ON MY BOOKSTAND

The Language of Food

By Annabel Abbs, Simon & Schuster, $38 What’s in it: This is not a cookbook but the extraordinary story of the first writer of modern recipes, Eliza Acton. A poet turned cook and an unconventional woman for her time, Eliza changed the course of cookery writing forever. If you have a passion for food history, equality, the joy of cooking and the poetry of food then you will be captivated by this well-told story.