THE ROMAN COOKERY OF APICIUS: A TREASURY OF GOURMET RECIPES & HERBAL COOKERY TRANSLATED AND ADAPTED FOR THE MODERN KITCHEN. Edwards, John. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks, c1984. 322pp, cloth, $24.95, ISBN 0-88179-008-7. Distributed by Raincoast. Grades 10 and up Reviewed by Marilyn H. Kogon Volume 13 Number 3 1985 May If you receive reference questions about menus and recipes from the time of Imperial Rome, then this is the book for your library. John Edwards, a west coast teacher, poet, and amateur cook has translated De Re Coquinaria (On Cookery), "a compilation of the secrets of Roman and classical Greek cookery during the reign of the Caesars" and added modern adaptations for 360 recipes. The index provides the best way to find a particular recipe since Apicius's books (chapters) do not always group the recipes as one would expect. To assist the reader in comparing the original recipes and their corresponding adapted versions, both have the same identifying numbers in the margins. The beginning cook should be aware that both versions assume some prior cooking knowledge as neither recipe goes into much detail about cooking terms or the methods of preparation. Besides the recipes, explanatory comments by the author, annotated black-and-white line drawings, and quotations from classical writers such as Pliny and Martial, provide historical asides about various foods and their preparation in classical Roman cuisine. Apicius, a first-century gourmet included ingredients in his recipes from many parts of the Roman empire as well as India, southeast Asia, and China. Most herbs and spices he used such as pepper, cinnamon, and cloves are familiar today. Some less familiar ingredients such as ale-cost, colewort, mastic, and pennyroyal are listed in an appendix with possible substitutes for today's cooks. Other ingredients such as lovage, "a native green herb related to celery, whose seeds, roots and leaves were used by Apicius almost as frequently as pepper" have been almost forgotten except in herbal cookery. One popular condiment in Roman cookery that "was used with great restraint because of its strong taste and its costliness" was called fish-pickle. It was made from the entrails of a mackeral, saturated with salt, parsley, wine, and sweet herbs and then left to sit in the sun until the fish parts liquified resulting in a thick sauce. While the Roman version may sound less than tempting, a modern variation based on canned tuna, salmon, or unsalted sardines is used both as a seasoning and a relish in southeast Asian cookery. For the adventurous cook this book will provide the temptation to try a two-thousand-year-old recipe or perhaps an entire meal from gustatio (hors d'oeuvres) through fercula (prepared dishes) to mensae secundae (desserts). For the armchair historian, it provides a fascinating look at the eating habits of the Roman upper classes. Marilyn H. Kogon, North York P.L, North York, Ont.