Author’s Preface to the Fourth Edition

Not only is this the fourth edition of Goose Fat and Garlic but in celebration of the twenty years since it first appeared on the shelves of bookshops here and in France, my publisher has kindly agreed to my adding some more recipes. These have come our way over these years and I have grown fond of all of them.

There has been an enormous improvement in the standard of living in the countryside of the South West though paradoxically this has not led to a taste for haute cuisine or international cooking. Instead it has brought about an increase in popularity of the dishes of the terroir like, for example, l’Aligot which was almost unknown in the sixties and seventies but which today is staple fare at practically every country fête and is on the menu of many local restaurants in the Aveyron and Lot departments. Cassoulet which used to feature at only a few of Toulouse’s restaurants has similarly emerged as a traditional South West dish, to be found all over southern France, though not always up to standard I have to say!