Jane Grigson wrote these words in 1971: “Delight lies in the seasons and what they bring us — the strawberries that come in May and June straight from the fields, the asparagus of a special occasion, kippers from Craster in July and August.” Half a century later, the food world has arrived, breathless, at the position she occupied all along.
This reissue is organised by ingredient — fish, meat and game, vegetables, fruit — and reads less like a cookbook than like a letter from a friend who happens to know everything about food. Lobster, mussels, scallops, trout. Asparagus, parsnips, mushrooms, gooseberries. The curried parsnip soup alone justifies the reprint.
Grigson sits on the shelf where Elizabeth David began and Nigel Slater continues — British food writers whose authority comes from a lifetime of cooking at home with the best ingredients they can find and the conviction that this is a serious endeavour.
A book that belongs in a kitchen with good light, a well-sharpened knife, and whatever the fishmonger had this morning.
