29 Jun 2013 00:58:25
First published in 1998, Still Life tells the backstory of Elisabeth Luard's classic European Peasant Cooking (1986). She describes the culinary road‑trip she took in 1985 with her husband, Nicholas, the author and co‑owner of Private Eye. Starting at Munich they travelled through Austria and what was then Yugoslavia (in Croatia the food "was limited to sauerkraut with sausage or sausage with sauerkraut"), Greece ("Greeks go out for company rather than gastronomy"), Turkey, and then back via Romania. She fell in love with Bucharest, where she made the mistake of buying caviar on the black market (half a kilo for three packs of Marlboro) to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Both of them spend the next day suffering the unpleasant consequences. A Scandinavian journey yields the secrets of reindeer stew and Swedish Köttbullar (meatballs). There is also an amusing account of her US publicity tour, during which she was introduced to a condescending Germaine Greer ("A cookery writer?"). Luard is an immensely engaging raconteur and her chaotic travels in search of authentic local food are served with humour and plenty of mouthwatering recipes.
