The late Elizabeth David was the saltiest of food writers, impatient with the world, with others, particularly about the failures of food/cooks. Now Tim Hayward has been given a taste of David’s pungent comments on food writers and cookbooks by the curator of her cookbook collection. Among them…
Inside a copy of The Cooking of Italy (1969) by Waverly Root, much admired US foodwriter, “Waverley Root is a pitiful phoney.”
On the legendary 1969 French book Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point, regarded by a generation of chefs as the bible of modern cuisine: “This is a really awful book.”
And in Ulster Fare, published in 1945 by the Belfast Women’s Institute Club, she found “the most revolting dish ever devised….
Italian salad
1 pint cold cooked macaroni
½ pint cooked or tinned pears
½ pint grated raw carrot
French dressing to moisten
2 heaped tablespoons minced onion
½ pint cooked or minced string beans
Mix the chopped macaroni and vegetables; moisten with French dressing, flavouring with garlic if liked. Serve on a dish lined with lettuce leaves. Decorate with mayonnaise and minced pimento or chives.
