The Language of Food: "Mouth-watering and sensuous, a real feast for the imagination" BRIDGET COLLINS

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This was a beautifully written and very engaging read for me right from the start. I enjoyed following the two women’s lives and both narratives. They two kind of run in continuum with each other since they are for the most part working together on the book, but there are segments where we also follow each of them individually as certain subplots unfold. All-in-all this made for an engrossing read, with strong main characters, which I enjoyed very much. Wonderful... Abbs is such a good story teller. She catches period atmosphere and character so well’ Vanessa Nicolson How the sikbaj of Persia (sweet-n-sour stewed beef with sweet vinegar in it) became a fish dish like ceviche, fish & chips, tempura, escabeche, aspic – sailors’ help c.10th century; the influence of fish-during-Lent, the conquest of Peru, Portuguese Jesuits in Japan, of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews in Britain.

A good book for readers who like to dip into things here and there since the book reads more like a collection of essays. There is some slight crossover or mention of another chapter but I don't think the reader would be lost in these cases. I will concede the point about the typos -- because, yeah, there are definitely a few misspellings someone should have caught. I think the most unfortunate typos were the ones in the French because now I'm wondering whether the Middle French had typos and I will never know, because do you even know what Middle French looks like? Yeah. Eliza with her gift for writing notices that the way the recipes are written is not practical. She decides to list the ingredients separately. And with the help of Ann, they test the same recipe a few times with slight changes: adjusting the cooking times, seasonings, and quantities, to make it most pleasant for the palate. The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs was a sublime read containing tantalising descriptions of food, and life below stairs during 1800s England. The Language of Food tells the untold story of Eliza Acton, a poet at heart and author of Britain's first cookery book for domestic readers. Modern Cookery for Private Families was published in 1845 and author Annabel Abbs has given the reader a fictionalised account of Eliza Acton's life.Ann Kirby comes from humble means with a lame father and a mother suffering from dementia. Her brother works in a London kitchen for a famous French chef, inspiring Ann with his tales of the food they prepare. When Ann is fortunate enough to be hired by Eliza as a kitchen assistant, she draws strength and a sense of purpose from her, discovering her own ambitions.

I've noticed how the creation of verse mirrors the creations of the kitchen - the sense of being truly alive, the utter concentration so that one exists solely in the moment of exertion. These apply equally when I prepare a dish or when I write a recipe and must use the perfect prose." (pp.214-5)However, the women's contentedness is threatened when Eliza receives a marriage proposal from aging but sympathetic spice merchant Edwin Arnott. Should she accept his offer and submit to her pre-ordained future as a well-to-do society wife, thereby relinquishing any hope of the social and financial independence she craves? Or will a scandalous secret from her past threaten her future and all the plans she and Ann have? Eliza Acton wrote a collection of poems and had arranged for it to be published through a publisher. At this point she had been writing poetry for a few years. The book sold well and had several reprintings. Upon writing another collection of poems this one was declined at the publisher, and she was told to write a cookery book. She took ten years to write her cookery book and it was aimed at the English middle class. The book was the first of its kind to list ingredients and a suggested cooking time.

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The story is about Eliza Acton and Ann Kirby her assistant. They are cooks and working on what will be the greatest British Cook Book of all time. Eliza changed the way that cookery books were written and how cooks after her presented their recipes. In a nutshell, she was the woman who changed the face of baking and cookery books by listing the ingredients separately at the start of the recipe. Seems like common sense today but then it was revolutionary as no-one had thought of it before. Toasting with drinks and why to health – putting toast in wine or ale (in Middle Ages); soap first came with toast in it; origins of wine (and the word too); on libations (thus hip-hops “pour one out” to the deceased) and cider (from the name for Akkadian honeyed beer).

I love Abbs’s writing and the extraordinary, hidden stories she unearths. Eliza Acton is her best discovery yet’ Clare PooleyInteresting but even book that would be better as a magazine long-read. Why do menus or TV ads always use buzzwords to make foods sound better (juicy cuts of steak, fresh vegetables, locally-sourced products, etc.)? What's the origins of ketchup? Why do we propose a toast? The Language of Food is a beautiful story of food and of recipes, and also of poetry, but more than that of two women who want to dream of and do things that weren’t approved of in the time they wanted to do them or seemed far out of their reach—and who each in their own way lived somewhat beyond convention. All this calling food by seductive names has been going on a long time. In 1066, when the Normans (who were originally Norsemen) defeated the English, they brought with them French, which became the language for the upper classes. But everyone soon adopted these upscale words for food - pork, not pig, boeuf - beef - for cow, mouton - mutton - for sheep. Latterly we say 'jus' rather than gravy, and often 'cuisine' rather than cooking. A menu written in French will be presumed to be of higher class, better cooking and more expensive than a similar one in English.