The World of Spice. This item is unavailable.The World of Spice

Spices hold the key to the culinary history of the world and "The World of Spice" explores the subtle shadings in provincial spice palettes that represent the complex layering of local cuisines. Journeying to the far corners of the globe, award-winning writer Michael Bateman uncovers an intriguing blend of food and travel to plot a spice trail for the modern age. In 200 exquisite recipes from fiery Cajun redfish to traditional English Christmas pudding, he rediscovers ancient skills that tease out the fullest flavours in main dishes, light appetisers and salads, warming soups and stews and sensational desserts, alongside a host of delicate spice mixtures, pastes, sauces and side dishes. Combining culinary, botanical and historical information with wonderful anecdotes, delicious recipes and vibrant food and travel photography, "The World of Spice" has been a lifetime in the making. It will fascinate every gourmet, globe-trotter, food historian and modern-day cookery enthusiast.

About the Author Michael Bateman has been writing about food for 35 years; his first book in the 1960s, Cooking People, was about a dozen leading food figures of the day including interview with, and recipes from, Elizabeth David, Robert Carrier and many more. As an editor on the Sunday Times Magazine he launched a year-long Real Bread campaign which changed the face of British bread retailing. With his wife Heather Maisner, who also collaborated with him on The World of Spice, he compiled The Book of Real Bread including recipes and interviews, which was published by Rodale in the UK and became a bestseller. On the Sunday Times Michael also launched a year-long healthy eating initiative based on world figures for heart disease and cancers, which resulted in another book, the World’s Best Food. Joining the Independent on Sunday in 1989 as Food Editor, Michael wrote a study of UK health and food issues, Good Enough to Eat, which was shortlisted for the prestigous Andre Simon Awards. Continuing the theme of healthy eating around the world he also published Round the World in Recipes in 1993. He has written for food magazines including the US Saveur and, in the UK, Waitrose Food Illustrated, Food and Travel and Conde Naste Traveller – for which publication he won the Glenfiddich Food Writers’ Award in 2000 for a piece on the food of Brazil. His book Street Food Brazil was published in the UK, the US and France.

Michael has been shortlisted for no fewer than six Glenfiddich Food Writing Awards, a Guild of Food Writers Award, and has won a New Zealand Meat Award. He was also the Dairy Crest Cheese Writer of the Year in 1998. His overiding passions are food and travel and he has circled the globe to seek out cooks and food producers who represent the great food cultures in both East and West. The World of Spice is the fruit of this pilgrimage.