ELIZABETH DAVID
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Elizabeth David 26 December 1913 - 22 May 1992 |
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| Elizabeth David brought exciting new recipes and a love of food to Britain largely from the Mediterranean. Britain’s food had suffered under post war rationing and was in desperate need of spicing up. David had travelled extensively from an early age starting at the Sorbonne in Paris later to Antibes, Corsica, Italy, Greece, Crete, Egypt, Morocco and for eight months in India. She is famous for being largely responsible for the introduction of olive oil, garlic, saffron, pasta and aubergines to name few, to our northern waters which although scarce to begin with became more common. Her writing started in the late 1940’s and she wrote articles for newspapers and magazines, then the publisher John Lehmann offered her a hundred pound advance for her first book "Mediterranean Food" published in 1950. Her writing continued with "French Country Cooking" in 1951, whilst rationing was still in force, for a time even potatoes had been rationed. During those days her writing might have been read as escapist literature. But infact her elegant and evocative style and lucid recipes gave confidence to a generation of cooks to do better with what they had. French Country Cooking introduces the reader to a wide variety of recipes from simple peasant soups to chocolate mousse. |
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Later she spent eight months in Italy researching “Italian food” the book was published in 1954 and illustrated by Renato Guttuso. It has been reprinted in 1996 by Barrie and Jenkins with many wonderful illustrations. To Italians it is scarcely possible to talk of "Italian Cooking" rather there are specialty dishes from all different areas; Florentine cooking, Venetian cooking, dishes of Genoa and Naples. David discovered "Trenette col Pesto " which she claimed as the best dish in the whole of Italy ! |
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"Summer cooking " consolidated her position as the foremost cookery writer of her day and was published in 1955. Recipes for hors d'oeuvre, soup, fish, eggs, meat, poultry, vegetables, salads are collected from many sources and countries there are special sections on picnics and holiday food. A Provencal picnic described by Ford Maddox Ford in 1938 was one of heroic proportions: " Sixty one bottles of wine were consumed by sixteen adults.... a hundred weight of bouillabaisse, twelve cocks stewed in wine..... a salad in a dish as large as a cartwheel ! " She describes that some picnic addicts even go to the troble of "visiting the site of their intended picnic some days beforehand and there burying the champagne" ! But picnics do not have to be lavish affairs and simple Bacon and Lettuce sandwiches with a bottle of Chianti can do the trick !
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She is well known for her articles on food and she had a regular column in Vogue. These journalistic articles along with yet unpublished writing and extracts from letters she wrote have been compiled into the books “An Omelette and a Glass of Wine” and its sequel “Is There a Nutmeg in the House “. “South Wind Through the Kitchen” is an anothology from David’s nine books. Many of the pieces in this book have been chosen by her family and friends and by the chefs and writers she inspired. |
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Her recipes are scattered with interesting anecdotes, ardent opinions and character analysis regarding the people she met on her travels. David's account of the Robertots, the Parisian family with whom she lodged while studying at the Sorbonne: "Denise, the only able-bodied daughter, was the greediest girl I had ever seen. She worked as secretary to a world-famous Parisian surgeon and came home every day to the midday meal ... Munching through two helpings of everything she would entertain us to gruesome details of the operations performed by her employer." Her often provocative and fairly outspoken articles changed the outlook of English Cookery books, one can become distracted by the recipes and absorbed by irresistible anecdotes, for example her view of an untraditional Christmas in "Elizabeth David's Christmas "is as follows: |
“ If I had my way – and I shan’t – my Christmas day eating and drinking would consist of an omlette and cold ham and a nice bottle of wine at lunch time, and a smoked salmon sandwich with a glass of champagne on a tray in bed in the evening. This lovely selfish anti-gorging, un Christmas dream of hospitality, either given or taken, must be shared by thousands of women who know it’s all Lombard Street to China orange that they’ll spend both Christmas Eve and Christmas morning peeling, chopping, mixing, boiling, roasting, steaming. That they will eat and drink too much, that someone will say the turkey isn’t quite as good as last year, of discovery that the rum for the pudding has been forgotten, that by the time lunch has been washed up and put away it’ll be tea-time, not to say drink or dinner time, and tomorrow it’s the weekend and it’s going to start all over again. “ |
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Above all her recipes stand the test of time and are infact easier to produce now than they were when ingredients such as garlic and olive oil was scarce. She insists that recipes should be simple, there is a tendancy to over complicate and she approvingly quotes Escoffier: "Two of the most valuable words he ever wrote were these: Faites simples ... They mean, I think, the avoidance of all unnecessary complication and elaboration." This is an example of one of her many simple recipes: |
FAVE AL GUANCIALE Put the chopped onion to melt in the heated butter. Add the chopped bacon. After a few minutes add the shelled broad beans. Simmer for 5 minutes. Barely cover with water. Cook gently for 15-20 minutes.Add salt if necessary and a little pepper. A favourite Roman dish. |
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In 1965 she opened her Kitchen shop, during which time she privately published some booklets of recipes which were sold through the shop. " Syllabubs and Fruit Fools" and English Potted Meats and Fish Pastes. She also produced catalogues of the kitchen items she she had for sale such as the sought after Le Creuset pans. |
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In her later years she concentrated on the work of "Harvest of the Cold Months" which was originally instigated by her fascination of ice cream and the use of ice. This was published posthumously by Jill Norman. " Bread and Yeast " published in 1978 deals with all aspects of flour milling, yeast, bread ovens and the different types of bread and flour available. The recipes cover yeast cookery of all kinds, and the many lovely, old fashioned spiced breads, buns, pancakes and muffins. David's final work is a meticulously researched piece of social history. " Harvest of the Cold Months" travels from sixteenth century Italian Medici banquets to France's Sun King; snow pits and ice houses in Persia , influences from India and China, trade with Boston and the growth of the ice cream trade in London. This last work has been sensitively and skillfully edited by Jill Norman, David's literary trustee. |
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Lisa Chaney's " A Mediterranean Passion " brings together a picture of a deeply complex woman and demonstrates the inextricable links between David's life and work. "Writing at the Kitchen Table" is David's second authorised biography. ArtemAis Cooper reveals the powerful tensions between David's private world and the image of the successful woman she presented to her public. A story that even some of her closest friends never knew. Above all, these biographies demonstrate that Elizabeth David was not only an independant lady who had travelled the world but a lady who retaught the English how to understand and celebrate authentic, simple food. Elizabeth David has been an inspiration and a source of knowlege to so many in the past and present and no doubt will continue to be so in the future. Every kitchen should house one of her books !
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Many of her books have been republished in many forms. The Elizabeth David Classics is a particularly useful volume and contains Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking and Summer Cooking. However, the early editions with wrappers are increasingly scarce especially in good condition. Please do not hesitate to contact us. We can always help search for particlar titles. |
| A Book of Mediterranean Food – Illustrated by John Minton | 1950 |
| French Country Cooking - Illustrated by John Minton | 1951 |
| Italian Food | 1954 |
| Summer Cooking | 1955 |
| French Provincial Cooking | 1960 |
| Spices Salts and Aromatics in the English Kitchen | 1970 |
| An Omelette and a Glass of Wine | 1984 |
| English Bread and Yeast Cookery | 1977 |
| Elizabeth David’s Classics (Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking, Summer Cooking) | 1980 |
| Harvest of the Cold Months | 1994 |
| South Wind Through the Kitchen The Best of Elizabeth David | 1998 |
| Is there a Nutmeg in the House ? | 2000 |
| Elizabeth David’s Christmas | 2003 |