How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories and Places

by Diana Henry

Overview

Named one of the best cookbooks of the year by The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Rachel Ray Every Day, NPR and The Boston Globe.

When Diana Henry was sixteen she started a menu notebook (an exercise book carefully covered in wrapping paper). Planning a menu is still her favorite part of cooking.

Menus can create very different moods; they can take you places, from an afternoon at the seaside in Brittany to a sultry evening eating mezze in Istanbul. They also have to work as a meal that flows and as a group of dishes that the cook can manage without becoming totally stressed. The 24 menus and 100 recipes in this book reflect places Diana loves, and dishes that are real favorites.

The menus are introduced with personal essays in Diana's now well-known voice- about places or journeys or particular times and explain the choice of dishes. Each menu is a story in itself, but the recipes can also stand alone.

The title of the book refers to how Italians end a meal in the summer, when it's too hot to cook. The host or hostess just puts a bowl of peaches on the table and offers glasses of chilled moscato (or even Marsala). Guests then slice their peach into the glass, before eating the slices and drinking the wine.

That says something very important about eating - simplicity and generosity and sometimes not cooking are what it's about.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784724115
Publisher:	Octopus Books
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 10.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Diana Henry is a James Beard Award winning author and beloved food writer with book sales of more than 950,000 copies worldwide. She has regular columns in The Daily Telegraph and Waitrose Weekend and her work has appeared in BBC Good Food, House & Garden, Delicious and beyond, her broadcast appearances include BBC Radio 4. Diana has won numerous awards for her journalism and books, including Cookery Journalist of the Year and Cookbook of the Year from the Guild of Food Writers; Cookery Writer of the Year and Cookery Book of the Year at the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards; Food Book of the Year at the André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards; and a James Beard award. 

Diana Henry is the author of twelve books including: Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons; Roast Figs, Sugar Snow; Plenty; Salt, Sugar, Smoke; A Change of Appetite; A Bird in the Hand; Simple; How to Eat a Peach and From the Oven to the Table

Diana Henry has a strong fanbase with 126,000 followers on Instagram @dianahenryfood

Table of Contents

Spring and Summer

Cider and gitanes 12

Constant cravings 22

A perfect lunch 30

Before the passeggiata 38

If you're going to san francisco 48

My spanish cupboard 60

Summer begins with apricot tart 68

Take me back to istanbul 78

Crabs walk sideways 90

Too hot to cook 102

How to eat a peach 110

Eating on the cusp 122

Autumn and Winter

A thousand chiles 132

Smoky days 142

I can never resist pumpkins 150

October is the best month 160

Darkness and light 168

Monsieur matuchet plays the piano 178

In my own backyard 190

The moon and the bonfire (and the hazelnuts) 198

Missing new york 208

Tt's all about the pasta 218

A lunch to soothe 226

Midnight at the oasis 234

Drunk on olive oil 244

Editorial Reviews

Henry is unapologetically purist in her opinions about what she serves and enjoys, rightfully assuming that you will enjoy her taste memories right along with her…This authority is especially welcome when Henry lists her rules for "having people over"…

The New York Times Book Review - Jenny Rosenstrach

03/05/2018
Henry (A Bird in Hand), a British food journalist and James Beard Award winner, wonderfully evokes relaxing meals of simply prepared seasonal ingredients. Inspired by the memory of Moscato-infused sliced peaches she ate during her first visit to Italy, Henry has assembled 24 seasonal menus featuring 100 recipes. Using menu planning “rules” (eat seasonally, avoid repeating ingredients, utilize small plates, etc.), she offers menus of three to five courses for stress-free entertaining; dishes primarily utilize French, Italian, or Mediterranean cooking techniques. A menu for the warm months includes zucchini ricotta fritters, nasturtium-festooned raw sea bass salad, lemony roast chicken, and apricot tart. Come autumn, scallops in brown butter, slow-roasted duck legs in plum sauce, and a pear-blackberry-hazelnut cake offer cold weather comfort. Along with navigating some British culinary terminology, American cooks may have difficulty finding such ingredients as pandan leaves, ox cheek, and Indonesian soy sauce, though online sources are listed; recipes provide both international measurements and American equivalents by weight. For Henry, cooking is “about revisiting places.” Her stories of unforgettable meals along with sophisticated-yet-simple menus will encourage cooks to create their own food memories. (May)

Publishers Weekly

'This is an extraordinary piece of food writing, pitch perfect in every way. I couldn't love anyone who didn't love this book.'—Nigella Lawson

"Who's the Best British Food Writer? (Clue: It Isn't Nigella or Jamie)Why you should know the wonderful, warm, and always delicious Diana Henry."
—Martha Stewart Living

"a culinary icon"
—Helen Rosener, The New Yorker

"The unstoppable Ms. Henry does it again."
—Bon Appetit

If there is a more deliciously evocative cookbook than How To Eat A Peach, I have yet to come across it.—Hayley Maitland, Vogue

"Lyrical British cookbook author Diana Henry has a new collection of recipes and storiesthat is a must-read. Divided by seasons, it's a unique grouping. But even more special is Henry's writing: beautiful, evocative and so inviting. A gem!"—Kathy Gunst, NPR

"There is poetry in menus," she writes in HOW TO EAT A PEACH: Menus, Stories,'They can transport you to the Breton coast, or to a Saturday night in Manhattan; they are short stories.' From anyone else, this kind of sentiment might signal the earnest preciousness that rings food writing's death knell. Not from Henry, who's built her brand on what you might call poetic practicality."—The New York Times Book Review

"One of the most literary of food writers... The British cookbook author has embedded a lusty memoir in her latest recipe collection."—Lauren Collins, The New Yorker

"This is exceptional writing about food."
—Bonnie Benwick, The Washington Post

"You'll revisit this cookbook again and again. "How to Eat a Peach," by the popular British author, merits special attention because it delivers timeless and thoughtful food writing, accompanied by handsome visual vignettes."—Bonnie Benwick, The Washington Post

" It's full of beautiful pictures of beautiful food and recipes that really won me over. Bonus: The cover is fuzzy. Just like a peach."
—Rachel Ray Everyday

" British food writer Diana Henry serves up evocative meals and prose, taking cooks through seasons, cities, and moments in her life that can now be moments in yours. The menu titles alone are enough to lure you into the kitchen."
—Devra First, The Boston Globe

"Experiential is exactly how I'd describe "How to Eat a Peach," whose cover even has a gentle fuzz like a peach skin. Each menu transports not always to a specific locale, but a sort of place of time, the joy of a beautiful moment with food."
—The Washington Herald

"you'll revisit this cookbook again and again. It merits special attention because it delivers timeless and thoughtful food writing, accompanied by handsome visual vignettes."
—The Seattle Times

Diana Henry is "a legend"
—Portland Monthly

"I am always utterly charmed by Diana Henry's cookbooks."—Addie Broyles, Austin American Statesman

Diana Henry is "one of the few UK-based "cookery" authors whose flavor profiles and recipes are just as appealing on this side of the pond - Yotam Ottolenghi is another - and her latest book, "How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories and Places" is a classic example of why."
—Addie Broyles, Austin American Statesman

"There's an elegant quality to the way she artfully folds her inventive recipes with her stories that is harmonious yet approachable for the home cook."—Nik Sharma, A Brown Table

"Any book by Diana Henry is one you want to add to your kitchen library."—Cooking by the Book

"sure to become another bestseller."
—Gotham

"How to Eat a Peach ) is British food writer Diana Henry's best cookbook yet, because she groups stellar recipes into two-dozen menus organized thematically, and shares personal essays on memories of place and meals"
—The Globe and Mail

From the Publisher