Reviews for Gypsy Feast : Recipes and Culinary Traditions of the Romany People

The average rating for Gypsy Feast : Recipes and Culinary Traditions of the Romany People based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-29 00:00:00 Worth Mizell I really hate it when books try to be more than one thing; cookbooks in particular. In Gypsy Feast, Wilson gives us both a premis on Romani history and then supplies a number of quite excellent recipies that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the topic at hand. Wilson is a food author, with many other titles under her belt. She grew up in England and states right in the Preface, that she has been inspired to make a book like this, since she was about 10 and watched the carvans arrive in the summer. She bothers to include a bibliography at the back. It only covers the Roma related topics, and these sources are all significantly dated. Unfortunately, because this isn’t an academic text, there is no real need for citations, but expectations do go up when you supply a bibliography. Citing “one old Roma man” (pg. 79) does not entirely lend credence to anything and some of her historical points would hold more weight if she pointed to the source. Also, the majority of her sources, and her first hand experience are British related, and she makes the mistake of alluding that the whole Roma community are much as the British Roma. When she discusses the types of herbs, nuts, fruits & game that can be found by those who may still be mainly itinerant, she excels. The info is good, to the point and she makes warnings about toxicity and allergies. However, when she tries to pin recipie choices to descriptions of Roma weddings, funerals, births and/or religion, the broad brush strokes are back and the generalization gets to be a bit much. Am I expecting too much from a cookbook? Likely. However, having been a long standing member of the Gypsy Lore Society, I recognize that it is really easy for Roma to be discriminated against when the opportunity arises. Wilson wasn’t trying to do this at all, but her book does come across as somewhat patronizing of a quaint society while taking advantage of what still exists as the “exotic Gypsy” stereotype. On the good side; many of the recipies are really quite good and likely worth trying. Unfortunate that she had to muddy them with all the rest of the text.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-07 00:00:00 Jacqueline Popen False