RECENT PRESS
Click on the titles of the articles to read.
The Guardian, August 2017, Elisabeth Luard: ‘My old table is the only thing that matters to me in my new kitchen’
The Daily Mail, July 2016, Emotional Ties with food writer and journalist Elisabeth Luard
The Daily Mail, June 2017, 'I wanted to change my life properly'
AWARDS
2017 Lifetime Achievement Award, Guild of Food Writers Awards
2007 Glenfiddich Trophy, Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards
2007 Cookery Writer Award, Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards
2004 Best Foreign Cookbook in the World - Honourable Mention, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards
2002 Best Latino Cuisine Book in Engish, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards
2001 Best in the World Culinary History Book, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards
1992 Food Book of the Year, Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards
REVIEWS
European Peasant Cookery:
"This book is a treasure; a work shining with honest, scholarship, joy and workaday good sense. It may well come to be seen, like the first appearance of Elizabeth David's Mediterranean Cooking, as a blessed landmark in our culinary tides." Sybille Bedford, The Field.
"Far and away the most interesting book published... for a decade. The smell of no-nonsense good food envelops every page." Prue Leith, Guardian.
"The best at describing the cuisine of the necessary... Filled with hard-to-find gems. Worth building a new bookcase for." Mark Bittman. New York Times (Oct. 1999, describing the best cookbooks of the century and including The Old World Kitchen).
"This is one of the great cookbooks of all time. As ever with Luard, the anecdotes and history are eloquent and fascinating." Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday (24.10.14)
"It is the little-documented, earthy cooking of Eastern Europe that interests Luard the most...and gives this well-designed reprint its unique character." Carolyn Hart, Telegraph (24.11.07)
"It's a joy to have a revised edition...the dishes are robust, hearty and always made from locally available ingredients. Delicious." Paul Levy, The Observer (13.01.08)
"First published over 20 years ago, it has a poetry quite its own. You can smell the woodsmoke and the blood pudding...We learn about history, topography, agriculture, climate, families, religion, trade. I can't think of a better book to get for Christmas." Lucy Lethbridge, The Tablet (08.12.07)
EPC is listed no.22 among The Independent's 50 Best Cookbooks as "a rich source of culinary history and culture of dishes to feed a family [that] pays homage to the food of the people who live off the land." Caroline Stacey, The Independent (01.07.06)
"A superb book...absorbing, illuminating and beautifully written...choc-a-block with wholesome and thoroughly toothsome recipes, but it is the confluence of historical narrative, culinary insight and phenomenal research which makes this such a monumental work. This is precisely the kind of non-nonsense and scrumptious tucker which makes it such a joy from a revered and renowned writer about whom I knew very little, but, for me, this book has catapulted her into the pantheon of great food writers. It is, quite simply, a classic. All chefs should read the brilliantly concise introduction to the cookery of the countryside as opposed to the bourgeois cookery of the town." Bruce Poole, Caterer and Hotelkeeper (17.02.05)
"The best recipe [for haggis] is to be found in Elisabeth Luard's European Peasant Cookery" Magnus Linklater, The Times (commenting on CJD outbreak and its repercussions on Burns' Night supper)
"This [Grub Street] reprint puts most of this year's outpourings in the shade, such is its range, passion, erudition and downright deliciousness." Matthew Fort, Guardian (20.11.04)
"No quick read-through can distinguish the great from the merely good. Instead, a cookbook is a lot like other pieces of kitchen equipment: it needs to be used for months, maybe years, before you know that it truly is...indispensible. Worth building a new bookcase for. The Old World Kitchen by Elisabeth Luard is the best at describing "the cuisine of the necessary" in European peasant life. Filled with hard to find gems." Mark Bittmann, New York Times (13.10.99)
"In the eight years since first published, the relevance of this book has grown. A modern classic for every serious cook." Shona Crawford Poole, Daily Telegraph (17.02.94)
"My current favourite, Elisabeth Luard's European Peasant Cookery, unlike so many, seems to work every time." Craig Brown, The Times (1991)
"Rather than recipes, this book is really about food - form, matter and intention fuse and ooze with near tangible smells, colours and tastes, giving sensuous glimpses of someone else's past experiences which sweep one, drooling enthusiasticallyl, towards both future grand feasts and simple little supper schemes...This well-written book really has taken all Europe as its province: it is clearly the fruit of living, eating and cooking...one can see the swallowtails on the wisteria in Provence and feel the cold wind on a Hebridean potato patch. Recipes are clear but not too doctrinaire, with suggested variations, accompaniments and merry schemes for leftovers..." Wendy Rowland, Literary Review (1987)
A Cook's Year in a Welsh Farmhouse:
"Elisabeth Luard is a serious contender for Greatest Living Food Writer. Like all her books, A Cook's year in a Welsh Farmhouse is fiercely intelligent but without preachiness, deliciously pragmatic and laced with flashes of humour." Xanthe Clay, Telegraph (11.6.11)
"Luard writes beautifully, and fills her book with seasonal observations, stories of life in rural Wales and of her family and friends. The wistful photography that adorns the pages pictures her rustic farmouse, gypsy caravan, homemade jam, wild flowers and antique plates. This is seasonal home-cooking made with a lot of love, and it shows." Fork Magazine (Oct 2012)
"A lovely book...I spent a contended evening curled up on a sofa reading the November chapter, 'Stocking the Larder'." Kate Humble, Daily Telegraph (17.11.12)
"What attracts me to this book is that if you substituted part of the title and referred to the Highlands you would not realise the difference. There are recipes for venison, pheasant, wood pigeon...sloes, nettles, dandelions, mushrooms, elderflowers...mussels, mackerel. I also like the introduction to each month with the experiences of the author's everyday life. I very much like the approach, with a readable text which was well-illustrated." Ray Collier, Highland News Group (27.12.12)
"Delicious dishes...will inspire you to find and use all sorts of rural ingredients." Food and Travel (1.8.12)
Truffles
"A mouth-watering selection of recipes... stunning photographs." Vogue
"A simple but sophisticated book...essential reading for sophisticated gourmets." Country Living
"Luard's sheer enthusiasm for her subject and her lyrical writing capture the appeal and mythology behind the truffle, and is likely to inspire truffle virgins to hunt one down themselves, if only in a restaurant." Food & Travel
"The first of [my] two favourite food books, this is a blend of culinary advice and flavour memory by renowned English cookery writer Elisabeth Luard. It tells how to get the best out of truffles, and how they first captured her imagination." Roger Phillips, The Gannet, 2017
The Food of Spain and Portugal
"Elisabeth Luard's The Food of Spain and Portugal is beautifully written, lavishly illustrated and packed with the fascinating food history of these countries, as well as delectable recipes." Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday
"No cookery writer knows Spain better...a beautiful addition to every kitchen" The Independent
"If you were to buy one book on Iberian cooking, this should be it." The Daily Telegraph
"Luard's writing is always elegant and her food is excellent." The Times
The Latin American Kitchen
"Add spice to your life with this sun-filled book... an all encompassing introduction to Latin American food." Sainsbury's Magazine (Dec 2006)
"Elisabeth Luard's The Latin American Kitchen explains and celebrates seasonal colours and flavours in a cookbook packed with exciting, easy recipes." Health & Fitness Magazine (Jan 2007)
Sacred Food
"Sacred Food celebrates the power of food to nourish us body and soul, and the vital role it plays in our religious ceremonies and secular celebrations. Offering insights that go far beyond recipes, it explores the dishes that are traditionally served at significant moments in human life - birth, puberty, courtship, betrothal and marriage, death, burial and remembrance - and explains how and why we celebrate with food. Splendidly written, the book's scope is historical and international...Luard's passionate interest enlivens every page." Gourmet Magazine (Dec 2002)
"Elisabeth Luard is one of the greatest food-writers of recent times...all her books are incredibly well-researched, and this one digs deep to find a host of foods traditionally served at life events: birth, courtship, marriage, Christmas, Easter, you name it, it's all there in depth, revealing some remarkable historical information. Combined with some brilliant art and well-tested recipes...this is a book both practical and coffee-table material, bringing a tear to the eye, a pang to the heart and a tingle to the tongue." Anthony Worrall Thompson, Daily Express (21.12.02)
"Elisabeth Luard's wonderful new book eloquently explores the foods and dishes served around the world at births, deaths, marriages and betrothals as well as at key religious events." Tom Parker Bowles, Sunday Express (25.11.01)
"A reminder of the spiritual dimension in the everyday - specifically, the cross-cultural communion through foods we all share." New York Times (Dec 2002)
"I can get trapped for hours in Sacred Food: Elisabeth draws parallels among the world's religions that fascinate me. For adherents of the Muslim and Judeo-Christian faiths, she says, fasting serves to heighten the pleasure of the feasts of Easter or Ramadan or Yom Kuppur. Eastern believers, particularly Hindus and Budhists, fast to attain higher consciousness." Catherine Klasne, Daytona Beach News-Journal (11.11.04)
"Luard's passionate interest enlivens every page. Splendidly written, lavishly illustrated, the book's scope is historical and international...Recipes are detailed and accessible. Luard's version of a recipe which can defeat the cook, the French Epiphany treat, galette des rois, works like a charm." Cynthia Zarin, Gourmet (Dec 2002)
"Exciting, enjoyable and yet deeply moving...an evocative journey exploring how and why we celebrate with food and the sacredness behind it." Courier News, Bridgewater (5.12.01)
"Sacred Food reaches beyond being a cookbook to food as the foundation of the life of the spirit. Luard's account of the spirituality of food, from pre-history through today in many different cultures, is fascinating...she writes with genuine feeling for the importance of ritual and includes recipes of dishes important in sacred ceremonies." Post Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin (21.11.01)
"An engrossing book, much more than a cookbook, essential reading for those with an interest in food history." Holiday Entertaining (10.11.02)
"One for reading: Food for the soul in many eras and many cultures presented in a down-to-earth yet scholarly tone." Chicago Tribune (12.11.01)
"This stunning book examines how the world's sacred dishes comfort and heal the soul...by following food and its meaning throughout the world with gorgeous photography and stories of just how the customs arose, and why." New Jersey Star-Ledger (7.6.04)
"If you're curious about just what a soul cake is, how to make it, how you'd serve it, and where it fits into history and tradition, you'll enjoy Sacred Food New Jersey Cookbook by an award-winning writer who has used her lively intelligence and wide experience to write a book that is more ethnogastronomy than cookbook." New Jersey Digest, (Dec 2002)
Classic French Cooking
"Use this as a manual of great French cooking...The classic dishes are all there...work your way through them and you'll find yourselves well-schooled in the classics of arguably the world's finest cuisine. The author's own pen and ink illustrations bring colour and verve to almost every page." Bristol Evening Post (4.12.04)
"If you don't have a kitchen shelf on which to place a copy, then put one up [for] an indispensable guide to what still remains the best culinary tradition in the world, with 100 recipes which will expand the repertoire of any half-capable cook." West Country Life (27.11.04)
"Elisabeth Luard's enticing, small yet rotund book is at once a collection of recipes and an exploration of French heritage...evidence that you can tell a lot about the culture and history of nations and peoples just by looking at a restaurant menu." Everything France (May 2005)
"...captures the spirit of France...entertain your French neighbours in style!" French Property News (Mar 2005)
Food Adventures
"One of the Ten Best Children's Cookbooks, this elegant book introduces developing palates to tastes from around the world From fruit purées to lamb korma, the flavours here go from simple to complex." The Independent (10.7.07)
"Great food ideas for anyone who's ever wondered what babies are brought up on in other countries." Prima Baby (Aug 2010)
"Makes you want to lick the pages. The authors certainly know their stuff when it comes to stylish cooking and the book is packed with simple wholesome recipes to take children from weaning and beyond." Sophie Conran, Junior (Sep 2006)
"A dream manual for foodie parents...supplemented by sound advice, this book is guaranteed to get kids interested in eating really good, tasty food...Absolutely no drawbacks: This is an accessible, user-friendly book with terrific recipes." Eire Sunday Tribune (15.10.06)
"A recipe book with a difference...transforms mealtimes from a battleground into a playground." Scottish Sunday Post (3.9.06)
"A lovely book for mums of young children, and would make a great baby present for new parents. It is just the book to get if you want to introduce your child to flavours from around the world from chickpea fritters with sesame sauce to Mexican paradise cookies." Irish Sunday Tribune (18.2.07)
"A beautifully presented recipe book designed to introduce children to flavours from around the world...the recipes look delicious, appear easy to follow and with a bit of luck might appeal to the average two-year-old. Either way, you'll enjoy the leftovers!" French Magazine (Feb 2007)
"Kids will stick anything in their mouths, and if you embrace that tendency, you can instil good habits - and good taste. The recipes in this handsome cookbook combine healthy food with kid-friendly flavours...it would have been great to have been served chickpea fritters as a child." London Metro (26.10.06)
"This is no ordinary baby food guide. Even if the baby you adore wont touch this food, the dishes are fascinating. So many people cater to children's fussy eating habits, but maybe if squid rings and spicy rice were on the menu (no substitutes allowed), the kids would eventually cave in..." Boston Globe (17.1.07)
"If you have a child who eats slowly and is easily bored with food, this is the cookbook for you. Food Adventures delivers on the promise of child-friendly world cuisine, adding little tidbits on the side about dinner table customs from the culture of each dish." New Jersey Record (12.1.07)
"Babyfood never sounded so good." The San Francisco Food Paper (17.1.07)
“In most countries, kids eat what adults eat – whatever’s available. Recipes from around the globe combine with strategies to get the children to expand their palates: the dishes look good, taste great and make enough for the adults in the family. And there’s not a smiley face on any of the dishes.” Minnesota Saint Paul Pioneer Press (12.1.07)
“Why start with bland, boxed babyfood when you can make your own and season it yourself? This well thought-out book isn’t about teaching kids to cook but how to encourage the development of a palate that you can build on.” Charleston
Post & Courier (12.1.07)
"An exceptional collection of simple but imaginative recipes ... A truly delightful book." With Kids Magazine, Oct 2006.