Forgotten Skills Of Cooking Wins The André Simon Food Award
Wednesday 10 Mar 2010

Doyenne of cooking, Darina Allen has won the highly prestigious André Simon Award for her book Forgotten Skills of Cooking. Competing against five other shortlisted titles, from a longlist of almost a hundred entries. The panel of judges declared Darina the winner in a ceremony held at The Goring Hotel, London, Monday night.

When she became a grandmother, Darina realized the importance of passing on her knowledge. The result was a series of 'Forgotten Skills' courses at Ballymaloe Cookery School that have been oversubscribed from day one. In Forgotten Skills of Cooking she shares this huge wealth of expert knowledge, covering everything from how to smoke your own food to making butter and yoghurt, plus a myriad of recipes that show you how to use your home made produce to its best. It also includes lots of ideas for how to use leftovers in delicious ways – a skill that came naturally to our grandparents.

Divided into chapters, Dairy, Keeping a Few Chickens, Using the Whole Pig, Lamb and Beef, Fish, Bread, Cakes and Biscuits, Home Growing, Foraging, Cider and Wine Making and Smoking, the book contains over 700 recipes, with ideas for using forgotten cuts of meat, home-made tomato ketchup, Darina's foolproof Soda Bread, and many good old fashioned cakes, stews and sausages.
A definitive modern guide to traditional cookery skills, Forgotten Skills of Cooking not only encourages us to think about the food we eat but inspires us to reconnect with essential life skills to pass on to our own children.

Darina Allen runs the world-renowned cookery school at Ballymaloe, Ireland, which she founded with her husband in 1983. She runs the highly regarded three-month diploma course as well as various short courses. Darina is the award-winning author of Irish Traditional Cooking, Ballymaloe Cookery Course, A Year at Ballymaloe, Healthy Gluten-free Eating (with Rosemary Kearney) and Easy Entertaining. She is Ireland's most famous TV-cook, having presented nine series of her cookery programme, Simply Delicious, on television around the world. Darina founded the first Farmers' Markets in Ireland and is a tireless campaigner for local produce. She is a natural teacher, whose enthusiasm and energy for good things is quite contagious.