June 2016
Squirrel Pie at the Symposium
We are delighted to congratulate our former Director, Elisabeth Luard, on two counts:
– On her Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guild of Food writers
– On the upcoming publication of her new book, Squirrel Pie (and other Stories): Adventures in Food Across the Globe
Elisabeth will be signing copies of her book at the Symposium. There will also be a display of Elisabeth’s offal watercolours throughout the weekend (examples of which illustrate this post).
Looking back at her time as a Symposiast, Elisabeth writes:
It does rather date me, but I have to admit I’ve been an Oxford Symposiast on and off since 1983. At the time, I was gathering raw material for my first book, European Peasant Cookery, and I rather think that founding-father Alan Davidson encouraged me to attend as a way of unsticking me from his library shelves. Then as now the gathering was international and egalitarian – by which I mean if you had something to contribute or a need to learn, no academic qualifications were necessary. The only thing that’s changed is the recognition that the friendships formed and ideas exchanged at table over good food and wine are now as important to the weekend as the discussions themselves.
