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Celebrate the best of English food and writing

Happy St George’s Day to all my English readers, wherever you’re based! For today’s 5, the obvious thing would have been to feature the top English food writers but I think the combined sainthood of Delia, Jamie, Nigella, Nigel and Rick is far too well known. Even going further back, Elizabeth David and even Fanny Craddock really need no further praise and prayers offered up.

Instead, I’ve taken a slight more ecletic route through some  interesting but less obvious English food writing. Here’s my choices of ones to make St George proud!

1. Common-Sense Papers on Cookery by Arthur Gay Payne – I am fascinated by this one and, although I’ve no idea whether I’d cook from it, I want to own it. Arthur Gay Payne sounds a fascinating man: sporting editor of the Standard, editor of The Billiard News and a contributor to Girl’s Own. Oh yes, forgot to mention, this book was written in 1877, but I bet the advice is bang on for today’s credit crunch approach to cooking.

2 Anything by Ambrose Heath – I couldn’t choose here, as Ambrose was such a prolific writer, publishing over 100 books about food from 1933 onwards. Whether you want to learn about food from the Edwardian era onwards, or are interested in design, older versions of his books are fascinating on both counts. There have been some contemporary reprints, which lose the charm of the original design, but obviously not the joy and surprise of the recipes. Try something like Good Savouries or the original charm of The Bird’s Eye Book of Britain’s Favourite Recipes. Waiting to be rediscovered I feel.

3. Countrymans Cooking by W M W Fowler – Could anything be more English than this? It is both cookbook and social history, written with a huge dose of amusing anecdotes about Mr Fowler’s life. Perfect for those who want to do everything from catching their dinner through to skinning and butchering it, and then how to cook it. It’s also famous for the spoof recipe for roasting a cormorant. Probably not one to be tried at home.

4. The Book of Marmalade by C. Anne Wilson – this won a prize for oddest title of the year in the year it was published, but I love it. I think it’s very English to be so obsessive about something like marmalade. I love that there are separate chapters on marmalade in England and marmalade in Scotland, not to mention the rest of the world. C. Anne Wilson is a food historian and I love that someone researchs this stuff.

5. The Pudding Club Book by Keith & Jean Turner – it wouldn’t be very English to end without a good pudding, and they don’t come much better than The Pudding Club and their splendid collection of puds. If you want unusual traditional English puds, this is the book for you. Your waistline may not thank you for working your way through this one, but I bet anyone round your dinner table will!

So, here’s hoping for a fabulously sunny St George’s Day, and that everyone gets out and celebrate the best of British food.

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