Spain

The cuisines of Spain, oddly, took up more space in Alexandre Dumas’s Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine (1873) than those of any other country except France. But, despite devoting so many pages to the subject, this illustrious writer did not try to convey the complexity and interrelationships of these cuisines; nor did he offer any analysis of their origins. Indeed, the task would have been difficult, if only because Spain includes within its frontiers two other cuisines.

Any notion that there is a shortage of published material about Spanish food and cookery will be at once dispelled by turning to spanish cookery books, where it will be seen that the Spaniards themselves have produced outstanding gastronomic literature and have been pioneers in food history studies.