British food writer Peter Graham, whose last and most popular book, Mourjou: The Life and Food of an Auvergne Village (1998), was "an evocative account of the many meals he ate, and the many years he lived, in a small village in a quiet part of central France," died July 7, the Guardian reported. He was 80. Mourjou "was suffused with a deep knowledge of France, and was every bit as seductive as the work of his more celebrated compatriot, Peter Mayle, author of A Year in Provence."
Graham's writing "revealed a limitless enthusiasm for eating, a sensitive and intelligent palate, a wide base of reading and an enlightened curiosity about the meaning of the words used in French cooking--be they from French dialect, Occitan, Provençal or Ligurian Italian," Tom Jaine wrote in Guardian, adding that his recipes "were eminently do-able, as he demonstrated in another well-received and enduring book, Classic Cheese Cookery (1988), which won the André Simon Memorial prize for the best food book of the year."
His early writing was about film for English-language publications in France, but eventually Graham's focus turned to his other love, food. He wrote about food and cookery for several publications before moving from Paris to Mourjou, where he bought a former cafe and grocer's shop and began to pursue various food writing projects, beginning with a translation of a Jacques Médecin recipe book Cuisine Niçoise: Recipes from a Mediterranean Kitchen (1983).
"As a measure of the respect and affection with which Peter was held in Mourjou, the locals, for whom the surrounding groves of chestnuts have been an important source of food for centuries, bestowed upon him the title of Grand Master of the Chestnut Confraternity," Jaine wrote. "These days the nuts are the focus of green tourism, and the October chestnut festival brings thousands to the village. A chestnut museum--the Maison de la Châtaigne--was created in a barn that once belonged to him, and he lived in the village for the rest of his life, with visiting friends finding a welcome table and a perceptive host."