Merry Andrew And His Successors

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 4

Merry Andrew And His Successors

First Catch Your Hare. By Mary Aylett and Olive Ordish. Macdonald. 242 PP-

The apocryphal phrase of the title, attributed to one of history’s most famous cooks. Mrs Glasse. is not in truth applicable to the contents of a book which is, in fact, a survey of the personalities of the cookery world over nearly four centuries. After a brief introduction describing the cookery methods and diet range of the period the authors give us a biographic sketch of Andrew Boorde (born approximately 1490) a recusant monk, who, in his “Dyetary of Helthe” sprung upon the world the first known cookery book. Andrew has little to tell us of interest in culinary line, and after a life of enjoyable profligacy his chief bequest to the world was the phrase “Merry Andrew” which was subsequently much used as a description of entertainers at fairs and the like. In the 10 short biographies which follow, the authors' animadversions on the male sex (particularly in relation to their theories about food), are frequent and unrelenting. Only one of them, the Frenchman Alexis Soyer (1809-1858), for many years chef to the Reform Club, is shown in a humanitarian light, because of his obvious concern for the starving poor of the Hungry Forties. But even he is chided for trying to concoct a wholesome soup at a cost of a l|d for indigent households, while being prepared to spend large sums to satisfy the palates of the rich.

Robert May (born 1588), Sir Kenelm Digby (born 1603) and Patrick Lambe (born 1647) all made significant contributions to the culinary arts of their day: May. having served in great houses throughout almost the entire period of the Stuarts, died not far short of 100. In 1671, be wrote “The Accomplish! Cook” and his own accomplishments included the designing at notable banquets of such things as edible battleships firing at each other, and that curious custom of releasing live animals from under-piecrust—in one case frogs! His biography is veiy interesting for the light it throws on the times. Digby appears to us as an amiable eccentric with a bee in

I his bonnet about diet, who inI advertently murdered his wife I by making her swallow a poisonous concoction which he confidently believed would enhance her already considerable beauty. Lambe had the interesting privilege of being Master Cook at Court from the days of Charles 11 till those of Queen Anne. He wrote "Royal Cookery, or the Compleat Court-Cook” and seems well qualified for the task, though his wage was never higher than £l5O a year, which even in those days does not appear excessive. Mrs Glasse is the first cooking notability to earn the author’s unqualified praise. “The art of cooking made plain and easy” embodied the claims of its title, and in spite of Dr. Johnson’s dictum that, “no woman can write a cookery book” ran into several editions. As a 17th century character Mrs Glasse suffered from the stigma of being a woman, and her work (necessarily anonymous owing to the custom of the times) was attributed to a man. a contention rightlytreated with scorn by her admirers. Some of her recipes given here are well worth copying. That crashing bore Dr. William Kitchener (born 1775) —on whom the authors most amusingly sharpen their claws —while referring to her contemptuously as “Old Mother Glasse” unashamedly appropriated some of her recipes as his own in his preten-

tious work “The Cook's Oracle.” Mrs Rundell, another contemporary, shared much the same fate !n male estimation, though she was in fact an outstanding pastrycook in Bath in its fashionable years. She died at the age of 49 on the birth of her fifteenth daughter, after supporting an entirely worthless husband throughout a life of gruelling, but not unprofitable toil in the kitchen. Eliza Acton who died in 1859 wrote a book, "Modern Cookery in all its Branches” which was still being reprinted in 1905. Alexis Soyer. as well as earning the author’s grudging approval, aforementioned, was the inventor of the "Magic Stove” —that delightful little gadget which still serves restaurant side-tables for keeping dishes hot.

Of Mrs Beeton so much has been written that the author’s endorsement of her value need not be stressed. Her husband, poor Sam Beeton, receives the last of the thousand cuts inflicted by them on the male sex in general by their attributing her early demise to his stupidity, though the fatal puerperal fever that followed the birth of her first child could in part have been attributed to her own neglect of herself. All in all. this is the best historical survey of cookery and those who have practised it throughout the ages which this reviewer has had the pleasure of reading.