Stalls and carts - whether the vendors lining the ancient Silk Road trading route, the oyster stalls of Roman London, or the Aztec food markets encountered by the Spanish conquistadores - selling indigenous, ready-to-eat snacks have been a feature of city life for millennia. What’s changed is the seriousness with which street cuisine is made, and served.
It's hard to think of anyone who could have created 'The Grammar of Spice' with its seamless weaving of decoration and reference, poetry and history. As a designer, Caz Hildebrand has worked on books by some of the people most responsible for broadening the vocabulary of seasoning in western cooking, notably Yotam Ottolenghi, and Sam and Sam Clark of Moro. And, as we shall see, she has had her own journey through the understanding of global cuisines, which has tied into her own work.