Bobby Freeman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 9 February 1925 Bury, Lancashire |
| Died | 16 October 2000 |
| Education | Manchester |
| Children | 2 daughters |
| Culinary career | |
| Cooking style | Cuisine of Wales |
Television show(s)
| |
Bobby Freeman was a writer, journalist, television presenter and cook who is known for her writing on Welsh cuisine.
Freeman was born in Bury, Greater Manchester and her mother's parents came from North Wales.
Freeman studied industrial design in Manchester and then went on to teach before moving into advertising and public relations. She became the first female advertising business executive in The Midlands.
In the 1960s Freeman opened a restaurant with rooms in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire called The Compton House Hotel. Her interest in offering Welsh cuisine to guests led her to research traditional Welsh food. [1]
In 1980 Freeman published First Catch Your Peacock. This has been described as a cross between a cookbook and a history book about the food of Wales. It is considered to be the first book on authentic Welsh cuisine based on academic research. Freeman encountered difficulties in getting the book published, having been told that there was "no such thing as Welsh food" and that it was "an absurd title" for a serious work. Regardless of the discouragement Freeman went on to publish her book which sold worldwide.
According to food critic Simon Hopkinson, writing in The Independent , the book is a delight to read and a genuine pleasure to use, he comments that the book's charm results from it being a bit wacky:
The resultant book is a small masterpiece. It has a recipe for Welsh salt duck served with creamed onion sauce (wonderful, and a match for French confit any day); and oyster sausages - which I am most keen to try - in which the shucked and poached oysters are chopped with herbs, cooked egg yolks, anchovies, spices and a little shredded suet, then shaped, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in butter. These sound more like titbits Burton Racey or Ray White might use to amuse the mouth with, than recipes inspired by "the manuscript book compiled by Merryell Williams, Ystumcolywyn, early 18th century, in the Peniarth collection, National Library of Wales.
Hopkinson writes that the book is also full of the culture and social history of Welsh cuisine and notes that it also includes a recipe for peacock, as suggested by the book's title. The book has been widely and enthusiastically praised. [2] [3]
Freeman edited a number of works connected with Welsh cuisine, including Lloyd George's Favourite Foods, which included a number of traditional Welsh dishes enjoyed by David Lloyd George. The book was published in 1974 based on a cookery book originally published in 1919 by Criccieth Women's Institute and which included recipes donated by his wife Margaret Lloyd George [4]
In 1982 Freeman edited and published Enid Roberts' Food of the Bards, the book describes the food encountered by Welsh bards on their visits to the Welsh nobility.
Freeman realised a 20-year dream when she edited The First Principles of Good Cookery, by Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover. Originally published in London by Richard Bentley in 1867 this was the only Welsh cookery book written in English at that time. This rare book was republished in 1991 by Brefi Press with a 6000 word introduction by Freeman.
Freeman remarked: [5]
I have to declare my sense of kinship with Lady Llanover, which is more than the recognition of professionalism. Though 100 years separate us, I feel we are fellow-spirits, pioneers both, destined to annoy as well as please with our innovatory cookery notions.
Freeman went on to write eight books on Welsh cuisine. These are published by Y Lolfa, a publisher based in Ceredigion. Some of the books are illustrated with historical photographs from the John Thomas collection of the National Library of Wales.
During the 1960s and 1970s Freeman wrote for the Birmingham Post, Western Mail (Wales), South Wales Magazine and Y Faner, a Welsh language weekly. Freeman also worked for the Wales Tourist Board.
Freeman broadcast on Welsh radio and television and in the 1980s presented a film, produced by S4C, about the history of Welsh cuisine. This was the first film produced on the subject.
In 1982 Freeman established a Welsh Cookery Centre in the River Teifi valley, near Cardigan, after having spent ten years living in Cardiff.
Freeman, B., Lloyd George's Favourite Dishes. John Jones Cardiff Limited, Buckingham, 1974. ISBN 978-0902375321
Pierce Roberts, Enid, and two others, Food of the Bards, 1350-1650: Verses and Food from Welsh Mediaeval Feasts of the Poets of the Noblemen. 1982. ISBN 978-0950725437
Baroness, Augusta Hall, (Freeman, B., editor) The First Principles of Good Cookery. Brefi Press, Tregaron, 1991. ISBN 0 948537 35 3
Twm Siôn Cati is a figure in Welsh folklore.
The Welsh hat worn by women as part of Welsh national costume is a tall hat, similar to a top hat, or the capotain. It is still worn by Welsh folk-dance women, and schoolgirls, in Wales on St David's Day, but rarely on other occasions.
Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover, born Augusta Waddington, was a Welsh heiress, best known as a patron of the Welsh arts.
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The crempog is a Welsh pancake made with flour, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar and salted butter. Traditionally made on bakestones or griddles, the crempog is one of the oldest recipes in Wales. They are also known as ffroes, pancos and cramoth and are normally served thickly piled into a stack and spread with butter. It is traditionally served at celebrations in Wales, such as Shrove Tuesday and birthdays.
Eliza Acton was an English food writer and poet who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, Modern Cookery for Private Families. The book introduced the now-universal practice of listing ingredients and giving suggested cooking times for each recipe. It included the first recipes in English for Brussels sprouts and for spaghetti. It also contains the first recipe for what Acton called "Christmas pudding"; the dish was normally called plum pudding, recipes for which had appeared previously, although Acton was the first to put the name and recipe together.
Hannah Glasse was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. Her first cookery book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, published in 1747, became the best-selling recipe book that century. It was reprinted within its first year of publication, appeared in 20 editions in the 18th century, and continued to be published until well into the 19th century. She later wrote The Servants' Directory (1760) and The Compleat Confectioner, which was probably published in 1760; neither book was as commercially successful as her first.
Bonfire toffee is a hard, brittle toffee associated with Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night in the United Kingdom. The toffee tastes very strongly of black treacle (molasses), and cheap versions can be quite bitter. In Scotland, the treat is known as claggum, with less sweet versions known as clack. In Wales, it is known as loshin du.
Joseph Jenkins, was an educated tenant farmer from Tregaron, Ceredigion, mid-Wales who, when aged over 50, suddenly deserted his home and large family to seek his fortune in Australia. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says that "Jenkins's noteworthiness stemmed from the rich documentation of his experiences and thoughts that has survived". He was a consistent diarist for 58 years of his life and an award-winning poet, under the bardic name of Amnon II.
Onion cake is a savory or sweet cake prepared using onion as a primary ingredient. Various onion cakes are consumed in Canada, China, Germany, Korea, Switzerland, Wales and other countries. Several types and varieties of onion cakes exist, including laobing, pajeon, the scallion pancake, Edmonton-style green onion cake, teisen nionod and zwiebelkuchen.
Gilli Davies is a Cordon Bleu cook from Wales. Davies has been involved with food, food journalism and broadcasting since about 1975.
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Pembrokeshire has been called "the cottage garden of Wales", due to its good soil and the beneficial effects of the Gulf Stream, which provide a mild climate and a longer growing season than other parts of the country. The good climate and soil meant that the south of the peninsula was coveted by the Norsemen and Normans because it had "great plentie" of corn and cattle The county has prime agricultural land, much of which is located at about 70m above sea level, while to the north, the Preseli Hills rise to 500m above sea level and form uplands that are made up of heather and bracken, which are used for grazing sheep. Consequently, Pembrokeshire is classed as one of the most fertile counties in Wales, with its 392,300 agricultural acres having 14% of its land classed as of good quality, 67% being classed as medium quality and 19% being classed as poor quality. However, agricultural production is subject to market forces and in the 1890s, as a result of the Panic of 1893, a deep agricultural depression led to the area under cultivation falling by a third. Many labourers and farmers had no option but to emigrate to the New World and many of the large farming estates were sold. World War I brought prosperity again, but by the 1930s, as a result of the Great Depression, there was another agricultural depression which lasted until World War II. During the Post-war period agriculture has benefited from marketing schemes and marketing boards, which have helped in the regulation, marketing and distribution of the county's agricultural production.
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Alice Matilda Langland Williams, more commonly known as Alys Mallt and Y Fonesig Mallt, was a Welsh political writer and celtophile. She was born in Brecknockshire to an English-speaking family, but learned the Welsh language when influenced by the circle of Welsh heiress Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover.
The cuisine of Monmouthshire is historically associated with Lady Augusta Hall, also known as Lady Llanover, who published one of the first Welsh cookery books, First Principles of Good Cookery (1867). The book uses a fictional Welsh hermit to give culinary advice to a visiting guest who is travelling though Wales.
Margaret Jones was a 19th-century Welsh travel writer whose work was published under the pseudonym Y Gymraes o Ganaan.
Sri Owen is an Indonesian cooking teacher and food writer, based in London for most of her life. She is the author of the first English-language recipe book dedicated to the food of Indonesia, and is recognised as a leading authority on Indonesian cuisine.
The cuisine of the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, is noted for its high-quality food produced from the fertile farmland, river valleys and coast that make up the region. The area has a long history of agriculture that has developed from the Roman era.