It is now six years since the first appearance of this Companion and had Alan Davidson still lived, he would have been more anxious than anyone to undertake the necessary corrections and additions for a revised edition. That he did not is an upset universally regretted, so it falls to me, in co-operation with his widow Jane Davidson and his former assistant and colleague Helen Saberi, to attempt to fulfil, and in some cases to presume upon his wishes in this regard.
Companions are hybrids. They combine the authority and definition that belong to encyclopedias and dictionaries with the individual voice and enthusiasm of the compiler. They are meant to be trusty friends on a journey of intellectual discovery, not merely a last resort for the doubtful. Any revision, therefore, must guard against losing the personality of the original while bearing in mind the need for accuracy or for adjustment in the light of changing circumstances. Changes there have been in the last six years – perhaps food studies and food matters have suffered more tumultuous change than many fields of endeavour in recent times – but the time has not yet come for a complete overhaul of Alan Davidson’s incomparable work.
This revision has been undertaken with these thoughts in mind. Alan’s entries have not been rewritten or otherwise edited except to take into account new knowledge or identifiable error. His jokes have not been excised, nor his idiosyncratic take on certain subjects thrown out in favour of a more measured or encyclopedic approach.
While correcting mistakes in the existing text, we have also taken the opportunity to add a number of new entries (in fact, seventy-two of them) to reflect in some small part the developments of recent years. In choosing the topics and style of these contributions, we have tried not to stray too far from Alan’s original matrix: he deplored too great an emphasis on doom; he strove valiantly to accord equal status to all cultures and nations; he was anxious to avoid the sophisms of western gastronomy and epicureanism; he eschewed the arid and exclusive language of academic discourse.
Tom Jaine