Introduction

In talking about her first visit to France, M.F.K. Fisher said that there are places where we feel more at ease in our skin.” That was how I felt when I went to study in Italy. I was “home.” I enjoyed the leisurely meal, the extended coffee hours, the gossip at the market and wine shops. Sitting in village squares in Greece, Turkey, Spain, France, surrounded by the architecture of the past and present, I felt I always would belong in the Mediterranean, where art and life were inseparable.

To say that Mediterranean food is the food of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, and the Middle East is to play geography and list the names of nations on a map. It doesn’t tell you much about the tastes and aromas of the place. The Mediterranean is more than a place on the map. It is a state of mind.