La Cuisine Paleolithique

Delteil, Joseph. La Cuisine Paleolithique. [FIRST EDITION] Robert Morel: Le Jas du Revest-Saint-Martin par Forcalquier, France 1964. 8vo (185x140mm) HC oatmeal cloth, red dec bds w/ ring, 108,[4]pp. (photography by Vera Cardot et Pierre Joly) (in French)

DELTEIL, Joseph (1894-1978)

La Cuisine Paléolithique

Le Jas du Revest-Saint-Martin par Forcalquier: Robert Morel, 1964. First Edition. Photography by  Vera Cardot et Pierre Joly.

Octavo (185x140mm) beige/oatmeal heavy cloth/canvas boards, green book cloth end-papers, red initials to cover, blue lettered spine, short ribbon marker with a brass ring, 108,[4]pp. In French. Four black and white photographs.


Canvas boards a trifle soiled & worn; top edges dusty; faint age-toning to top edges of some pages.

Delteil was a French writer and poet, associated with the early French surrealist movements of the 1920s.  After an illness he 'retired' to near Montpellier, Occitane in Southern France and lived the life of a peasant/hermit/writer with his wife. This was apparently his only cookbook amongst a prolific output particularly in his earlier years. 

Morel was a prolific and innovative publisher in South of France during the 1950s and 1960s.  The innovative and striking book design (borrowing on book designs of his wife Odette Ducarre) features the initials of the author on the cover, to imitate a tea towel upon which the cook can wipe his hands before consulting the recipe, and the brass ring allows the book to be hung like a kitchen utensil beside the stove.  The colophon includes instructions on how to house the book - amongst the 'herbes' and 'saucisson' hanging from the ceiling.

A collection of simple recipes meant to illustrate a rebuttal of 'civilisation' and an adoption of the Confucian ideal to live simply.  Delteil evokes the spirit of the paleolithic period with the use of simple kitchen implements, and foraged and local seasonal ingredients.   This is not a manifesto for the current iteration of a 'paleo' diet but rather a call to a return to nature and a recognition of the relationship between nature and simple cuisine; perhaps a reflection on the simple life Delteil had been living since he left Paris over 30 years before.

Winner of the Grand Prix international de littérature gastronomique 1965 awarded by the London Congress of the International Press Federation.