The Language of Food

Author: Annabel Abbs
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
‘And it seems to me that the kitchen, with its natural intimacy, is more conducive to friendship and love than any other room in the house.’ Such a tender quote. So what’s not to devour about a book called The Language of Food. In this case a period piece based on the English woman who wrote the first ‘break through’ cook book. And with a classic blue &white tiled cover – a winning fusion.

Blending historical fact with appealing contemporary fiction can’t be easy. A bit like Downtown Abbey meets Masterchef. There’s the responsibility of honouring history but allowing sufficient self-licence to add spice. But for a cook book lover, I would say just a taste of the end result will surely be both satisfying and filling.
The story is based on the real-life Eliza Acton who back in 1845 published Modern Cookery for Private Families. Over 576 pages, it took her ten years to compile. Groundbreaking in that she was the first to list ingredients – a practice used by cookery writers ever since. She had however, the help of the poor but instinctively gifted scullery maid Ann Kirby.  Adding layers to this lasagna are the secrets both women carry – Ann a drunken, mole catching, crippled father, lunatic mother…I won’t divulge Eliza’s bigger secret as it’s only revealed later in the book – but she is also published poet – with a longing. Her lyrical pen infuses her cookery copy. There is also the issue of love… and marriage. Or not.
The recipe descriptions are eye as well as mouth-watering (in some cases) and used as chapter heads: Tea Kettle Broth, Roast Calves Liver with Lemon Pickle, Oxford Punch, Seasoned Gruel, Mauritian Chutney, Swan’s Egg en Salade, Chocolate Almonds, Ginger Candy and Palace Bonbons on Osier Twigs... The tastebuds boggle. It’s also a reminder of how hot, hectic and close-to-the-bone it was in below-stairs kitchens back in the day.
Eliza Acton was extraordinary – a pioneer and role model, albeit with demons as well as culinary devotion. Ann, whose chapters open and close the story (their narrated chapters alternate) although she existed was more a construction of imagination and research. But Annabel Abbs did plenty of research on Eliza’s life and times too – starting with her mother-in-law’s 200 strong cook book collection. Modern Cookery stayed in print for seventy years – and sold 125,000 in the first thirty. Elizabeth David called it ‘the greatest cookery book in our language’. I steal these facts from the fascinating historical and character Notes sections at the back. For the brave there are also some of Miss Eliza’s Recipes – including, bless her, Soup in Haste appended with what she calls Obs. an abbreviation of Observations. Definitely a cook ahead of her time.                       PS just fyi, the acclaimed, later Mrs Beeton plagiarized Eliza’s work shamelessly.