Archive for January, 2010

Does anyone remember Dione Lucas?

She was born in 1909 and died in 1971. I can remember when she died because there was a nice spread in the New York Times and I was reading it while in study hall in the library at Pershing High School in Detroit, Michigan. It’s amazing the things that really stay with us; I can still appreciated the fact I could read about people all over the world from my little high school library. Today of course there are computers.

Dione Lucas as an English Chef who was the first female graduate of Le Cordon Bleu establishing the first extension of the famous Paris Culinary School in London in the 1930s. I admired the fact that she was a born educator and her cooking was not for show but focused on educating the everyday cook about building a solid foundation in the culinary arts.

In fact I purchased one of her cookbooks in May of 1984; originally copyrighted in 1964 I prepared almost everything in the book for my dad many years later. The title of the book is Dione Lucas Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook and it is a classic; personally I prefer it over Julia’s book because it is truly a “how-to” cookbook and the Maple Cake, Stuffed Breast of Lamb and Souffle au Fromage (hot cheese souffle) are to die for… not to mention everything else in the book. I love the marketing list that accompanies each recipe and the little bits of wisdom she throws in from time to time. If you can locate a copy buy it and begin cooking from it immediately. The food is amazing! I am planning cooking classes for this spring and I am inspired to use this as the text students work from…if I can locate enough copies.