Is There a Nutmeg in the House?

This, like Elizabeth David's other books, is a charming and pleasant read. You will find her excellent company - whether you're looking for interesting recipe ideas (her recipes are generally very simple and down-to-earth, not fifteen-ingredient monstrosities) or whether you'd just like to read about the world of food, cooks, and eating.

Elizabeth David was a leading practitioner of a rare breed, the culinary essayist. The culinary species of this genus is rare because essays in general seem to be a dying breed. The most prominent modern American culinary essayist is John Thorne. While Thorne's primary influence was Richard Olney, Olney and David were of a single mind in style and in many opinions about food. Olney and David together were the patron saints of the invention of the distinctively California cuisine, both being cited by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, Jeremiah Tower of Chez Panisse and Stars, and Judy Rodgers of the Zuni Grill as their primary inspirations. David seems to have had an even bigger effect on English eating. In fact, her effect on English home cooking seems to have been strongly parallel to that of the recently departed Julia Child on American home kitchens in the writers' influence on how supermarkets stock their produce aisles with more unusual fruits and vegetables. The parallel goes even further, as both were relatively tall, both were born to well to do families with little interest in culinary quality, and both served in unusual and important posts overseas during World War II. While Child was an OSS clerk in Southeast Asia, David was a librarian to the Foreign Service in Egypt. At this point, their culinary careers follow different paths. Child becomes the consummate interpreter and teacher of French cuisine while David becomes the critic and interpreter of French and Mediterranean cuisine to her English audience. Both held very strong opinions. Child tended to keep hers out of her writing, but David felt free to offer reasoned opinions on just about anything which crossed her path. This volume should be a warning to journeyman writers everywhere that it is not wise to comment on the work of important writers, especially important writers whose work promises to be reprinted long after their death. Early in the book, David comments on some inaccuracies in writings on her work and career, and, I suspect, her criticisms of these mistakes will be read long after the original authors are forgotten, or, worse, remembered only for their misstatements about Ms. David. This volume was published posthumously but with the selection of material done largely by the author shortly before her death, as a sequel to the volume `An Omelette and a Glass of Wine'. Most pieces are magazine articles comprised of an essay on some ingredient, followed by recipes on the same ingredient or subject. Like David's cookbooks, I read her articles on ingredients and recipes less to actually make the specific dishes and more to educate my thinking about food. One fine example is her essay on rosemary in which she complains about the overuse of this herb in many dishes and by many cuisines such as the Greek use with lamb. The following essay is a liberating discussion of dried herbs, pointing out that fresh herbs are simply not always better. Many herbs attain their best effect w

Elizabeth David is the woman who has restored good eating to England. For many decades the British were known for what might tactfully be called "plain cooking"---overdone roasts, vegetables boiled beyond recognition, oversweet, gooey desserts. In her eight books and in her columns, David enthusiastically re-introduced the British to fresh vegetables, delicate sauces, simple desserts, and flavorful, whole-grain bread. At the age of 16, this daughter of the landed gentry was sent to France for a cultural education and came home with a lifelong passion for good cooking. "Is There a Nutmeg in the House" is a complilation of her writings from forty years, some of which has not been published before. David's writing style is recognizably British, opinionated, chatty, not excessively organized, and a bit "fussy", for want of a better term. This only added to the pleasure of reading her, for this reviewer; although a person used to the standard American format for providing recipes, with the ingredients listed in the order of combination, and step by step instruction, will not find that in David. Elizabeth David was a national treasure for England, and her lifelong passion for "cookery" earns her a place on the bookshelf of many American kitchens as well.

Elizabeth David wrote cookbooks and food essays; many of the more personal ones were already collected in the amazing and wonderous An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. But this book has plenty of gems, too. I don't agree with everything she says, but I certainly want to listen to her saying it.Get An Omelette and a Glass of Wine first, then this one if you want more.

I find it odd that the previous reviewer considered Elizabeth David "Anglocentric," as she spent most of her life irritating her fellow Englishmen and -women by attempting to awaken them to cuisines other than their own. In my opinion, David is possibly the finest food writer ever. Though not quite as good as AN OMELETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE, this book hardly constitutes her "dregs."