bunyip's Profile

From: Melbourne, VIC Australia

Joined: December 27th, 2009

About me: I've been cooking for over thirty years, and I can remember the days before EVO, couscous and (ghasp!) microwaves. My cookbook collection reflects this personal and national gastronomic history. My own cooking has actually got simpler over the years, and I can do much of my repertoire without looking at a recipe. But I still love collecting cookbooks, although these days I'm a bit over food porn with great big colour photos - I really prefer food writing to recipes.

Favorite cookbook: The Cook's Companion

Salmon with macaroni from A Year of Good Eating: The Kitchen Diaries III

Simple but delicious. Poaching the fish in 600 ml of cream (that's two bottles), which is then poured over the fish and pasta, sounds richer than it is. This is partly due to the dill in the crumb topping. I... read more >

recipe reviews (225)
book reviews (106)
useful review votes (103)

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bunyip's Reviews

Cookbook Reviews

The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook (California Studies in Food & Culture)

By Anne Willan
University of California Press - 2012

This extraordinary book is primarily a history of the cookbook (and by extension of present-day cuisine) from antiquity to the nineteenth century, sourced from the authors' collection. As a book, beautifully designed and illustrated, it is just a delight.

As well as being a well-written and fascinating history, it also contains recipes, adapted as required from the originals.