Nicolas Freeling: The Kitchen Book - The Cook Book (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
"Nicolas Freeling is the author of two of the best books about cooking in the English language. The Kitchen Book and The Cook Book have long been favorites of mine. That they will appear under one cover, with the original illustrations, is fine news indeed. I can't help regretting that Ludwig Bemelmans is not here to see this new edition of his good friend's prose. The two men were strangely alike in their abilities to describe the true joys of cooking and eating like civilized human beings." -- M. F. K. Fisher

Nicolas Freeling, best known for producing some of the finest of modern crime fiction, began his working life as an apprentice cook in a large French hotel, and continued cooking professionally for many years. Here, reprinted in a single volume, are the two splendid books of gastronomical memoir drawn from those experiences. Each is a fortuitous blend of the culinary and the literary, and include such recipes as cinnamon lamb stew and bouillabaisse, embedded in entertaining text. Funny, wise, full of inspiration and delight, The Kitchen Book & The Cook Book will find a place close to every cook's hearth and heart.

"[He] will be read for a long time, because while he was turning his vegetables and reducing his sauces he had an eye to the social context of what he was doing, and to the rich ragout of Zola-esque characters by whom he was surrounded." -- The Guardian

"Sensitively civilised and very European... absolutely delightful to read." -- The (London) Times

Cover illustration by Cynthia Jabar

Nicolas Freeling: The Kitchen Book - The Cook Book. Two Culinary Classics. Illustrated by John Lawrence. Boston: David R. Godine, 1991, ISBN: 0879238623, 192 and 154 p., $16.95.