The main text is in eight sections, with the titles "At home in England" "At home in France" "Charcuterie", "The Mediterranean", "The Europeans", "The Americas", "India and the Far East" and "Treats and celebrations". There are recipes from writers of the past such as Eliza Acton, Hannah Glasse, Maria Rundell and Auguste Escoffier, and contemporaries including Elizabeth David, Richard Olney, Julia Child, Alice Waters, Antonio Carluccio and Grigson's daughter Sophie. The recipes are interspersed with Grigson's customary historical background information: there are appearances by Lord Byron, Chaucer, Casanova, Louis XIV, and Evelyn, Sydney Smith and others from "Food with the Famous".