Cookery Lectures
Isle of Wight Observer – January 11, 1879
The Mayor has again shown a most praiseworthy public spirit by arranging for a course of lectures on cookery – an art which is very much neglected by English people. His Worship, doubtless, attributes a great deal of the grumbling he hears to dyspepsia, and is anxious to show our townspeople how to cook their food so as to stay the ravages of a disease which invariably causes those who suffer from it to look at everything in the most gloomy light. However, one person we ventured to speak to on the subject replied – She could cook all she could get, and the great difficulty with her was to get something to cook. “First catch your hare” is a very good motto, and if his Worship will inform some of us how to do that, he will add to the many obligations we are under to him. However, there can be no doubt that a great deal of good food is wasted through sheer laziness, and if the course of lectures which the Mayor has arranged teach economy and good management, he will have done a great work. The course of lectures was opened on Tuesday by Mr Buckmaster, FRSA, who delivered two lectures in the Town Hall, but as so much depended on illustration, they were scarcely reportable.
February 8, 1879
SCHOOL OF COOKERY – Miss May Vincent, of the National School of Cookery, South Kensington, gave the last of a course of lectures upon cookery at the School of Art. The Mayor has been much disappointed by the fact that the lectures have not been attended by the artizan class. From all we hear the style of cooking taught by Miss Vincent, although possibly very useful to middle-class persons, was unsuitable to artizans who have to study economy in the expenditure of every penny. This is the report of several practical persons who attended the lectures, and were very much disappointed at what they heard. We are sorry to hear that his Worship is a considerable sum out of pocket by the lectures.
