PLENTY
Digressions of food
Gay Bilson
Published by Penguin, H/B out of print but worth looking for
P/B $39.95 and also available as an audio book

This is the journey of Australia’s most influential and erudite food person. Bilson’s superbly crafted words, where not one word is wasted or incorrectly phrased, it is the images she paints of her life in food that are as vivid for the reader as they appear to be in her memory. It is a story that clarifies some parts of the Gay Bilson story and mystifies further others, whilst at the same time remembering the fabulous food theatres she created with her friends and colleagues. Since Gay BIlson left the culinary stage when she closed her highly acclaimed restaurant Berowera Waters she left a void that has remained an unfilled chasm in the world of art and food. This is a beautiful book in every sense .

on digestion
Gay Bilson
Published by Melbourne University Press, H/B $19.95

Bilson writes about food and food philosophy like no other writer. Her words so beautifully and perfectly crafted, so erudite and carefully chosen are always a reminder of how little the rest of us really know. Bilson takes great care to remain contemporary, to understand every nuance of modern cuisine in the same way that she has a depth of knowledge gained from years of reading. Her passion for understanding, for finding a truth in food, understanding what she might not choose to cook herself are quite remarkable.
There is only one problem with this little book thoughtfully divided into three courses with petit fours is that the feast of words, ideas and remembrances is all to quickly over. An exquisite little morsel!

A FOOD LOVER’S TREASURY
Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy
Published by Frances Lincoln Limited, H/B $24.95

I love this book for two reasons, the quotes are not the generic type and the authors have put in an enormous amount of work to find erudite, and often amusing quotes. There is an element of competition with the authors because it is almost a test of how well read one is by being able to guess before the end of the passage the name of the book and its author. Divided into neat sections of Food Philosophy, Taste, Local Delicacies, Shopping and Cooking, Meals, Mood, Places to Eat, Going Without and finally Manners and Morals it is easy to grasp the sense of the book, which is quite playful. Of course, the other danger with a book of this type is that the very small price of $24.95 for a stylish hardback publication actually runs into hundreds because there are always other books one has to buy because a single tantalizing passage is simply not enough.
The quote on the front cover is hardly giving anything away but rather sets the tone for the entire book “A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.” Samuel Johnson AO