Definitely a cookbook with a difference, Once Upon a Chicken Pie and other food tales comprises a collection of stories around the food, personalities and occasions that inspired the featured recipes. Based on the travels of authors Johan de Villiers and Len Straw through Greece, Morocco, Turkey, South Africa, Zanzibar and the US, and reflecting their love of the unusual, the funny, the whimsical and great food, each chapter is named after a traditional nursery rhyme with a relevant food theme. This cookbook travelogue is liberally peppered with an array of mementos in the form of travel snaps, maps and some original handwritten recipes to accompany the food photography. Johan is a raconteur par excellence and, together with Len, brings the tales to life with recipes that will delight even the most jaded of armchair cooks (and travellers) and entice them into the kitchen.