Maltese cooking

Abstract

Elizabeth David, one of the present-day great cooks, describes the cooking of the Mediterranean shores of which she is an expert as "honest cooking with none of the sham Grand Cuisine of Grand Hotels - a blend of tradition and improvisation", whilst Ruskin wrote that 'cookery means carefulness inventiveness, watchfulness and willingness; the economy of one's great-grandmother and a traditional hospitality". This could have been written of Maltese cooking. Thrift and care predominate in the Maltese kitchen. Recipes are not spectacular, rich or highly flavoured; ingredients are simple within most people's reach, material found in a country garden, small farm· or a little market. But it is heartwarming, appetising genuine food which lingers in the memory. Few dishes are altogether of rustic or peasant origin and many show middle class skill and pride in appetising vegetable dishes and excellent sauces. [excerpt]