Elizabeth David - saviour of the British diet and also a sharp critic!

Elizabeth David changed forever the way we eat in Britain. She introduced pasta and olive oil - now everyday staples - to the UK palate and challenged the restaurant trade to move beyond recreations of what you got at home or at boarding school. Some criticise her as being terribly middle class and pursuing a cuisine that was only accesible to the upper and middle classes - and a cuisine that you would only have discovered if you had the financial aently bility to holiday in the Med, which the vast majority of Brits could not. But like her or not, she brought about the most radical shift in how we see, eat and consider our food. But the reason for this post is that recently Peter Ross, a librarian at the Guildhall library in London, has unveiled the annotated notes David made in the margins of the cookbooks she owned and occasionally reviewed. Ross has been carrying out this work for many years and is now ina position to make available the notes she made. Some of them are quite cutting - and blunt- criticising fellow food writers and particular dishes - which of course if you didn't think anyone else would see them they possibly would be. For the full story head to the Guardian where you will find the cuts.