The Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford Companions) - Tapa dura

Alan Davidson's masterly encyclopaedia is the only reference book you need. (The Times)

Far more entertaining, addictive and idiosyncratic than any reference book has a right to be. (Christopher Hirst, The Independent)

Monumental. (Christopher Hirst, The Independent)

There is no better way to stave off the winter blues than the second edition of Alan Davidson's The Oxford Companion to Food. Tom Jaine has taken over from the late Davidson and he is a worthy heir. This gem of food reference retains the wit, elegance, erudition and style that made the first edition so memorable. (Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday (Live - Night and Day))

Seriously fascinating (Cathy Pryor, Independent)

No kitchen should be without The Oxford Companion to Food 2nd Edition. An absorbing culinary reference book, worth its weight in foie gras. (Image magazine Ireland,)

Extraordinarily comprehensive and detailed. As a reference book it is unlikely to be surpassed but it is also a fun book to dip into and every page includes masses of startling and original information. (Tom Jaine, Country Landowner Magazine)

The Oxford Companion to Wine - like the Food Companion it is detailed, scholarly and endlessly fascinating. (Tom Jaine, Country Landowner Magazine)

essential reference guide (Daily Express)

Brilliantly original

The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, first published in 1999, became, almost overnight, an immense success, winning prizes and accolades around the world. Its combination of serious food history, culinary expertise, and entertaining serendipity, with each page offering an infinity of perspectives, was recognized as unique.

The study of food and food history is a new discipline, but one that has developed exponentially in the last twenty years. There are now university departments, international societies, learned journals, and a wide-ranging literature exploring the meaning of food in the daily lives of people around the world, and seeking to introduce food and the process of nourishment into our understanding of almost every compartment of human life, whether politics, high culture, street life, agriculture, or life and death issues such as conflict and war.

The great quality of this Companion is the way it includes both an exhaustive catalogue of the foods that nourish humankind - whether they be fruit from tropical forests, mosses scraped from adamantine granite in Siberian wastes, or body parts such as eyeballs and testicles - and a richly allusive commentary on the culture of food, whether expressed in literature and cookery books, or as dishes peculiar to a country or community.

The new edition has not sought to dim the brilliance of Davidson's prose. Rather, it has updated to keep ahead of a fast-moving area, and has taken the opportunity to alert readers to new avenues in food studies.