| Author:
Eliana Thibaut i Comalada |
|
«Since some years ago I'm passioned for two things…» —says the author— «First, having discovered medieval catalan cooking, what has been a surprise due to the grace, research, simplicity and refinement of these dishes. And second, sumptuousness, abundance and richness of this cooking. Even having geographical knowledges of Catalonia, not much speeches are necessary to understand how assorted and that cooking was and what high-quality products were used. For us, for our catalan culture, it's so important that, on XIIIth century, a cooker left for future generations, some recipes perfectly cooked, easily explained, using the kind of food we still use nowadays, and very often...»
This book contains 42 recipes of medieval and well-balanced menus, adapted to our current taste, such as roasted lamb, frozen almonds soup, medieval cassolada (casserole) or zucchini pastel with basil and mushrooms sauce.
This is a revised edition from 1985 original one, keeping the prologue wrote by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán where he said:Eliana has spent a lot of years gathering and arranging all kind of material for this book, what I would describe as a very important task for reconstructing catalan culture. Eliana shows, here, the existence of a national gastronomic catalan culture, forged in a time when Catalonia was an independent state fighting for Mediterranean hegemony'.
|
|
Eliana Thibaut i Comalada is one of the most specialist writers in food ethnologic research of Middle Ages.
She worked as a teacher in France teaching Food Hygiene and, on 1985, created the 'Tallers de Cuina Catalana Tradicional' (Traditional Catalan Cooking courses) to preserve and spread traditional catalan cooking.
Eliana advised Colman Andrews on his Catalan Cuisine cookbook, also available in Catalancooking.com. |
