318 high quality pages casually interspersed with charming black and white illustrations and some photographs, this book is sure to appeal to the 'Elizabeth David' book collector.

REAR COVER QUOTE from JANE GRIGSON:-
"Every time we begin to feel fussed by the cookery elaborators with their flashy tricks and colour photos, we can restore confidence by returning to Elizabeth David."

From Artemis Cooper's 'Writing at the Kitchen Table', pg 307 - 'An Omelette and a Glass of Wine' delighted Elizabeth's legion of fans. Jane Grigson praised it for including all the dishes most closely associated with her, Spiced Beef, Salted Welsh Duck and Syllabub.

'Here for the first time is a selection of ED's journalistic work written for a wide range of publications.
Articles, book reviews and travel pieces, they will be new to many of her readers and a delight to all for their highly personal flavour.
Her subjects range from the story of how her own cookery writing
began to accounts of some restaurants in provincial France, of white truffles in Piedmont, wild risottos on the islands of the Venetian lagoon and odd happenings during rain-drenched seaside holidays in the British Isles.

Here we can share the ED appreciation of books, people who influenced her, places she loved and the delicious meals she enjoyed. She writes so vividly that we can see, taste and even smell the dishes she describes.

pgs 50-51 '......everyone knows that the success of omelette-making starts with the pan and not with the genius of the cook.......As to the omelette itself, it seems to me to be a confection which demands the most straightforward approach.
What one wants is the taste of fresh eggs and fresh butter and visually a soft, bright golden roll plump, spilling out a little at the edges. It should not be a busy, important urban dish but something gentle and pastoral.........And although there are those who maintain that wine and egg dishes don't go together, I must say I do regard a glass or two of wine as, not obviously, essential - but at least as an enormous enhancement of the enjoyment of a well-cooked omelette........
.......But we are not in any case considering the 'great occasion' menu but the almost primitive and elemental meal evoked by the words:-
'Let's just have an omelette and a glass of wine.'

Elizabeth David's "An Omelette and a Glass of Wine" is an entertaining read for foodies, although, containing some essays she wrote during the 1950s, it has a slightly dated feeling. The section on "potted meats" belongs in that category, as do the food market and restaurant prices she lists in many of the pieces.

You will find here David's writing about Mediterranean cooking which established her as an authority, and which opened up traditional British-style "cookery" with a new emphasis on simple, fresh ingredients. Included throughout the book are essays on presentation with continental flair, which can add to the enjoyment of meals.

"Mrs. Beeton," the guide for English cooks and household managers for nearly a hundred years, had been viewed by many as an elderly lady in a starched-stiff, black dress who dispensed advice on the "proper" way to cook. In David's book, she presents the real Mrs. Beeton-- a young matron in her twenties, brisk, practical and innovative.

You may not feel inspired to try all the recipes David brings to us, but you will be intrigued by her enthusiastic style and her chatty British approach.