Cream horns and Vol au Vents is the follow-up from my I Taught Them to Cook book.
It’s about teaching cookery in an east London comprehensive school in the 1970s. I’m twenty-four, in charge of a department, single and live in a grim bedsit.
Readers asked
‘What happens in Jenny’s love life?’
There are three men in the mix.
‘What happens to the students? Did they pass their exams?’
Some did some didn’t.
We hurtle into the second year.
-I arrive at school to find my cookers stolen.
-More boys register for my classes.
-The head wants exam improvements from last year.
-There are new, surprising initiatives to teach – Anti-Smoking and Sex Education – challenging for a young, single teacher with Benson and Hedges cigarettes hidden in my handbag.
London in the 70s bursts with new foods, unusual restaurants, ever-changing fashions, and energetic music. I need to shed my pink nylon overall, get out and find a partner.
But 1974 is the year of the Three-Day Week, electricity blackouts, and soaring inflation. Does that matter? Not really to me – young and on a mission.
Reviewers said of I Taught Them to Cook –
‘I read this book all in one greedy gulp’
‘This wonderful memoir transports you back to London in the seventies’
‘I loved it. Can’t wait for the next instalment.’
‘The descriptions of the food are tremendously evocative.’
Thanks for reading