Chilli Book Reviews

Basically, as my family will confirm, I read a hell of a lot of books. Noone is really sure how I squeeze so much reading time in between working, family, cooking, and running this website.

As a result I thought I may as well share my observations and opinions with you in case you are considering purchasing one of these books.

chillies-down-under.com is all about free information and I'd hate think of subscribers buying a dud book when I'd already read it.

You should note that when I rate the book I'm not influenced by great photography, and as you'll see some of the highest rated books below don't have any photos or pictures at all.

WHY? I do this because I believe they have very little to do with the overall value of the book to me (there is always the odd exception). Good writing, good information and good recipes give me value - good photos are very aesthetic but don't give me any value.

Anyway, enough philospohy, here's what I've covered so far;

Curry: A Tale Of Cooks & Conquerors, by Lizzie Collingham

Foods Of The Maya - A Taste Of The Yucatan, By Nancy & Jeffrey Gerlach

South East Asian Food, By Rosemary Brissenden

The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia, By Dave DeWitt

The Chili-Lovers Cookbook, By Jenni Fleetwood

As a keen student of food history I was very eager to get into this one as soon as I had bought it.

And, I wasn't disappointed either. Lizzie has previously done writing on Indian history and therefore brings a lot of that knowledge into the book. The result is that you get to visit India's fascinating history from the context of it's food and the changes introduced by the multitude of invaders that have ruled the country.

The narrative of how Indian cooking developed over hundred of years is a fascinating insight into the complexity and tradition behind one of the world's great cuisine.

The book then goes on to document the arrival of the English and the beginning of the sad

It also dispels a number of myths surrounding Indian food e.g., curries were developed as highly spiced foods to cover the smell/taste of meat that is going off.

Chapter 3 is particularly interesting as it documents, in detail, the introduction of chillies to India by the Portuguese and the rapid manner in which they were incorporated by the Indians.

All in all this is a great read for anybody interested in food history that also has a few recipes scattered throughout.

This is an interesting book. Part cultural documentation, part travel guide, part cookbook. The Gerlachs clearly enjoy the Yucatan area of Mexico and the culture history associated with it.

One thing I particularly like is that they view, and present, the Mayan culture as a living, breathing, evolving entity rather than something that existed in the dim dark ages. And this is as it should be as the direct descendants of the Mayan Indians are today's Yucatan residents. The culture didn't die out - it simply evolved into it's current form.

Some of the ingredients can be difficult to source but if you look hard enough you will find that most countries have at least one supplier of Mexican food products. For Australian readers there are some listed at the links page

South East Asian Foods.
by Rosemary Brissenden

Classification: Recipes + Food Culture
Illustrated: No
Overall Rating : 10/10

My wife handed me this as a welcome home present after my first trip to Sulawesi in Indonesia back in 1995 as I'd been raving about the food while I was there.

It has been THE book I turn to first when I want to either research something or simply looking for something new to cook for dinner.

I'd love to meet her one day as she must have spent a lot of time in the region researching for this. There is an exceptional amount of knowledge captured here.

The book is broken down into sections for each country and goes into significant depth about the culture and the food, differences, and similarities between them all. She also explores the plethora of techniques involved in creating the dishes.

I'm not sure if it is still in print (I'll try and find out) but if you can find it, get it. Amazon don't have any new ones listed and there is only second hand one for $173. Stay tuned. (update - 15-Sept-08: I cannot find one anywhere on the web so you are down to combing the second-hand book stores if you want one of these!).

Dave DeWitt is one of the largest personalities in the chilli world and was given the nickname "The Pope Of Peppers" many years ago.

Living in Albuquerque, New Mexico and having trained as a journalist, he is ideally positioned to write about his passion.

The book has a wealth of information, though it is, of course, from the perspective of North America though the sections covering chillies in South America, Asia, and Europe are quite well done. Africa and India are weaker areas in his knowledge.

There are a number of sections discussing food culture and these are quite interesting, particularly the history of Hot Sauces in America.

This is one of the few exceptions to the rule where colour photographs would add significantly to the book. As with all of Dave's books, the photography and drawings are in grey-scale only. Strangely the back cover on my copy mentions, "a color insert includes photographs of dozens of chile types" yet I have no colour insert. Not sure whether this is a mistake at the printing stage or whether I have been screwed by Amazon.com !

Overall, it is a pretty good reference book for those interested in the minutiae of the enormous varieties of chillies out there, or a keen student of food history and culture. If you're just after the recipes, look elsewhere as they are not organised in a manner that is friendly for those just looking for something to cook.

As you can probably tell from the cover, there are lots of large, glossy photos throughout this book - to the extent that they constitute around 50% of the total content.

At the start of tbook there are a few pages with some introductory information to the history, variety and uses of chillies.

More to come....