"When we eat, we travel," Mina Holland observes in the introduction to her first book, The World on a Plate. "As Proust noted on eating a petit madeleine with his tea, food escorts us back in time and shapes our memory." A food writer and the editor of Guardian Cook, the newspaper's weekly food supplement, the British-born and well-traveled Holland takes readers on a tour of 40 world cuisines.
"A cuisine is the edible lovechild of both geography and history," Holland asserts. Beginning with France and its famous vineyards, she gives readers an overview of food cultures on six continents, accompanied by lists of pantry essentials and recipes for 100 iconic dishes. Instead of focusing on trendy meals or the flavors of a certain city, Holland spotlights several regions of each country, such as France's Loire Valley and Provence or Italy's Veneto, Lazio and Calabria. She includes several maps of key ingredients that tie together the foods of a culture: grapes for France, spices for the Middle East, chili peppers on nearly every continent.
Sprinkled among Holland's exploration of each regional fare are her memories of eating its food: the borscht made by her childhood friend's Polish grandmother or the tortilla she learned to make from a Spanish chef. Holland writes with particular affection of her native British cuisine, which she calls "my love in a cold climate." Mixing culinary history with recipes and cultural commentary, Holland serves up a varied and mouthwatering feast. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams