Review of 'Roman Cookery' by Mark Grant
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Mark Grant's 'Roman Cookery' is one of those gems of a book that you only come across every now and then. Not only is is a recipe book stuffed full of Roman recipes and recipes from the Roman World but it's also an introduction to the Roman way of life so that you get the meals in their proper context.
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It is also refreshing in the world of Roman cookery books in that it does not dwell on Apicius as it's main source of recipes. Rather, the recipes presented here come from many and varied sources and the range and breadth of literary sources presented is very impressive indeed.
Admittedly, the book is touted as being about the 'food of the common people' but a few more examples of the breadth of Roman cuisine would not go amiss. This, however, is only a minor quibble and I highly-reccomend this book. After all, each and every one of our sources for Roman recipes come from literary sources and only the wealthy and educated could write. Simpler foods come from poems and descriptions of markets and need a lot of 'interpretation' to re-create them.
Personally, I'm a bit of an expert on Roman and ancient cookery and there were recipes here I'd never seen before and sources I'd never encountered. This book is different in a world of Roman cuisine cook-alikes and represents something new and wonderful.
Indeed, if you actually want to cook the recipes of the past, rather than just studying them then this book should be part of your library.
About the Author
Dyfed Lloyd Evans runs the Celtnet Recipes site where he has an extensive range of Roman Recipes. He spends much of his time discovering and adding new recipes to his site.
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