This is an exploration of cookery in the Mediterranean region before Columbus returned from America, bringing in his wake tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, peppers, corn and chillies. The author, an Australian food-writer and historian, describes the evolution of Mediterranean cooking, drawing on Catalan and Italian manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries, and interprets their recipes for the modern cook. with rose petals, stuffed sardines, and chicken in pomegranate juice, with not one sun-dried tomato in view.