Gourmets and Spanish food historians have long known about the eighteenth-century Franciscan friar, Juan Altamiras, who published a cookbook documenting the then-current state of Spanish cooking. Immediately popular, it ran through several editions even before Altamiras’ death. Hayward has performed an estimable service to the Anglophone world by translating and annotating the original text, making available this seminal work at a time when today’s innovative Spanish chefs have brought their native cuisine to the world stage. Altamiras renders his recipes more as general techniques, assuming readers skilled in kitchen traditions and ready to cope with the absence of precise measures and temperatures offered by today’s kitchen technologies. Hayward’s notes make these antique recipes a bit more accessible. She notes that Altamiras was concerned that his recipes not only tasted good but also succored the sick and infirm. Such insightful glosses bring to life this remarkable and talented friar’s achievement.

Booklist

Vicky Hayward, an independent researcher, has done a remarkably good job at not only introducing Altamiras to an English-speaking audience but in providing a thorough and erudite commentary on Altamiras, his cooking, and the times in which he lived.The format Hayward has chosen ... works perfectly in contemplating the difficulty of translating 18th century culinary Spanish into not only the translation of the recipe as originally written, but in transforming it into a modern recipe that could be cooked in today’s kitchens, and, most importantly, providing a commentary to better understand Altamiras’s original intent and the historical connections and milieu of his writing. This is an admirable achievement.... Hayward’s impressive and important achievement is so not only because of the historical importance of this work but for a deeper understanding of Spain’s culinary patrimony. It is a contribution to culinary history in general, and like all such historical cookbooks, a delicious way to taste history. This book is highly recommended.

New York Journal of Books

Author Vicky Hayward has added considerable value to her translation by giving guidelines for today's cooks (from experienced chefs) and interweaving the story of eighteenth-century Spanish life, its traditions and culture. It's well done, retaining the spirit and style of the original and making it accessible for the modern cook.

Bookbag

What Hayward finds most surprising about Altamiras’s writing is its familiar tone. He begins the book with a friendly confidence. . . .And then he continues with completely contemporary advice. . . . Hayward means for the dishes to be cooked in contemporary kitchens. . . . Her headnotes offer cooking advice and historical context and so they toggle between Altamiras’s original versions and Hayward’s updated versions for contemporary cooks…. Altamiras is an engaging kitchen companion. . . he is clearly proud of a well-cooked dish.

CHoW Line

New Art is unlike any English cookbook I have come across from the 18th century. Not only are the recipes simple but they utilise ingredients our homegrown cooks shied away from during this time (like tomatoes and garlic). The result is flavoursome food which it is hard to conceive monks would have eaten. Hayward provides a translation of Altamiras’ original recipe which is often followed by a little commentary on how this relates to modern Spanish food (and sometimes a wine recommendation, which is always a nice touch in my opinion). Hayward then provides an adaption of Altamiras’s recipe, therefore removing the hassle of trying to decipher the archaic language, terms and vague measurements used by 18th century cooks. Not only is this book fascinating but it contains recipes you really will want to cook – the descriptions alone are enough to make your mouth water.

Comfortably Hungry

This beautifully written book is a text for us all, full of good things to cook and eat, and like a fat historical novel, evocative of old ways and new horizons, with a likeable enigmatic personality at its core.

Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food