''The Oxford Companion to Food'' is an

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

about

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

. It was edited by Alan Davidson and published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 1999. It was also issued in softcover under the name ''The Penguin Companion to Food''. The second and third editions were edited by Tom Jaine and published by Oxford in 2006 and 2014. The book, Davidson's ''magnum opus'' with "more than a million words, mostly his own", covers the nature and history of foodstuffs worldwide, starting from

aardvark Aardvarks ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') are medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammals native to Africa. Aardvarks are the only living species of the family Orycteropodidae and the order Tubulidentata. They have a long proboscis, similar to a pi ...

and ending with zuppa inglese. It is compiled with especially strong coverage of European and in particular British cookery and contains no

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish (food), dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main r ...

s. It was an "outgrowth" of the annual Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. The entry for this work in

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

includes the following abstract: Major articles are signed and include bibliographic references, and there is a comprehensive overall bibliography. Some of the material in it was previously published in Davidson's '' Petits Propos Culinaires''.

Editions

* * * (later reprints) * *

Reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called the book "a masterly work with a variety of voices, from the straightforward, almost dry, to the quirky and the witty" and a work "dense with extremely thorough and well-written entries, enhanced by cross-references and indexes and larded with anecdotes and strong opinions." The

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

recognized ''The Oxford Companion to Food'' with an Honorable Mention in the

Dartmouth Medal The Dartmouth Medal of the American Library Association is awarded annually to a reference work of outstanding quality and significance, published during the previous calendar year. The Medal was designed by Rudolph Ruzicka. History Dartmouth Co ...

competition for 2000, as well as inclusion as one of its ''Outstanding reference sources 2000'' by the Reference Sources Committee of the Reference and User Services Association (RULA). In May 2000, it received a

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

as best reference work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oxford Companion To Food, The 1999 non-fiction books Books about food and drink Encyclopedias of culture and ethnicity English-language encyclopedias English non-fiction books Oxford University Press reference books Penguin Books books