David emphasised the importance to cooks of careful and knowledgeable shopping for ingredients. She wrote chapters about French markets such as those at Cavaillon, Yvetot, Montpellier, Martigues and Valence. Despite a widespread perception that her view of food was essentially Mediterranean, "French Provincial Cooking", by far her longest book to date, surveyed the cuisine of France from Normandy and the Île-de-France to Alsace, Burgundy, the Loire, Bordeaux and the Basque Country, as well as the south. Looking at the entire field of cookery books, Jane Grigson regarded this as "the best and most stimulating of them all".