Kitchenella: The Secrets of Women: Heroic, Simple, Nurturing Cookery - for Everyone

by Rose Prince

The continuing story of the rise and fall of good food finds us at the end of a decade of exceptional growth and opportunity, yet once again in crisis. We believe in food icons and celebrity chefs, but their philosophies are no longer convincing, because they cannot possibly understand the predicament of the average family, living through recession and trying to do it right in the kitchen. Where are the cooks with wit, who work out the budget and plan an easy dish that efficiently feeds family and friends? Full of logical, economical, and imaginative recipes that solve the modern cook's dilemma, Kitchenella will teach you the skills of those teachers who work without books, the "mothers" and the cooks who subsequently learned from them, to decisively show you the easy way to cook and shop. Promoting a modest, simple way to cook, Kitchenella shows cooking is not about showing off and extravagance, but generosity and kindness; a subtle and intelligent way to nurture. It is cooking that is economically sustainable and achievable. It has its roots in the learned, spirited cooking of generations, food that can claim to have helped win wars and saved lives; a style of cooking that is still relevant today, by practically addressing the struggles of modern cooks, both men and women. The ambition to cook is a fantasy for many, yet Kitchenella shows how the everyday struggle to put food on the table can be transformed into cooking that is clever and beautiful.

Genres: Cookbooks

448 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Rose Prince is a food writer, author, cook and activist. Her writing career did not start until her mid thirties. Previously she had worked as a chef and the cook in the Notting Hill specialist bookshop, Books for Cooks. She worked there with Clarissa Dixon Wright. She was the in-house cook at the Spectator magazine for seven years.
She has a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Her columns are widely syndicated. She also has a monthly column in the Catholic weekly, the Tablet (although herself an Anglican she is married to a Catholic). She is a prolific writer and contributes to the Daily Mail, the Spectator, the Times, Sunday Telegraph. For three years she had a column on the Daily Express. In 2000 she produced a two-part biopic about the food writer, Elizabeth David for British broadcaster Channel 4 which also aired in Australia.
She contributes regularly to BBC Radio 4's Food Programme and was a judge for its Food and Farming Awards in 2009. She was a member of the House of Lords Committee of Inquiry into the meat industry in 2000. She was the winner of a Glenfiddich award in 2001 and in 2009 was named by Vogue magazine as one of the most inspirational women in Britain.
She is married to Dominic Prince, a fellow journalist and sometime amateur jockey and they have two children, Jack and Lara. They live in London and Dorset and Prince lists 'lunch, wine, reading and horseracing' as her recreations in Who's Who.

Reviews

[Ayla Torun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rose Prince has some odd thoughts about feminism and family. Coming from (as is evident in the text) a privileged family, she seems to be of the opinion that the feminist movement was responsible for the late 20th century destruction of food culture in the UK, a position which I don't agree with. However, I've tried a few of the recipes and they're quite good - very conservative, as in they are self consciously old fashioned, harking back to a notion of 'englishness' that I'm not sure existed for the majority of people. Basically, the dishes here could all be served in Malory Towers or to the Mitford sisters, and they would not be disturbed by any 'new' ingredients or flavour profiles. I'd like this book more if the biographical text wasn't so odd to me.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kitchenella has lots of good recipes but also some sexist and downright bizarre opinions. She glorifies women who had to cook & feed their families in the past as all "nurturers" (I'm sure some were but I'm equally sure others hated it and would have stopped if they could), demonises male cooks (apparently they're all flash & show & swearing, and God help any female cook who acts in any way like that, or who is a bit sexy, or is anything other than bloody "nurturing") & women who dare to choose not to cook much (I love cooking but can understand that others might not!), and then contradicts herself over getting children to eat - she sounds insufferably smug over how spoilt her own children are, as proof of how nurturing she is...

It's so frustrating as there are lots of recipes I want to cook (Chicken thighs stuffed with watercress & walnuts, p180; Sweet chicory & orchard fruit lattice tart, p304; pretty much every soup in chapter 1 - hence still the extra star), but she just does. not. let. up. about female vs male cooking, and how women have all these intuitive skills like splashing out on an extravagant cut but then being able to scrimp and make it go so much further than any silly man who tries to cook just to show off. It made me want to SCREAM (can you guess?)!! I think it annoyed me so much because I've had snide comments in the past about how I happily proclaim feminism, yet I dare to enjoy cooking... and I feel that books like this just further push having fun in the kitchen back into something just for women. It's for everyone. Everything is for everyone. Just do what you enjoy and stop trying to make out that women are all one thing and men another...

I'll copy some recipes and cut out the crap.

//rant over!

[Just_me · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than a cookbook, this is more a biography with recipes, a little sexist with the POV that the woman in always in charge of the cooking at home (but it's how it is in my house - so I don't mind to much).

[Anne Brunton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this - more than a cook book. As comforting as a thick stew.