"Throughout the history of civilisation, food has been more than simple necessity. In countless cultures, it has been livelihood, status symbol, entertainment - and passion."
So goes the announcement that Penguin Books is launching its Great Food series on April 7, with a line-up that extends beyond today's chorus of usual suspects and delves into the recipes, travel, fictitious diversions and historical cul-de-sacs of great food writing.
The 20 books span four centuries: Claudia Roden's nostalgia laden evocation of a food culture scattered by migration; Parmesan-loving Pepys' diarising of his excesses in the taverns and oyster bars of Stuart London; and Elisabeth David's hugely influential meanderings through the sun-ripened flavours of the Med sit alongside home cooks, gastronomes and novelists.
You'll find stiff upper lip meets British eccentricity in Colonel Wyvern's Notes from Madras and Alice Walters, founder of the iconic Chez Panisse - the forerunner of organic, well-sourced localism and the 'fusion' aesthetic of California cuisine - celebrating the pleasure of cooking fresh food with a light touch. Elsewhere, New Yorker journalist Calvin Trillin writes with great humour and affection about the unsung, sous-vide-free pleasures of American cuisine, and early pioneer of a British culinary sensibility, Hannah Glasse, describes plain, fuss free menus that would make a Georgian Fergus Henderson proud in Everlasting Syllabub and the Art of Carving.
With summer on its way, it's the printed word that's likely to survive the sand longer than your average digital device. For a moveable feast of serious, feature length food writing, there are magazines like London-based Tim Hayward's Fire & Knives, Edward Behr's inimitable The Art of Eating and The New Yorker's food issues.
In June and July, a promising crop of cookbooks will be hitting the shelves. From Jacob Kenedy - a chef with a publishing pedigree, not to mention the hugely popular restaurant Bocca di Lupo and gelateria/deli, Gelupo - comes Bocca: Cookbook. Restaurateurs Sam and Eddie Hart have collaborated with Nieves Barragan Mohacho, executive head chef of their Fino and Barrafina tapas bars, on Barrafina: A Spanish Cookbook; and Anna Hansen's The Modern Pantry - named after her Clerkenwell restaurant - promises to share a few secrets from her eclectic kitchen.
Finally - and perhaps one for the lab more than the beach, Nathan Myhrvold's self published Modernist Cuisine is a 1500-plus recipe, six volume encylopedic look at "the art and science of cooking." A labour of love - and plenty of money - it takes culinary scholarship and photography to entirely new levels. Bon appétit!