The truth is, pedantry and non-pedantry can cut both ways. A pedant may vary from a dogged, uninquisitive, cloth-palated follower of orders to a devotee bent on doing everything right; while a non-pedant might be a simply lazy-bones or someone airy-fairily ‘creative’ in the worst, self-applauding way, or someone of justified confidence who has mastered technique and heard all the secret harmonies of the kitchen. I don’t necessarily prefer being cooked for by a pedant; but I do have deep fellow-feeling for what is going on around the stove and inside the head.

The Pedant in the Kitchen, by Julian Barnes, was a wonderful Christmas gift that I devoured a week or so back but could not find the time before now to share.

My rating: 5 out of 5

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