The book is based on a series of articles written by Jane Grigson for the Observer Colour Magazine, which she herself described as "the series I have most enjoyed writing in eleven years at the Observer. The excuse to re-read favourite novels, look again at favourite painters, visit places associated with them, spend hours in collections of letters and in journals.., gave me a chance of relating cookery to life beyond the kitchen. Which is what in the end, I think cookery should do."

In this fascinating work she takes eleven famous women and men and explores their culinary lives, giving the reader a chance to cook and share some of the meals they themselves enjoyed. She starts her exploration with the great diarist, gardener and traveller John Evelyn and continues chronologically, showing the development of cookery, to Parson Woodforde, Jane Austen and Sydney Smith to Thomas Jefferson, Lord and Lady Shaftesbury, Alexander Dumas, Zola, Proust and Monet.