Honey from a Weed: fasting and feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia, by Patience Gray has been highly recommended to me from a variety of sources, including Sussan Loomis from On Rue Tatin Cooking School in Normandy and Kate Hill from the Kitchen at Camont Cooking School, down in the south west of France in Gascony. Both enjoyed it as they read it again during their recent summer, singing its praises to such to the extent, I had to buy a copy for my library collection. Apparently, Patience Gray was an acclaimed culinary writer, so my curiosity was raised and I had to read it!
Although first published in 1986 and reprinted since in 2004, it is still so relevant especially in today’s culinary scene. Patience advocated eating real food in season, close to where it is grown, getting back to nature, respecting the integrity of our food and advocating sustainability. Precisely my food philosophy – eat real food in season respecting our planet and safe guarding our environment.
To me, this book is written in a similar fashion to the classic writings of Elizabeth David and Claudia Roden with the interweaving of interesting, informative stories about food, its production, with recipes plus the telling of her Mediterranean way of life and her life story as she travelled and lived with her sculptor partner in his search of the best marble with which to work.
Her chapter on the olive harvest is enlightening. I agree, and also advocate strongly, cooking with extra virgin olive oil as well as her rebuttal of using refined olive oils. She wrote about how to store and care for your extra virgin olive oil, storing it in glass bottles, rather than a tin, what qualities to look for when buying it and, of course, it should taste of olives! ‘Judge it by taste and colour’. The colour can be green or gold but not too clear. If it is too clear it is either too old or too refined.
Many of these classic Mediterranean dishes I have incorporated into the various cooking classes here. So enjoy some of these dishes, along with many others, in a cooking class at Cooking on the Bay! Mediterranean recipes are great for summer; this collection is rustic, seasonal and delicious. They include many classics such as la Peperonata, Peperoncini Amari, hot green chilli peppers, a little like our Spanish Pimientos de Padron, Greek aubergine salad, a variety of pasta dishes, and the often overlooked, and one my favourites, polenta, to which she devotes a short chapter.
It is a great work, beautifully written and now regarded as a culinary classic, along with Elizabeth David and Claudia Roden! It is a book that encourages you to take time to read it quietly; the passages inspire and inform you of a life and quite unique foods, many of which are far removed from the bustle and pace of our modern life.
