A BOOK OF MEDITERRANEAN FOOD

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original pink and brown textured cloth with titles in gilt to the spine, in the John Minton illustrated dustwrapper. Illustrated in black and white throughout by John Minton. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the bright lightly rubbed and nicked dustwrapper that has a couple of short closed tears that have been secured along the top and bottom edge of the underside. Not price-clipped (10s 6d net to the lower front flap). A lovely example, scarce thus.

Elizabeth David's first book and a canonical text in mid-century culinary literature. Elizabeth David discovered her taste for good food and wine when she lived with a French family while studying history and literature at the Sorbonne. David found not only the practical side but also the literature of cookery of absorbing interest and studied it throughout her life. Her debut Mediterranean Food, was followed by French Country Cooking (1951), Italian Food (1954), Summer Cooking (1955) and French Provincial Cooking (1960), each an inspirational classic that changed the outlook of English cooks for ever.