Mary Mowbray

I thoroughly enjoyed this little book. Having cooked only for family and friends and being born even before Gay Bilson, I’ve lived through many stages of food preparation. My parents pre War living on five acres of virgin bush and having built a small house, cut the trees to build fences for a cow, dug a well for water, cut wood to light a fire for cooking and warmth, sifted the soil and removed ironstone rocks and pebbles to grow vegetables, acquired ten fruit trees, built pens for poultry and two pigs. My mother, Australian born created nutritious meals, having harvested vegetables, cut wood for stove, milked the cow, pumped water from a tank, with no electricity, all done efficiently considering pre marriage she lived with parents with all mod cons and had worked as a Secretary. I married an Englishman whose passion was cooking while my experience had been digging up the potatoes and picking spinach, please dear. And gathering kindling to start the stove. In time I learnt much from my husband’s culinary efforts and we gathered cookbooks and worked together creating meals for our growing family and friends. Horses appeared which meant acquiring land and manure and citrus fruit and veggies and eggs. Our go to books were Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the Time Life set of Cooking books from Italy, France, Scandinavia. My husband had been in the British Merchant Navy during the war and apparently learnt much by hanging around the kitchens. So I thank him for teaching me so much about taste, texture, colour, experimentation of new foods. My present favourite culinary teachers are Nigel Slater, Alice Waters, Stephanie Alexander, those who really understand food. Gay Bilson talked about cookbooks that had more to say about pretty table settings than the actual history and use of certain foods. I was drawn into argument with a Dutch friend who asked me about a parsnip and what can you do with it ….. she said root vegetables are what you feed to cattle. And Americans use pumpkin to put in pies. The word enhancement was missing here so I told her about my pumpkin soup where I bake pumpkin, unpeeled apple and unpeeled onion. Or my red cabbage finely sliced, braised with a peeled and diced Granny Smith apple, lemon juice and a couple of whole cloves. What you can do with a Brussel sprout or leaves of Kale, whole stories are there. Bilson also spoke about presentation on plate - I photograph mine to let family know I’m eating well. But to have dish on table for friends to dig in, what about none left for me ?