Celebrating the food of the Mediterranean in 1954

Now I know it is stating the obvious that today's cook books will be tomorrow's little bit of history.

After all to read an 18th century recipe of suggestions or a mid 19th century order of dinner is to step back into a different world.

Of course I am well aware that by and large these were books written for the rich and so offer only a partial picture of how we lived in the past.

That said there are plenty of insights into how the poor ate, or not ate.

My favourite is The Family Save – All, which aims to offer up a variety of cheaper foods which might well have been eaten by the poor.

So with all that in mind here are two books by Elizabeth David, written in 1950 and 1954 and republished in the 1960s.

I came across my two Penguin editions which date from 1967 in the mid '80 from Bryan the Book on Beech Road.

By then I was well aware of Elizabeth David from the works of Claudia Roden and the TV shows of Keith Floyd.

Now if you grew up in the 1950s when food was still pretty basic and the memory of rationing was still vivid these books which celebrated the colour and excitement of food from the Mediterranean must have been breathtaking.

After all talk to my parents generation and they will tell you that olive oil was what you bought from the chemists and used for a variety of medicinal purposes.

And here were "a collection of recipes made by the author when she lived in France, Italy the Greek Islands and Egypt doing her own cooking and obtaining her information at first hand."*

My copies are stained and brown at the edges but that just makes them all the more of a treat to look at.

And they contain a wonderful set of illustrations.

I wish I could ask my mother what she would have made of Insalata Di Funghi.  Now she liked her salads but I doubt that a plate of raw mushrooms with "olive oil, pepper, a little lemon juice and if you like, a scrap of garlic" would have been her first choice over tomato, cucumber and a bit of lettuce.

But that is perhaps unfair, mum was very forward thinking and given that Nana was German and some of what we ate owed a lot to that fact, I think she would have embraced it.

And I am sure if she could accompany us to Tina's parents in Italy she would fall on the roasted peppers, assorted fresh salads and fruits with the same joy that I do.

Tina's mum is from Naples and while she has lived in the north for nearly 40 years her cooking is still rooted in that southern cuisine.

Rosa and Simone briefly worked here in Britain arriving in 1960 to what we had to offer which must have been a bit of shock but they returned to Italy with a love of instant custard and jelly which is an interesting cultural swop.

Now I could have of course reflect on the causes of the fairly swift transformation in what we eat over the last five decades, but that has pretty much been done to death, so perhaps it’s just a trip down to the shops and see what nice things they have and what on our return Ms David could suggest we make.

Pictures; covers from Italian Food, 1967 and Mediterranean Food, 1967

* The Family Save – All, W. Kent & Co, London Second Edition 1861

**Mediterranean Food Elizabeth David, Penguin Second Edition 1967