the Erasmus Prize in 2003 and was the subject of a BBC4 documentary in 2009/10. He died in 2003.

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