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Synopsis
Eliza Acton is the forgotten hero of our culinary past. A debt of gratitude to her is what Delia Smith, Elizabeth David and Mrs Beeton have in common. She was the original and best: the first cook to write recipes in a clear, modern format, one of the few Victorian ladies whose legacy has lasted well into the twenty-first century and whose recipes are still used in thousands of kitchens today. In this absorbing first biography, Sheila Hardy creates a richly painted narrative of how a young woman produced the first cookery book for general use and changed history. She provides a rich background to Eliza’s success, not only as the little-known mother of modern cookery, but as a poet and a campaigner for healthy eating. She introduced us to curry, chorizo and gluten-free diets 150 years before they became fashionable. She knew Charles Dickens, and her family life was possibly an inspiration for several of his plots. She had a fascinating career, and this brilliantly researched biography is a must for anyone interested in food and cookery, or simply as an insight into the life of a modern lady who was years ahead of her time. Foreword by Delia Smith
The Guardian, feature 31st December 2011
"a much championed but unknowable cookery pioneer…anyone who wants to be in the kitchen cool gang knows that the name to drop is Acton…Beeton lifting scores of ‘receipts’ from Acton’s Modern Cookeryfor Pivate Families, stitching them into her own Book of Household Management as if they had emerged from her own steamy kitchen….Beeton pinched the recipes – along with those of scores of other writers….. an appealing picture of a clever, witty woman who wrote in a rigorous way about food…so much more than Mrs Beeton.”
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