From historical works to cooking manuals, from restaurant reviews to cultural essays, we have selected eight books that marked an era and that are perfect summer reading for any gastronomy aficionado.
Francisco Moreno y Herrera, VI Count of Los Andes, was the first food critic in history in Spain. With his restaurant reviews, published since 1969 in the ABC newspaper under the pseudonym Savarín, he inaugurated a genre called to change the relationship between cooking and communication at the end of the 20th century.
Although out of print, the book, which includes the first series of criticisms, can be found easily and at very low prices on second-hand book sales platforms. It is essential to understand the evolution of criticism as a genre in the last half century.
Edited as volume number 22 of the Complete Works of Josep Pla in 1972 and translated into Spanish in 1997 by the Planeta publishing house as part of its Austral collection, Josep Pla's book became an instant classic that also appeared in the years when that Catalan and Spanish cuisine were being reformulated in the face of total modernity.
The one from Pla is one of the great written examples of gastronomy in the memory of peninsular literatures; a book that was a testimony of past times, but also, in some way, the entry way to a future kitchen. A classic beyond fashion.
Between 1980 and 1982, the Penthalon publishing house published a series of books commissioned from various authors specializing in gastronomy from different areas of Spain. José Carlos Capel signed the volume dedicated to Andalusia, Carme Casas the one that focused on Catalan cuisine, Antonio Vergara the one related to Valencia, Jorge Víctor Sueiro (with a prologue by Álvaro Cunqueiro) to Galicia, Carlos Delgado to Madrid, Juan José Lápitz wrote Comer en Euskalherría…
Each one of these copies, easy to find in old bookstores and online sales platforms, is interesting on its own, but the complete collection, viewed from a distance of almost half a century, is undoubtedly a small jewel that should be part of from the library of any fan.
Almost 20 years after the publication of its first edition, this book by a young Quique Dacosta continues to be essential for discovering the world of rice and its use in haute cuisine.
Arroces Contemporáneos is one of the works that marked a particularly intense period of contemporary Spanish cuisine and which, at the same time, meant the consolidation of the work of a chef who already had an important projection at that time and who continues to be one of the essential names of the European cuisine of the 21st century.
Originally published in 1984 and, in an expanded version, in Spanish, in 2007, La cocina y los alimentos continues to be today the great manual on the chemical processes behind food and its use in the kitchen.
It is an essential reference book, constantly consulted by anyone with an interest in gastronomy, but also -surprisingly- a reasonably enjoyable read that clears up countless doubts and, what is even more important, ends with a whole series of preconceived ideas and falsehoods that we repeat almost daily without questioning them.
Colman Andrews is one of the great international promoters of Catalan cuisine and surely also one of the people who best knew El Bulli and its history.
From this perspective, his book Reinventing the Kitchen, published the same year that the Cala Montjoi restaurant closed its doors permanently, became, from its appearance, one of the basic works to look at the history of the place where the great paradigm shift of contemporary cuisine was forged.
Perfect for those who want to look at the history of food in Spain over time without being a specialist. Comer y Beber carries out a story of more than 2,000 years by products, techniques and traditions.
From the Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula to the death of chef Joël Robuchon in 2018, the author, professor of Modern History at the University of Barcelona, proposes a journey through Sephardic cuisine, Andalusian recipes, ingredients from America and truly baroque recipe books. useful for getting a glimpse of the diversity of Spanish cuisine, both throughout its history and today.
A choral book, a group reflection in which some of the issues that will mark the gastronomic discourse in the coming years are collected.
Sustainability, social gastronomy, equity or gender issues have a place in a volume with contributions from names such as Joxe Mari Aizega, Martín Berasategui, Juan Mari and Elena Arzak, Carlo Petrini, Lisa Abend or Rafa Tonon and which begins with an Open Letter to the Chefs of Tomorrow by Ferran Adrià, Gastón Acurio, Alex Atala, Dan Barber, Massimo Bottura, Michel Bras, Yukio Hattori and René Redzepi. A door to the gastronomy of the future.
