Summer Cooking

For Elizabeth David, summer fare meant fresh, seasonal food—recipes that could be prepared quickly and savoured slowly, from Gnocchi alla Genovese (‘simply an excuse for eating pesto’) to La Poule au Pot to Gooseberry Fool. Her 1955 classic work, now reissued in a handsome, attractively priced hardback edition, includes an overview of herbs as well as chapters on impromptu cooking for holidays and picnics. Divided into chapters on Soups, Salads, Eggs, Fish, Meat, Poultry and Game, Vegetables, and Sweets, it contains recipes from all over the world. Summer Cooking is a witty, precise companion for feasting in the warmer months — every bit as unexpected and enchanting to read today as it was 50 years ago. But the purest thrill of Summer Cooking, as in all of her books, is the pleasure her food delivers and the graceful way her prose captures the reader’s delight.

'A complete newcomer to the kitchen could produce something delicious by following one of her recipes to the letter.' Paul Bailey, The Daily Telegraph 'For Elizabeth David, summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, the ability to capture the essence of a fleeting moment, and her dishes bring the savour of garden, field and sea into the dining room.' Taste 'When you read Elizabeth David, you get perfect pitch. There is an understanding and evocation of flavours, colours, scents and places that lights up the page.' Guardian Weekend