Mortar & pestle options, was Re: SC - Wafers -- and Questions (long)

[Jenne Heise]

Marian Deborah Rosenberg wrote:
> 
> 2.  Can anyone name any other cooks I may wish to consider doing biographical
> research on?

The Mary Ella Millham translation, in hardcover, of Platina, contains a
great deal about his life and times, although as has been pointed out,
he was probably not, himself, a cook. 

You also might want to look at the Hillary Spurling edition of Ledy
Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book. This is kind of late in the
Renaissance, but it does give a lot of biographical information both in
the preface and interspersed with the text.

If you can find it, see Anne Willan's (I _think_) "Great Chefs and Their
Recipes", and Eric Quayle's "Old Cook Books". The former was recently
reprinted, I saw it for sale about a week ago at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art bookshop, the latter is probably available through interlibrary
loan. Both have a lot of biographical info on famous cooks.

For a wonderful fictional account of a day in the life of a cook named,
but who is not necessarily _the_ Maitre Chiquart d'Amiczo, see... um...
one of the Scully books, either "Early French Cookery" or "Food and
Cooking in the Middle Ages", I forget which and am away from my books
right now. I may not even have the titles right, but I can't go checking
my shelves until later. Maybe someone else has this book handy and will
remember the section. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com