Long acknowledge as the inspiration for such modern masters as Julia Child and Claudia Roden, A Book of Mediterranean Food is Elizabeth David´s passionate mixture of recipes, culinary lore, and frank talk. In bleak postwar Great Britain, when basics were rationed and fresh food a fantasy, David set about to cheer herself -and her audience- up with dishes from the south of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Freece, and the Middle East. Some are sumptuous, many are simple, most are sublime