As the title suggests, it celebrates -- and, in classic Thorne style, ponders, probes, and scrutinizes -- a lifelong engagement with the elements of cooking, and with elemental cooking from cioppino to kedgeree.

John Thorne's curiosity ranges far and wide, from nineteenth-century famine-struck Ireland to the India of the British Raj, from the Tuscan bean pot to the venerable American griddle. Whether on the trail of a mysterious Vietnamese sandwich ("Banh Mi and Me") or "The Best Cookies in the World," whether "Desperately Resisting Risotto" or discovering a new breakfast, Thorne is an erudite and intrepid guide who, in unveiling the gastronomic wonders of the world, also reveals us to ourselves.

Other cookbooks by this author

• Mouth Wide Open: A Cook and His Appetite
• Mouth Wide Open: A Cook and His Appetite
• Mouth Wide Open: A Cook and His Appetite
• Outlaw Cook
• Outlaw Cook
• Outlaw Cook
• Outlaw Cook
• Outlaw Cook
• Pot on the Fire: Further Exploits of a Renegade Cook
• Pot on the Fire
• Pot on the Fire: Further Confessions of a Renegade Cook
• Pot On The Fire: Further Confessions of A Renegade Cook
• Serious Pig: An American Cook In Search of His Roots
• Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots
• Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots
• Simple Cooking
• Simple Cooking
• Simple Cooking
• Simple Cooking