Elizabeth David: A Life in Recipes

Filed in archive People Who Cook on January 18, 2006

I don't intend to put up a food gossip weblog but how can I avoid posting about this? Well, I can post without being gossipy but... but... but...

Late I was as usual! Hmph! I didn't catch it earlier but the BBC's drama Elizabeth David: A Life in Recipes definitely piqued my interest!

Touted as "arguably the most influential cookery writer of the past century" who greatly inspired Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Elizabeth David was the original domestic goddess. Intriguing! The Independent Online has this to say: "Elizabeth David: And you thought Nigella was sexy... She brought olive oil and garlic to Britain, but the very private life of Elizabeth David was even spicier than the recipes in her books."

From a debutante to an actress to running off with a married man for lover and surviving World War II in the Mediterranean - what a life! Back in the UK, she had reinvented the British diet and food writing in just 15 years. Almost humanly impossible!

Suffering a stroke at 49 did not deter her from working on many magazine articles for the next two decades and a half. She was even responsible for making Le Creuset extending their range of colours on their cookware.

There are some racy morsels and that incident about refusing to meet MFK Fisher. What a life! I can't wait to see if I can catch this drama on another schedule.

I'll definitely try her recipes. Perhaps I should also get the book Writing at the Kitchen Table : The Authorized Biography of Elizabeth David.

Elizabeth David photo from the UK Food Standards Agency