David, Elizabeth. Snob-exalted English food writer (1913-1992) and trailblazer of what Alexander Cockburn has called the “cookbook pastoral” voice. Taking an avid interest in Mediterranean and French country cooking in the postwar years, David turned out two masterworks, Italian Food (1954) and French Provincial Cooking (1960), which, though sometimes vague and imprecise in their recipes, neatly evoked a sun-dappled Southern European wonderland of LUSTY, un-gourmet-ish home cookery theretofore unknown to English-reading audiences. To Snobs, a far more important influence than JULIA CHILD (vis-à-vis French cookery) or MARCELLA HAZAN (vis-à-vis Italian cookery).
