My grandmother was French and as such was a great cook I am told. When I was a child she was already an ailing old lady who sat in her stiff backed chair in the kitchen all day, smoking thin cigars and directing the household, including my Grandad as he peeled potatoes and prepared sauces. He was a naval man and cookery was timed with military precision.
Legend goes that she collected recipes wherever she traveled, and she traveled quite a lot, she came to the Britain through Egypt and South Africa. There is a lost collection of recipes out there somewhere that are hand written, all tried and tested with notes in the margins (beat eggs for precisely 4 minutes etc). Each recipe has the date, the location of the meal and the name of the chef who had given her the recipe. This cookbook is my holy grail. I can't imagine a better family heirloom, but sadly they were lost.
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