[Vwoolf] Woolf’s good food guide

Thu Apr 13 13:30:06 EDT 2023

One would think that the chef in the men's college would be in rather deep trouble if the flour was not properly measured in the preparation of the white cream over the sole.

But the upside of this peculiar rant was the urge to read a review of that book. It was a joy to read Felicity Cloake's commentary on Diane Purkiss’s English Food: A People's History in the Guardian.

Vara

Vara Neverow
(she/her/hers)
Professor, English Department
Editor, Virginia Woolf Miscellany
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
neverowv1 at southernct.edu

I acknowledge that Southern Connecticut State University was built on traditional territory of the indigenous peoples and nations of the Paugussett and Quinnipiac peoples.

Recent Publications:

Lead editor, Virginia Woolf: Critical and Primary Sources (Bloomsbury, 2020; with Jeanne Dubino, Kathryn Simpson, and Gill Lowe); Editor, Volume One, 1975-1984, Virginia Woolf: Critical and Primary Sources (Bloomsbury, 2020); Co-editor, The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and Contemporary Global Literature (Edinburgh, 2020; with Jeanne Dubino, Paulina Pająk, Catherine Hollis, and Celiese Lypka)

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Subject: [Vwoolf] Woolf’s good food guide

Making my way through my backlog of TLS issues, I thought the following letter from the January 13 2023 edition might be of interest to Woolfians on the list (and apologies if it has already been shared!): Woolf’s good food guide Reviewing

Making my way through my backlog of TLS issues, I thought the following letter from the January 13 2023 edition might be of interest to Woolfians on the list (and apologies if it has already been shared!):

Woolf’s good food guide
Reviewing Diane Purkiss’s book on English food (December 23 & 30), Ysenda Maxtone Graham mentions the familiar passage in A Room of One’s Own contrasting the food served in a men’s college at Cambridge (King’s) and one for women (Newnham). It should be regarded as purely rhetorical, alas. The “counterpane of the whitest cream” over the men’s sole may or may not have tasted good, depending on how much flour there was in it; the meal at Newnham would certainly have tasted better (and there is nothing wrong with “beef with its attendant greens and potatoes”) had Virginia Woolf arrived on time for it. Katherine Duncan-Jones, whose mother, Elsie, arranged the meal specially for Woolf at Newnham, told me that she was in fact extravagantly late (having been fascinated by the men’s conversation, perhaps) and the carefully prepared meal was consequently ruined. In any case there is reason to doubt Woolf’s ability to recognize good food. The fuss about Mrs Ramsay’s daube in To the Lighthouse is hardly reassuring, and it is noticeable that in writing of Nelly Boxall, her own cook, Woolf hardly ever in her diaries mentions what comes to table. It’s probable that she wasn’t very interested.

Martin Dodsworth
Brill, Buckinghamshire

Dr Peter Adkins

(He/Him/His)

Website: peteradkins.net<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/peteradkins.net/__;!!KGKeukY!y90iaaNKkjJJu-5FDIgTdFTDNlGdyvXDS5e-HvDpl-DeknqCFBtFkmyjmW3ygN0wKb9Ju6DsO138hEAzXZgjVzkkCYsyFgAvHb7X-l-b$>

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