BOOK SHELF

How to Eat a Peach (Hachette RRP$44.99) is the 10th book from much-awarded UK food writer Diana Henry. A series of menus, they have has been compiled according to season, some inspired by places the author has visited, others by the main ingredient, and all introduced with stories of the trips and memories that inspired their creation. The hardback cover feels fuzzy, just like a peach, and the title? In Italy for the first time in her 20s, the author watched diners in a restaurant eating white peaches after a meal: they would dip slices of the fruit into glasses of cold Moscato, finishing their dessert by drinking the now-infused wine. It was a symbol, she writes, of what good food is all about — the caring of small seemingly unimportant things. The technique (hardly a recipe) appears on page 111, the finale of an elegant summer dinner menu.