Food for the imagination

Press, 21 July 1984, Page 20

Food for the imagination

The Gentle Art of Cookery. By Mrs C. F. Leyel end Miss Olga Hartley. Introduced by Elizabeth David. Chatto and Windus, 1983. 461 pp. $9.95 (paperback).

(Reviewed by

Mhairi Erber)

I wish my mother had been given this book as a wedding present, but she was only about 12 years old when it was first published ip 1925. However, it is still in some respect avant garde. I have cooked its cucumber, which is divine, and lettuce, which is a bit pallid, but venture to suggest that the cooking of either is still extremely rare in New Zealand. Mrs C. F. Leyel, who qualifies for an entry of respectable length in the “Dictionary of National Biography,” was a most remarkable woman. Of Miss Olga Hartley, "her friend and collaborator,” I know only what is vouchsafed on the cover; that she too was a cookery expert, “notably in the uses of fruit.” Hilda Leyel’s chief interest was herbal medicine. In 1927 Culpeper House in Baker Street, London, “a shop full of herbal medicines, foods and cosmetics designed especially to appeal to women” was opened. Subsequently the formula was applied to a chain of successful shops. The Society of. Herbalists was founded by Mrs Leyel. She anticipated the nutrition revolution by many decades; at times indeed she might be writing today: "The tendency 'today is to eat less meat,” she says at one point in this book, and at another: “Doctors are more and more insisting upon the virtues of vegetables.” Although “The Geptle Art of Cookery” is not a vegetarian recipe book, the recipes for vegetables are likely to be most useful for the majority of us who, with our AngloSaxon antecedents, are still apt to think of dinner as meat and two or three veg., almost invariably boiled.

Hilda Leyel was much more imaginative in her approach. There are, however, things which date the book and which, while not detracting from its interest and readability, render it a not-very-essential addition to the kitchen library. While agreeing with the philosophy behind the book and enjoying the introduction to the various chapters (in particular “Cooking for Children”) one smiles smugly to think that there was once a time when paprika was virtually unobtainable, when grated carrot salad was a novelty, and when peppers and courgettes had hardly been heard of. Furthermore there are a good many recipes for puddings of the kind one remembers as a child (I wouldn’t mind trying rice pudding, but would the family eat it even if I followed Miss • Leyel’s excellent advice and should I insist that they did?).

Nevertheless, this is an inspiring book as Elizabeth David in an enthusiastic introduction attests. Although individual recipes may not appeal, the book is enjoyable to read. As one's girth thickens, one’s experience of food widens and one’s energy flags it is one of the greatest pleasures of life to sit down with a good cookbook and let one’s imagination do the rest.