Book Review – One More Croissant for the Road – Felicity Cloake

Felicity Cloake is a British food columnist who has written many books based around food. The is her first piece of writing of food and travel writing. It is a wonderful, witty food memoir and travelogue. It follows her 2,300 km bicycle journey across France over 21 stages to find the true origins of classic regional dishes, all while scoring local croissants out of ten.

Each chapter ends with distance travelled in that area, croissant rating, a High and a Low –

Stage 9 Bayonne to Pau

Km: 133.1 Croissants 1 (7/10)
High: that cold glass of sweet wine in a warm restaurant
Low : Being sprayed in the face with sheep dung

I liked the fact it is so honest about the steep climbs, heavy rain, sudden closures of places and the long days on a bike. The book also focuses on food, as she hunts down regional dishes from cassoulet to tarte tatin. Her ongoing quest to rate the ultimate French croissant is a theme throughout the book. For anyone who is interested the chapters include recipes to try. I certainly WON’T be trying the croissant recipe out! Only 4 pages of instructions!!!!!!!!!!!

Since writing this she has published 2 more books about cycling across countries in the pursuit of food which I intend to read.  Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey and Peach Street to Lobster Lane: Coast to Coast in Search of Real American Cuisine.

The Tauranga Library has copies of One More Croissant for the Road as well as Red Sauce Brown Sauce. There are many interviews to listen to on Spotify of her journeys and are very similar in style to her writing.

Thanks to Anne M for this great review.