The best books about food and wine that take you places and allow you to travel in time

I could almost immediately smell the gorgeous scent of citrus wafting from the pages of this beautiful book through the magic of Helena Atlee’s precisely detailed writing.

Who would have thought that the story of Italy’s varied and numerous citrus plantations would take me on a journey all across the country, from Sicily’s west coast to the fragrant lemon gardens of Lake Garda, and in time from when the Arabs introduced bitter oranges up to the workings of the citrus industry today.

I love this book because it simply tells the fragrant story of how fruit, in various manifestations, has come to be cultivated all around the country and to represent something of the soul and the spirit of the Italian people.

Salt, neither you nor I would be alive without this mundane, everyday product that we scarcely give a second thought to. Salt is essential for human life, explains Mark Kurlansky, and the ingenious ways in which it is harvested and utilised all around the world, from antiquity to now, is the subject of this fascinating book.

I traveled in this book from China to western Sicily, from the North Atlantic, where fishermen preserved their catch of cod in salt, to the Indian sub-continent, where salt marches were eventually to lead to the emancipation of a nation. The Chinese wrote about gathering salt 8000 years ago; methods were perfected by the Phoenicians and the Romans, and salt is still evaporated by the sun and wind alone, hand-harvested through evaporation with hand tools as it has been for millennia.

The story of salt is the story of human civilisation.

I love cheese, and I love how British cheeses have reinvented themselves as dairy farmers have been forced to diversify in order to keep in business.

This fascinating book has taken me on a journey around the British Isles and in time and place from the Stone Age and the Roman era, the influence of Monasteries, the post-war industrial boom, to right now, and the renaissance of traditional farmhouse artisan cheesemaking.

I love this book because it does not just outline British cheeses; it is also the human story of the people who handcrafted them. Best of all, I can actually find and purchase some of these cheeses to enjoy while reading the book!

I love travelling to Italy’s great cities: Florence, Venice, Rome, Naples, Palermo, Bologna, Turin. One of the great pleasures is enjoying the local foods and wines. In this book, John Dickie demonstrates that Italy’s famed regional cuisines have origins not in the countryside but in the peculiar and particular workings of these great urban entities.

By exploring foods through links to cities, and cities through the foods that are unique to each, whether because of foreign influences, systems of agricultural tender, or through highlighting differences between working, merchant, and aristocratic classes, Dickie gave me greater insight and appreciation into place through the food that you or I will encounter on our plates, wherever in Italy we might happen to find ourselves.

I love travel, wine, and learning more about the people who create wine. This book ticks all these boxes.

It takes me all across Sicily, one of Italy’s most exciting and dynamic wine regions. In the course of these travels, I get to meet the people who have transformed Sicilian wine from pedestrian to world-class.

Camuto is a masterful storyteller. His descriptions of encounters with winemakers, what they look like, and the meals they share together are as interesting as the up-to-the-minute information he imparts about the wines they are now bringing to the world. This is a must-read for lovers of Sicily and all lovers of Italian wine.