Customer Reviews
Probably the best reference on food around - By: gillardreid@mcmail.com, 21 Jun 2000 
20 years work & 2650 entries. Alan Davidson has long been my favourite food author & this confirms it.
A simply excellent reference book, and readable with it. - By: S. Howarth, 11 May 2000 This is a great book for both reference, & just to browse through when the mood takes. The content is clear & concise, & 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 - By: , 28 Dec 1999 
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 & 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.
An outstanding compilation of everything to do with food. - By: , 01 Dec 1999 This is a remarkable book, highly readable, endlessly fascinating & an essential addition to every foodie's library. It is not only the sort of book that is a delight to browse through while eating solitary breakfasts, but a book that comes out over dinner when food is part of a serious discussion. There are minor errors to be found in descriptions of more obscure regional dishes; for example the Northeast Brazilian dish 'Vatapa' which is a thick nut based sauce is confused with 'Mocequa' , a seafood casserole which it usuallly accompanies. However this is minor carping for a book containing such a depth & breadth of food knowledge.
Excellent (times 20) -- by Emma Cookson - By: c.davidson@thefree.net, 20 Nov 1999 Alan Davidson is my grandfather & has been writing this book for twenty years, way before I was even born. I'm thirteen, so he started writing it when I was minus seven years old. I have read lots of his entries on an enormous range of different topics - from Aardvark to Zucchini. I can assure you that my grandfather reallly knows an awful lot about foods from alll over the world & throughout human history. He writes in a reallly amusing & interesting way. I recommend this book to you, not only as a reference work, but as a source of endless amusement & surprise. It may interest you to know that whenever I am in a restaurant with him & my grandmother, he always seems to order the best dishes (putting his knowledge to good use, I see).
