I will concede the point about the typos -- because, yeah, there are definitely a few misspellings someone should have caught. I think the most unfortunate typos were the ones in the French because now I'm wondering whether the Middle French had typos and I will never know, because do you even know what Middle French looks like? Yeah. I also like the chapter how the Chinese dessert but the whole book was good. Maybe the author did wander here and there to convey a message but it was a good read.

The writing is deliciously suggestive but also funny on occasion, as in this observation from Ann Kirby early on in the novel: Female agency is a strong theme throughout the book, not surprising given the period and our two lead characters, but I celebrated the manner in which both characters seemed to follow their calling despite feelings of obligation and family responsibility laying elsewhere. When the women prep the food and discuss ingredients with final touches, you can visualize it on a tray with its tasty aroma filling the house. The atmosphere of the cookery evokes your senses of taste and smell. When Eliza savors the six course French dinner, she eats it so slowly devouring its intricacies and complexities to a point that you want to grab that food and taste it yourself. The friendship between two women makes you want to join them in their endeavors. Overall, the novel is extremely accomplished, the plot unfolds organically and it’s very hard to put down. It conveys really well just how important Eliza Acton is in the cookery world and how much is owed to her. I applaud the author for creating such a marvellous novel without a huge amount of evidence to go on. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction or those who love food!! The characterizations are well done, with both women growing emotionally, gaining confidence and strength as individuals and as partners, each achieving their own personal and professional satisfaction.I found Miss Eliza's English Kitchen to be an interesting book. The book is loosely based on the life of Eliza Acton, a woman I had never heard of until reading this book. So, yes, what he's saying is true, but as far as I can tell, the explanation has been simplified down to the point where it's hanging off an assertion that F0 and F2 are the same, which is not actually true. They are correlated, but they are not measuring the same thing at all. You know that meme that's like "I don't understand how, but you used the wrong formula and got the right answer?" That's what reading this chapter felt like. A good book for readers who like to dip into things here and there since the book reads more like a collection of essays. There is some slight crossover or mention of another chapter but I don't think the reader would be lost in these cases.

In addition to the mouth-watering depictions of dishes created by Eliza and Ann, I was also impressed by the way Annabel Abbs wove poetry and poeticism throughout the narrative. She draws on Eliza Acton's known work, as well as that of other Victorian "lady poets" including Felicia Hemans and Letitia E. Landon. Libations are still around too. Modern hiphop culture has a libationary tradition of "pouring one out" -- tipping out malt liquor on the ground before drinking, to honor a friend or relative who has passed away - - described in songs like Tupac Shakur's "Pour Out a Little Liquor." (It's especially appropriate that malt liquor, a fortified beer made by adding sugar before fermenting, is itself another descendent of shikaru.)Eliza is credited as the pioneer of modern cookery books because she was the first to list ingredients separately from the methodology, and to provide precise quantities of ingredients. She could also be said to have pioneered the genre of ‘food writing’, by combining instruction with description. Foodies should enjoy Eliza’s poetic depictions of scents and tastes, though the fare of the 1800’s, which relied heavily on game and foraged foods, may sound quite unusual. A handful of Eliza’s ‘reciepts’ are printed after the Notes section at the end of the book. Culinary enthusiast, and fans of strong historical female characters will not want to miss this one!

The Language of Food is an enthralling historical fiction novel, based around the life of Victorian poet and cookery book writer Eliza Acton (1799-1859). Outside the UK and Australia, the book has been published as Miss Eliza's English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship. A story of courage, unlikely friendship and an exceptional character, told in vibrant and immersive prose' Caroline Scott Eliza Acton wrote a collection of poems and had arranged for it to be published through a publisher. At this point she had been writing poetry for a few years. The book sold well and had several reprintings. Upon writing another collection of poems this one was declined at the publisher, and she was told to write a cookery book. She took ten years to write her cookery book and it was aimed at the English middle class. The book was the first of its kind to list ingredients and a suggested cooking time. there's basically two different avenues explored here. one is tracing food through time and place and learning how it evolved into the food we know today, both in name and ingredients. the second focus is the one that really got my brain juices a-stirring, and it's more about food and language with an advertising slant. one of the chapters focuses on the language used in menus throughout time and a mini-study on the relationship between the language used and the average price of the restaurant's meals. so many subtle manipulations at play - the length and number of the words used, the use of french terms, the inclusion of the protein's birthplace, the occurrence of "filler words," the level of complicity the diner has in their own meal (i.e. - "your way" or "your choice.") it's fascinating stuff. A feast for the senses, this inspiring book is about friendship, passion and determination. I loved it!" MY WEEKLYI spent 10-20 minutes trying to explain how cool it was to my manager and he nodded and said "Good for you" and kept telling me about New York Times news alerts so I guess it is probably not for everyone but as I said, A book about words and food! What's better than this!

it's fantastic stuff and very easy to read. there's a bit too much of the personal anecdote dropped in, and it is very san francisco-centric, but there's at least one entertaining, thought-provoking fact in each chapter, which is pretty good for a book about something as niche-y as food and linguistics. My other complaint is that the author very awkwardly inserts these little personal notes that don't really add anything and, in fact, make it feel a little like a vanity book written for friends. It's a shame because the rest of the book is very professional while still being readable. I realize this may sound like an odd statement to make, because it is an incredibly niche topic, but I spent a long, long time studying theoretical linguistics. And of all the courses I took, of everything I learned, one of the things I still remember is the first day of the Introduction To Historical Linguistics class I took as an undergraduate. It was a big class, maybe fifty of us, and the professor asked us to come up with the word for "tea" in as many languages as we could. And because this was a room of fifty linguistics majors, we knew a whole lot of languages, as an aggregate. And as we called out words she wrote them all down on the board, sorting them into one of two groups, by whether they sounded more like "tea" or whether they sounded more like "chai." The truth about Mrs. Beeton’s book is also interesting, and is something people should be made aware of, in my opinion. This reminds me of an upstairs, downstairs type of book. Very interesting and informative book that I enjoyed a lot.

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it's definitely a good read for those of you who have an interest in the subject matter. you will learn about the connections and differences between macaroni, macaroons, and macarons and you will learn an awful lot about bread. and what "semantic bleaching" is. and why we use words of anglo-saxon origin for the animals we eat, like "pig," "cow," "hog," "sow," but words of french origin for the resulting meat: "veal," "beef," "pork." Told through the alternating perspectives of the two women, The Language of Food draws on fact and imagination as Eliza and Ann develop what will eventually be “the greatest British cookbook of all time”, published in 1845 as ‘Modern Cookery, in All Its Branches: Reduced to a System of Easy Practice, for the Use of Private Families’. It’s also a story of female friendship and fortitude, as the women, despite their different stations in life, work side by side, and a story of creativity and cooking as Eliza and Ann combine their talents for poetry and instinct for flavours.