Ana Parilla Arevalo, home cook in El Higueral, La Subbética

At eighty, she is as sharp as a pin, knows exactly what is going on in the world (thank you TV), and recites precise recipes to me off the top of her head. Her accent and locution speed are extraordinary, a kind of garbled mountain andaluz that even confounds my Spanish friends from the north. It took me a while to realize that both she and her husband, Andrés, are illiterate, having grown up during the Franco era, when rural education was not a priority, yet that hardly cramps their style.