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Buoyed by unprecedented economic wealth and abundance, the contemporary culinary scenes in the United States and Great Britain feature fresh ingredients and wines from around the globe almost as a routine matter.

Yet, not so very long ago, from 1945 through as late as the 1980s, the cooking norm in predominantly English-speaking nations featured frozen, canned and processed foods along with wines of often indifferent quality, especially on our fair shores.

During that time food and wine writer Elizabeth David stood out as a champion for a culinary renaissance centered on fresh, authentic ingredients and well-made, distinctive wines. Some of David's most engaging articles and most witty and, at times, withering criticisms are conveniently collected in "An Omelette and A Glass of Wine" (Lyons and Burford, 1997).

Born in 1913 into a traditional English upper-middle-class childhood, replete with a nanny and family cook, Elizabeth David grew up eating classic beef dishes, potted meats and puddings. She had a rather star-crossed love life early on and through a series of relationships ended up spending the 1930s and World War II years in the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Those experiences resulted in a profound and indelible transformation of her tastes.

In her essay "Fast and Fresh," she noted, "The only stores I had to bother about when I lived in a small seashore village on an Aegean Island were bread, olive oil, olives, salt fish, hard white cheese, dried figs, tomato paste, rice, dried beans, sugar, coffee and wine ... the diet was certainly limited, but at least presented none of the meal planning problems which ... plague the better-off English housewife."

She supplemented the basics with fresh local vegetables such as lentils and onions, fresh fruits such as lemons and oranges, and the occasional fresh lamb or tuna. With such simple but high quality ingredients on hand, David promoted confidence in the kitchen. "So long as I have a supply of elementary fresh things ... I (can) always provide the main part of an improvised meal."

Through the years David expanded her culinary tastes to cuisines of France, Italy and Spain and produced evocative pieces vividly recreating the smells, flavors, people, sights, markets, restaurants and fundamental "feel" of the countrysides, seasides, and cities that served her muse. Essays on a market sojourn on a late October afternoon in the countryside outside of Barcelona ("Para Navidad"), the delights of enjoying tiny fresh mussels in Brittany ("Fruits de Mer"), and the discovery of the dessert wines of Beaumes de Venise in the southern Rhône ("Golden Delicious") are superb. Her recipes for Provençal pizza, called Pissaladière, and Florentine Fennel with Parmigianno-Reggiano cheese are also particularly excellent.

An unpretentious, self-effacing, yet confidently assured style shines through page after page. As John Thorne writes in the introduction, "Few food writers are so relentlessly anti-autobiographical ... she plays down her own presence to allow the dishes to speak for themselves."

David did not, however, suffer culinary fools and charlatans lightly. Several of the essays are hilarious, yet pointed sendups of corporate public relations strategists pitching the latest tinned sausages or powdered recipes to post war cooks in England. She relentlessly insisted that the nation, as a whole, could do much better with fresh ingredients as the key to true enjoyment of food and wine.

Today, David's refreshingly original prose and her essential messages and themes still ring true especially in light of complicated, often pretentious recipes -- the equivalent of food "pornography" -- so common in many glossy food publications. Most wine publications follow suit with a fixation on numerical ratings of wines replacing a focus on the pure enjoyment of pairing wines with food. No doubt David would have had a field day poking holes in such pomposity.

In the essay that lends its name to the book's title, David perhaps best summarizes her at once simple, yet uncompromising approach to food and wine: "As a wine drinker but not a wine expert one's tastes are constantly changing. But one of the main points about the enjoyment of food and wine seems to me to lie in having what you want when you want it and in the particular combination you fancy."

In tribute to David and her unbridled joy in eating, drinking and simply being alive, try the following wines with the simple recipe for Aïoli (Provencal Garlic Mayonnaise) -- that follows:

2003 Château des Hautes Ribes, Vacqueyras, France (Specialty 20223, $12.99): This is a classic rustic blend of ripe, robust Grenache with dollops of Syrah and Mourvèdre that offers peppery aromas of raspberry and black pepper with herbal hint, opening to warm, fruity flavors of ripe berries and smoky, herbal nuances. The moderate tannins and good acidity provide fine balance. Recommended.

2001 Château Cabrières, Châteaunuef-du-Pape, France (Specialty 5861, $23.39): The dark purple color exudes concentrated aromas of ripe berries with notes of earthiness, smoked meats, and thyme and rosemary, followed by lush flavors of berries with nuance of rosemary and smoked meats, balanced by lively acidity and smooth tannins. The wine packs 14 percent alcohol. Recommended.

Aïoli (Provençal Garlic Mayonnaise)

• 8 to 10 cloves of organic garlic, preferably "heirloom" garlic
• 4 egg yolks, at room temperature
• Coarse sea salt, to taste
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Peel the garlic cloves and mince them in a food processor. Add the egg yolks, salt and cayenne pepper to the food processor and blend with the garlic to make a paste. Slowly add the olive oil until the Aïoli reaches a creamy texture. Blend in the lemon juice and black pepper. Serve with toasted baguette slices and strips of red pepper.

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