Random Things Tours: Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

 

Food is love, but writing about food is poetry. How other but through poetic tropes can one relate to the magical transmutation of quantities and ingredients of all kinds into delicious recipes feeding the soul and the body? Only a poet can deeply understand this process, I am sure about it.

I don´t feel like delving too much into my relationship with food, and food writing, but from many respects I felt a deep soulsisterhood with Eliza Acton, the character of The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs. Acton is a historical character, labelled as Britain´s first domestic goddess, but she started very humbly, unable to properly cook an egg. Yeah, I know, I wanted to mention it to nurture my wishful thinking that, who knows, but I am not a poet, this I am more than sure about. In the book, she is befriending Ann, a maid, who will inspire her searches for new tastes and researches for a writing form which may appeal to women, to the Victorian women that were supposed to be her readers.

The historical moment the book is taking place is important for understanding the uniqueness of both the friendship between the two women, belonging to social classes that usually to not meet in a non-working context. I personally liked the interactions between the two and how they complete each other, although most probably in a real-time context such a friendship would have been unlikely. But this is a book of historical fiction which allows itself a certain space of creative freedom.

As in a Dickensian novel, there are many social references from the 19th century England, outlining the story, without necessarily intruding into the story itself, which is Acton´s successful endeavour of writing about food and recipes. Each chapter is named after a recipe which is the focus of the story. Thus, each recipe comes alive as part of a ritual and a human story, creating the vocabulary of food, a very special dictionary with its own tasty grammar rules.

I loved reading The Language of Food for its fine writing and the well-paced insightful story. Besides introducing Eliza Acton with whom I was not familiar with, it created a food-related story which always talks to the hearts. And to the belly, too.

A special note to the book cover which is at least as elegant as the writing.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offere as part of the blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own