Cookery in Colour: A Picture Encyclopedia for Every Occasion

by Marguerite Patten

Cookery in Colour - A Picture Encyclopedia for Every Occasion Patten OBE, Marguerite

Genres: Reference, Cooking

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Hilda Marguerite Patten was a home econonomist, food writer and broadcaster.
Marguerite Patten fresh from the Ministry of Food during World War II represented post-war austerity cookery books; many selling in huge quantities and produced in colour by Paul Hamlyn. She was one of the early TV cooks to have her own programme.

She was awarded an OBE in 1991.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this today in a book sale. Cookery in Colour says it all, this book is from the 60's, this was the only cookery book in my parents home, cooking didn't happen in our house, but I poured over this book as a child and imagined how the food would taste and how much fun it would be to cook some of these recipes.

This book is an amazing slice of social history, it tells you what to eat whilst watching television and what snacks to serve when entertaining. What was the height of fashion in a 60's soiree, would have alarm bells ringing in most peoples heads these days as to what sort people would eat food like this and offer it to others! -condensed canned tomato soup mixed with gelatin moulded in a ring with shrimps and lettuce in the hole and endless tomatoes cut in zig-zag halves to look like flowers, I can't do justice to the rest of the set up with mere words, but it would have me climbing out of the nearest window. The photographs in all their Technicolor glory look like stills from 'Abigail's Party'. Apart from being a trip down memory lane this does have many recipes for more normal faire that my daughter is excited about trying.

There are some lovely notes on how to source the more exotic ingredients, soy sauce can be obtained from specialist Chinese suppliers. How times change, even the most ill stocked corner shop will have soy sauce these days!

Great fun, and the pages that do have only black and white photographs have been jazzed up by cutting out the photos and sticking them on to bright pink, lime green, orange or turquoise backgrounds! Who needs Photoshop!

[Plch · Rating 2 out of 5]

As many books printed in colours published in the UK in the '60s and '70s, this was printed in Czechoslovakia, where printers were good and cheap, and that's why I found this very retro cooking book in a old book shop in Prague 20 years ago, possibly you can still found a few of those colorful treasures even now.

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up with this book. I used to stare at the pictures and imagine the type of homes where the dishes were cooked. I don’t know what happened to the book I grew up with as this was found in an op shop.

[Laraine Anne Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books like this were expensive because colour printing itself was expensive, so goodness knows how I managed to buy this book. I did use it, though I can no longer remember which recipes I cooked, but for a lot of the time I owned it I simply read the recipes and tried to imagine how the end product would turn out, as another reader here also admits to doing. The colour printing compares very badly with what we see today, but that’s part of the interest of such a book. Perhaps if the pictures had been printed on more appropriate paper (which would have added considerably to the book’s price) it would have looked better. However, unlike another recipe book I purchased at the time of my marriage, this book contains recipes any housewife would be happy to use today.