From Spam to Sushi: How We've Changed the Way We Eat

Back In Time For Dinner

Companion to primetime BBC 2 series presented by Giles Coren with guest celebrities including (for eg) Mary Berry  - a riveting combination of nostalgia and social history.

Depending on your age, there'll be many foods and fads in here you'll remember with either fondness or disgust. A fascinating trip down our culinary Memory Lane, an eye-opening insight into how our eating habits have changed or have been changed, and a brilliant taster for the BBC TV series which is accompanies. A veritable feast of a book!

A book with plenty of interesting facts that mirrors a changing world

If you have fond memories of Spam, Angel Delight, Vesta curries or even the Cabbage Soup Diet, and enjoyed the BBC Two TV programme Back In Time For Dinner, then Mary Gwynn's nostalgic book will be a real treat! It's full of fascinating facts about the food that nation has loved since the 1950s and what's come into - and gone out of - fashion.

Mary Gwynn was the founding editor of BBC Vegetarian Good Food and subsequently editor of M&amp;S magazine. She has worked as a consultant editor and trainer for Waitrose for 12 years, and has written six cookbooks to date.

Do you remember the arrival of the fish finger, the rise and fall of Angel Delight, Vesta curries and Wimpy hamburgers? Did you own a fondue set or host a Tupperware party, or were you starving yourself on the Cabbage Soup Diet? Was life always too short to stuff a mushroom? And what was the point of Nouvelle Cuisine? 
There has been a revolution in our kitchens. In 1950, the average housewife worked a seventy-five-hour week. No one owned a fridge or had seen a teabag, let alone an avocado or a Curly Wurly . Ten years later, sugar consumption had rocketed: we ate more biscuits for dinner than vegetables and fruit. It was not until the mid 1990s that we started to worry about ‘five a day’. And now, nearly twenty years on from the first vegetable-box delivery scheme, we are fatter than ever before . . . Has there ever been a golden age of the family meal? 
 Full of delicious detail, this marvellous companion to the BBC series is rich with nostalgia and provides a feast of extraordinary factual nuggets. Who can guess the filling of the first pre-packed sandwich in 1984? And who could have foreseen then that a kitchen robot that can write your shopping list is now just around the corner? 
Reflecting all the fads and fashions that have graced our table, Back in Time for Dinner is much more than a book about dinner; it holds a mirror to our changing family lives.

Mary Gwynn

The First 100 Years

As the Women's Institute turns 100, this beautifully packaged book, curated by food journalist Mary Gwynn, brings together the 100 best loved members' recipes nationwide. Organised decade by decade, and setting each recipe in its historical and social context, it spans everything from jams and preserves to main courses, puddings and bakes. Nostalgic favourites like Toad in the Hole and Kedgeree feature alongside contemporary hits such as Lamb Pot Roast with Nettle Champ and Italian Lamb with Roasted Sweet Peppers. Here are recipes created during the war to make the most of limited supplies (like Stuffed Cod Steak and Apple and Fig Roll) and ideas to overcome the challenges of food rationing (like Elderberry and Apple Jelly and Corned Beef Hash) to current day recipes such as Venison Steaks with Quick Bearnaise Sauce and finally the WI's own signature cake: The  Centenary Fruit Cake from North Yorkshire. Fully illustrated from the archives of the WI, alongside beautiful food photography, this gorgeous cookbook will prove a firm favourite with keen cooks of all ages.

Mary Gwynn

Books by Mary Gwynn

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