Grigson opened her 1974 work, "English Food" with "English cooking—both historically and in the mouth—is a great deal more varied and delectable than our masochistic temper in this matter allows". On reading the book, Roger Baker, reviewing in "The Times", described Grigson as "probably the most engaging food writer to emerge during the last few years" he thought the book had "a sense of fun, a feeling for history, a very readable style and a love of simple, unaffected cooking". "The Times" later described "English Food" as being "a work to set alongside Elizabeth David's books on French and Italian cuisine". Holt records that with the book, "Grigson had become a crusader for the oft-maligned cooking of the British Isles" she became an early critic of battery farming and passionate about the provenance of food. The same year, Grigson was a contributor to "The World Atlas of Food". The book was described by the food writer Elizabeth Ray as "by its nature both expensive and superficial", and by Baker as containing "hectic catch-lines on every page ... a thinness in the writing".