A Late Dinner - Paul Richardson

Acclaimed food and travel writer Paul Richardson first visited Spain as a humble Inter-railer with just enough Spanish phrases to get by. Some years later, following a chance posting to a Madrid food fair, he became hooked on the glorious fusion of old and new at the heart of Spanish culinary culture and decided to move to Spain for good. It was to be the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the country, its culture and its food.

In A Late Dinner, Paul takes an extended journey around Spain to get to the heart of its food and the culture of those who grow and cook it. He depicts the dramatic changes that have gripped Spanish life over the last quarter-century, exploring the extremes of culture and food from the rustic to the avant-garde.

Along the way, Paul gets caught up in bidding fever at a fish auction in the Levante, helps out with the almost ritualistic Matanza (the annual pig slaughter that takes place in many households in rural Spain), spends a day with Ferran Adri at his world-famous elBulli restaurant, and makes a never-ending stream of new friends who often welcome him into their homes to reveal the secrets of traditional domestic dishes. His intriguing expedition takes him from typical Spanish coastal cuisine to the shepherd cooking of the mountains, via the vibrant cities where creativity and innovation are now setting the trend for modern cuisine around the globe.

Paul Richardson's lively, vivid and infectious account takes us beyond the clichs of paella, gazpacho and oranges to tell the real story of the mouth-watering food of Spain and the fascinating patchwork of identities that make up this colourful, tradition-rich country.