When Diana Henry was 16 she started a menu notebook (an exercise book carefully covered in wrapping paper) in which she wrote up the meals she wanted to cook. She kept this book for years.
Putting a menu together is still her favourite part of cooking. Menus aren't just groups of dishes that have to work on a practical level (meals that cooks can manage), they also have to work as a succession of flavours. But what is perhaps most special about them is the way they can create very different moods - menus can take you places, from an afternoon at the seaside in Brittany to a sultry evening eating mezze in Istanbul. They are a way of visiting places you've never seen, revisiting places you love and celebrating particular seasons.
How to Eat a Peach contains many of Diana's favourite dishes in menus that will take you through the year and to different parts of the world. It's an exquisite book which celebrates the love of food, flavours, seasons and cultures. Beautifully illustrated and written.
Get it here:
