Paul Southey

This is the first publication of his book, it was later (1982) released as The Vegetarian Gourmet Cookbook.

It does have a nice set of ingredients pages at the front, photographs and descriptions of seeds, herbs, pulses, vegetables and fruits. It was 1980 so there is nothing terribly exotic but I love these because they indicate the level of availability in supermarkets and what was new and modern at the time.

There are lots of recipe illustrations, pen drawings in the text and colour photographs of clusters of meals with semi prepared vegetables lying around them. Not sure what the technical term is but at least its better than the ruffled tablecloth and soft focus that was also vogue at the time.

Instructions are straightforward and there are instructions on making the basics like pastry and pasta with drawings to assist.

Some pictures from the book are at http://flickr.com/photos/vegefoodie/sets/72157614570049812/

The back cover describes the author as a photographer, designer and gourmet vegetarian cook par excellence. Strangely for a vegetarian, he went on to publish a later book The Expert Carver: How to Carve Meat, Poultry and Game. So maybe he slipped from the path...… (more)