Although my background is in the theatre and academia, I have been a passionate cook since my teenage years when I taught myself to cook using my mother’s recipe books, mainly those of Elizabeth David, Patience Gray and Robert Carrier.
As an adult my cooking expanded to include dishes from countries outside Europe – India and the Far East, in particular – and was influenced by concerns about health, much publicised from the 1980s onwards. I rarely cooked British food, due to both my own childhood experiences and its negative reputation.
During my career as first a theatre director and then a university lecturer, time for cooking tended to be limited to weekends and holidays but cooking remained an important interest in my life.
When I retired in 2015, I suddenly had the time and freedom to pursue personal projects and found myself increasingly interested in the history of British food, mainly influenced by television programmes, such as The Victorian Farm, and the increasing resurgence of traditional dishes, often deconstructed, made by eminent chefs.
I started to research the subject and began a voyage of discovery that resulted in this website, and I have discovered that far from being bland and stodgy, our food heritage is rich, varied, occasionally bizarre, and often delicious.
Chichi Parish specialises in expressive pen and ink illustrations. Her clients include the Times Educational Supplement; Diva Magazine; The Sunday Times; English Heritage; and The National Trust.
