cover image Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health

Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health

Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Bantam, $32.5 (528pp) ISBN 978-0-553-09608-8

Though many authors have tackled the healthful recipes of the Mediterranean, Jenkins is not simply following a fad. She brings her understanding of the culture, gained through years of living and working in the region, to the task of writing a comprehensive cookbook. Jenkins gives practical advice on how to gradually implement the Mediterranean diet at home, urging us to eat more fruits, grains and vegetables, reduce meat and fat intake, cook with olive oil instead of butter, serve plain bread at every meal to increase consumption of carbohydrates, and--perhaps hardest of all--to set aside time for meals every day, ``building a sense of food as a fundamentally communal, shared experience.'' Jenkins's recipes, though not always inventive, are faithful to the originals and demonstrate her appreciation for the vagaries of cooking well with fresh foodstuffs that may not always yield the same measures. She unfolds the common threads of cuisine that unite the Mediterranean, acknowledging regional variations that lend piquancy. (June)