Ben Schott

'Peerless in its wit, elegance and silliness. Evening Standard BOOKS OF THE YEARStorm clouds loom over Europe. Treason is afoot in the highest social circles. The very security of the nation is in peril. Jeeves, it transpires, has long been an agent of British Intelligence, but now His Majesty's Government must turn to the one man who can help . . . Bertie Wooster.'A most thrilling return of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster . . . it vibrates with the spirit and the rhythms of his heart.''Remarkably good . . . in its similes, pace and general zing, this yarn is eerily Wodehousian.'

From the mind that brought you Schott''s Original Miscellany comes a collection of vital irrelevance and uncommon knowledge surrounding the worlds of food and drink. Schott''s Food And Drink Miscellany is a snapper up of unconsidered trifles (in both senses of the word) - from food history to cooking terms; cocktail recipes to dining etiquette; grace before meals to after-dinner toasts. What other book can tell you the accepted procedure when drinking from a Loving Cup; which potatoes are best for mashing; how to fold your napkins into a variety of pleasing shapes; the correct technique for lighting a cigar, or a Christmas pudding; or how to make the legendary ''Monster Egg''? Schott''s Food And Drink Miscellany offers all this - and more. It will inform you of the King who served foie gras to his dog; the feast where guests ate in fear of their lives; the socialite who spiked his punch with benzedrine; and the dining club whose members ate their meals in reverse. An ''olla podrida'' of all that is pertinent to wining, dining and socialising, Schott''s Food And Drink Miscellany offers everything for the food-lover, wine-drinker, gastronome and glutton.

La Miscelánea gastronómica de Schott no es un libro de cocina, una carta de vinos, una guía del hogar ni una historia culinaria, es un poco de todo.Sólo en este libro encontrará la forma de cocinar cisne (y por que esta prohibido), como le gustaba el martini a Hemingway, por que los esparragos dan olor a la orina o el modo mas sensato de consumir palomitas en el cine.Ninguna otra guia le contara como se leen las hojas de te, el mejor metodo para hacer aros de humo, la arcana ceremonia del te en la tradicion japonesa, como brindar en Rumania, a que sabe una chinche gigante de agua o la receta del huevo monstruoso.¿Donde, sino en la Miscelanea gastronomica de Schott, encontraria lo que opinaba Harold Wilson de los alimentos enlatados, por que Zeus dormia en un lecho de azafran, al verdadero capitan Birdseye, las ultimas comidas en el corredor de la muerte o el complicado ritual del Copon?La Miscelanea gastronomica de Schott ofrece alimentos para pensar (y tambien pensamientos sobre la comida), tanto al gloton como al tragaldabas, al comilon como al gastronomo [v. p. 103].

"Es muy triste que hoy en día escasee tanto la información inútil." Oscar Wilde"Señor, ¿usted lee los libros por entero?" Samuel Johnson"Fabulosa recopilación de trivialidades esenciales.¡Muchísimas gracias por la Miscelanea original de Schott!" Stephen Fry