In the fourteenth century, French kings prized such fare as peacock, storks and herons. Guillaume Tirel not only cooked these dishes, he left a book on how to do it. Le Viandier has survived in at least four different versions. Now Jim Chevallier has translated the so-called Fifteenth Century version, making it available to recreational medievalists, food historians and students of medieval life.

The "How to Cook a Peacock" series now also includes "How to Cook an Early French Peacock" (from the early medieval period) and "How to Cook a Golden Peacock" (from the same century as Taillevent's work, but decades earlier).