Lord Mayor tastes a slice of history
The Lord Mayor of Cardiff has been presented with a cake from a long forgotten recipe book published in 1807 called the London Art of Cookery.
The cake, using an original recipe from the book was presented to the Lord Mayor by Jenny Kenna – author of the forthcoming cookery book a ‘Georgian Kitchen in Wales.’
The recipes for many fine dishes prepared for previous Cardiff Lord Mayors including the Marquess of Bute at his family banquets also came from The London Art of Cookery.
And Cardiff’s first elected Mayor, Thomas Revel Guest, in 1835 no doubt would have consumed dishes from the original cookery book at civic banquets at that time.
An original edition of The London Art of Cookery was inherited by Jenny’s husband. Generations of his family considered this treasure too precious to be displayed so, carefully wrapped in tissue paper, the book had always been stored out of sight.
When the time had come for it to be unwrapped and its contents examined, Jenny was fascinated. She was holding culinary history in her hands and, as she pored over the old recipes, she felt compelled to delve into the past and discover why this book had belonged to her husband’s family, the Allens.
