Life and Food in the Basque Country

by Maria Sevilla

Book Overview

Ask any Spaniard where you will find the best food in the country and the answer is invariably the Basque provinces. In this book, Maria Jose Sevilla describes the region through the eyes of men and women whose lives embrace every aspect of its cooking and culinary traditions, and records the recipes she has learned from them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561310352
• ISBN13: 9781561310357
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Inc/Bloomsbury
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

No ordinary cookbok

I've been wanting to practice European cooking for sometime, so I decided to start with Europe's first family, the Basques. This is a continent that takes pride in its sophisticated culinary tastes, and this cookbook shows that the Basques are no exception. The section on wild mushrooms alone demonstrates the refinement of Basque cuisine. The recipes are excellent (although they can be quite difficult), but I was most impressed by the author's prose apart from the recipes. This is one of the few cookbooks I've read that qualifies as good literature, and it deserves to be reviewed and appreciated as such. Moments of lyrical excellence shine through even in translation, and Sevilla should be commmended for crafting such a unique work. Its almost an anthropological study, but in the new style that shies away from dry exposition in favor of a more personal engagement. I recommend this book to cooks and readers alike.