Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92471 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 907 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food has been over 20 years in the assembling, but here it is; and it is superlatively worth the wait. In fact, superlatives fall silent. A huge and authoritative dictionary of 2,650 entries on just about every conceivable foodstuff, seasoning, cuisine, cooking method, historical survey, significant personage and explication of myth, it is supplemented by some 40 longer articles on key items. Davidson himself (no relation) contributes approximately 80% of the 2,650 entries, thereby guaranteeing high levels of erudition, readability and deadpan feline wit. Since this is a monument intended to last, nothing so frivolous as a recipe is included. A decision taken early in the development of the project to abjure issues whose significance is largely topical has also ensured an agreeable high-mindedness--nothing on those crucial but essentially dreary topics BSE and GM foods, for example.

If a fault could be found, it would only be that it's often difficult to read to the end of an entry, as the abundant cross-referencing all too easily sends one off to another entry, thence bouncing off to another, and all too soon the original is forgotten. A random alphabet of seductions might include: Aardvark, Botulism, Cup Cake, David (Elizabeth), Enzymes, Fat-Tailed Sheep, Gender/Sex and Food, Hallucinogenic Mushrooms, Ice Cream Sundae, Jewish Dietary Laws, Kangaroos, Lobscouse, Microwave Cooking, Norway, Offal, Puffin, Queen of Puddings, Roti, Scurvy, Termite Heap Mushroom (or Taillevant), Umeboshi, Vegetarianism, Washing up (a very elegant little article), sadly no X, Yin-yang and Zabaglione. As this might show, Alan Davidson's aim, borrowed from Dumas' great Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, that his work would appeal not only to persons of "serious character" but also those "of a much lighter disposition", is utterly fulfilled. --Robin Davidson

Mail on Sunday (Live- Night and Day), January 28, 2007
This gem of food reference retains the wit, elegance, erudition
and style that made the first edition so memorable.

Review
There is no better way to stave off the winter blues than the second edition of Alan Davidson's The Oxford Companion to Food. Tom Jaine has taken over from the late Davidson and he is a worthy heir. This gem of food reference retains the wit, elegance, erudition and style that made the first edition so memorable. (Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday (Live - Night and Day) )

Seriously fascinating (Cathy Pryor, Independent )

No kitchen should be without The Oxford Companion to Food 2nd Edition. An absorbing culinary reference book, worth its weight in foie gras. (Image magazine Ireland, )

Extraordinarily comprehensive and detailed. As a reference book it is unlikely to be surpassed but it is also a fun book to dip into and every page includes masses of startling and original information. (Tom Jaine, Country Landowner Magazine )

The Oxford Companion to Wine - like the Food Companion it is detailed, scholarly and endlessly fascinating. (Tom Jaine, Country Landowner Magazine )

essential reference guide (Daily Express )

Brilliantly original

An astonishing encyclopaedia of food, food history and culinary knowledge...Enjoyable to read, enlivened by Alan Davidson's easy wit and humour... This book will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in food - Especially if they like their facts spiced with a little humour (Food magazine )

Customer Reviews

Probably the best reference on food around
20 years work and 2650 entries. Alan Davidson has long been my favourite food author and this confirms it.

A simply excellent reference book, and readable with it.
This is a great book for both reference, and just to browse through when the mood takes. The content is clear and concise, and as an amateur food writer, it has never failed to yield the information I needed when researching a subject. The entries are by no means exhaustive but gives enough to certainly use as a basis for further research, or indeed just settle an argument with a friend!

Very much worth reading for any lover of food
If you are like me - you like food -, then you will enjoy this book a lot. It might be of practical value to your daily life now and then, but I think that this is not its strong point. It is an excellent volume to browse at random, or to look up a fact about a particular foodstuff that you always wanted to know. It is very pleasant book to read in any respect. The lay-out is beautiful, something that has become rare these days. The authors (it's not just Alan Davidson alone) write in a very accessible way, so that I can recommend this work to non-native speakers of English (like myself) as well.