num_pages: 400
description: In a novel perfect for fans of Hazel Gaynors A Memory of Violets and upstairs-downstairs stories Annabel Abbs the award-winning author of The Joyce Girl returns with the brilliant real-life story of Eliza Acton and her assistant as they revolutionized British cooking and cookbooks around the world.Before Mrs. Beeton and well before Julia Child there was Eliza Acton who changed the course of cookery writing forever. England 1837. Victorian London is awash with exciting new ingredients from spices to exotic fruits but Eliza Acton has no desire to spend her days in the kitchen. Determined to be a poet and shamed by the suggestion she write a cookery book instead she at first refuses to even consider the task. But then her father is forced to flee the country for bankruptcy shaming the family while leaving them in genteel poverty. As a woman Eliza has few options so she methodically collects recipes while teaching herself the mysteries of the kitchen. And to her surprise she discovers she is not only talented at cookingshe loves it.To assist her she hires seventeen-year-old Ann Kirby the impoverished daughter of a war-injured father and a mother losing her grip on reality. Under Elizas tutelage Ann learns about poetry cookery and love while unravelling a mystery in her mistresss past. Through the art of food Eliza and Ann develop an unusual friendship and break the mold of traditional cookbooks by adding elegant descriptions and ingredient lists that are still used today.Told in alternate voices this is an amazing novel of female friendship the ensuring struggle for freedom the quiet joy of cookery and the place of food in creativity all while bringing Eliza Acton out of the archives and back into the public eye. 
language: English
title: Miss Eliza's English Kitchen
publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks