Colquhoun - Taste : the story of Britain through its cooking

Meticulously researched and handsomely produced delightful. Kate Colquhouns enthusiasm for her subject leaps from every page The Economist

Taste is a book that provides a wealth of information in an absorbing and entertaining manner. The pages excite both the imagination and the palate by the vivid description of the food cooked and enjoyed throughout the centuries. It starts at the time of the Roman occupation of Britain and continues right up to the present day, and you will also learn about the experts of each period, who provided culinary expertise and advice. The wonderful selection of pictures adds to the delights of Taste Marguerite Patten

Colquhouns delightfully savoury stamp through the past shows the history of British cooking, like that of our language, has been one of adaptation and imitation, whether bowing to the tastes of an invading power or swayed by the seductive breath of fashion. Not only is it a fascinating and surprising story; it says more good things about the British than we might imagine This is a book that delights in overturning our notions of the past fascinating brilliantly researched and involvingly presented Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph

Colquhoun illustrates the myriad of changes that have taken place in how and what we eat a fascinating and immensely enjoyable contribution to British culinary history Waterstones Books Quarterly

Colquhoun tells the whole story wittily and well Taste is a book to be savored Wall Street Journal

Kate Colquhoun tells it well in Taste Colquhoun is a writer of lively detail the real delight of her book lies in the abundance of illuminating and curious facts New York Times Book Review

From its opening observation, Colquhouns chronological, sociological and often etymological account of Britains eating is full of facts nicely crafted vignettes encapsulate historical moods You wont necessarily be able to cook better by the end of this generous book, but you may hunger to try Philippa Stockley, Evening Standard

Colquhoun offers short stimulating accounts of the historical periods through which exotic creations move her descriptions of social context are often rich and suggestive This fine book helps us appreciate the role of the past in the culinary artforms of today, humble or haughty Diane Purkiss, Financial Times Magazine

In ambition, scope and style it is as lavish as an Edwardian feast, as long as a Regency dining table; you could weigh pts with this book. It is primarily a breezy and entertaining trawl through two millennia of British food The book is a joy, an education, and, as Fanny Cradock used to say, feeds the eye just as much as the mind or stomach Ian Kelly, The Times

Lovely detail it reads as well as any of the many novels to which the author refers theres plenty more here to enlighten. A thoroughly engaging read Susan Low, Time Out

What this book does is show how surface history politics, religion and economics affects what happens at the most fundamental human level: what goes on the table and what happens in the kitchen. Colquhoun delights in confounding expectations this is a comprehensive book, taking in table manners, meal times, home economics and technology Melanie McDonagh, Mail on Sunday

The fascinating stories of how the food staples we take for granted first reached our dinner plates are recounted with knife-sharp incisiveness by Kate Colquhoun in this epic book about the history of Britain through its cooking. Working her way from pre-history through to today, Colquhoun describes the celebrity chefs who inspired our ancestors and reveals how food fashions mirrored political and social events Clare Hargreaves, BBC Country File Magazine

Even the Delia Smiths and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls among us might learn a thing or two about the origins of todays food fetishes. This book is as rich and diverse as a five-course feast Mark Skipwith, The Field

[An] entertaining gallop through two millennia of English food crammed with intriguing detail Lucy Lethbridge, The Tablet

This is an entertaining and often surprising journey into our past. Taste asks and answers a range of questions from the serious to the light-hearted Best of British

What better to fill that gap between the roast turkey and the Doctor Who Christmas special than Colquhouns Taste, a mouth-watering history of British cooking Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph Christmas Books

Fascinating for history enthusiasts Cathy Pryor, Independent on Sunday Christmas Books

This superb exploration of social history is packed with colourful period detail British history has never been so enjoyable Choice Book of the Month

Colquhouns book is a racketing, impressionist, nicely illustrated tear through two millennia of British culinary practices, taking in the most arresting details Boston Globe

[A]n invaluable work of social history and one of the more fascinating kitchen-related books to cross the Atlantic since the Oxford Companion to Food one interesting fact or mini-history after another. [Colquhouns] supple BBC-Four-meets-Julia-Child voice is just one of the books pleasures This is a triumph to savor Publishers Weekly

Refreshingly free of jokes about British cooking, her text uses cookery through the ages to explain everything from the British Isles waves of invaders and immigrants to class conflict and consciousness, patriotism and terror during World War II rationing [a] fascinating history of an empire Colquhoun can reach passionate heights A thoughtful and detailed book to be savoredbut not on an empty stomach Kirkus Reviews

A Thing in Disguise:
The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton

The Story of Britain through its Cooking

Kate Colquhoun

First published in Great Britain 2007

This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright 2007 by Kate Colquhoun

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3DP

www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New York and Berlin

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781 4088 34084

Visit www.bloomsbury.com to find out more about our authors and their books You will find extracts, author interviews, author events and you can sign up for newsletters to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers

for
Freddie and Billy
Iain and Sally

Cookery means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe and of Helen and of the Queen of Sheba. It means the knowledge of all herbs and fruits and balms and spices, and all that is healing and sweet in the fields and groves and savoury in meats. It means carefulness and inventiveness and willingness and readiness of appliances. It means the economy of your grandmothers and the science of the modern chemist; it means much testing and no wasting; it means English thoroughness and French art and Arabian hospitality; and, in fine, it means that you are to be perfectly and always ladies loaf givers.