Toronto Reference Library Blog

Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, describes Margaret Powell as:

"the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world where servants and their employers would live their vividly different lives under one roof. Her memories, funny and poignant, angry and charming haunted me until, many years later, I made my own attempts to capture those people for the camera. I certainly owe her a great debt." (The Downstairs Cookbook, i)

Born in 1907,  Margaret Powell began her life in domestic service at the age of fifteen as a kitchen maid and worked her way up to Cook. She is the author of several memoirs as well as The Downstairs Cookbook: Recipes from a 1920s Household Cook. This book includes fascinating details about kitchen life. Powell had no idea how to cook when she started out, and one of her early challenges involved dealing with the live fish delivery. Powell learned by watching and assisting, and after the day's work was done, she would stay up late writing down as much as she could remember about the recipes.  

Powell describes the separate, underground world of the staff, and how they were often treated in a disparaging way; however, she speaks with great pride about her work: 

"I know look back on myself not as a skivvy, as we were so derogatively called, but as a person who was doing something really worthwhile, and something that, when I became a cook, I found great pleasure in doing and in having done well." (The Downstairs Cookbook, xviii)

Powell's love of food is evident throughout the book, and she makes it clear that she does not eat food because it's good for her, but because she loves it. Her recipes will be familiar to fans of Downton Abbey and they are generally not too  complicated. Some ingredients
may be hard to come by though, such as the eels for fried eels. 

The Toronto Reference Library has many unique historical cookbooks such as The Cook and Housewife's Manual: a Practical System of Modern Domestic Cookery and Family Management by Christine Isobel Johnstone from 1833. Two Victorian classics include Mrs. Beeton's Cookery and Household Management (originally published in 1861) and Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families (first published 1845).

Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, describes Margaret Powell as:

"the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world where servants and their employers would live their vividly different lives under one roof. Her memories, funny and poignant, angry and charming haunted me until, many years later, I made my own attempts to capture those people for the camera. I certainly owe her a great debt." (The Downstairs Cookbook, i)

Born in 1907,  Margaret Powell began her life in domestic service at the age of fifteen as a kitchen maid and worked her way up to Cook. She is the author of several memoirs as well as The Downstairs Cookbook: Recipes from a 1920s Household Cook. This book includes fascinating details about kitchen life. Powell had no idea how to cook when she started out, and one of her early challenges involved dealing with the live fish delivery. Powell learned by watching and assisting, and after the day's work was done, she would stay up late writing down as much as she could remember about the recipes.  

Powell describes the separate, underground world of the staff, and how they were often treated in a disparaging way; however, she speaks with great pride about her work: 

"I know look back on myself not as a skivvy, as we were so derogatively called, but as a person who was doing something really worthwhile, and something that, when I became a cook, I found great pleasure in doing and in having done well." (The Downstairs Cookbook, xviii)

Powell's love of food is evident throughout the book, and she makes it clear that she does not eat food because it's good for her, but because she loves it. Her recipes will be familiar to fans of Downton Abbey and they are generally not too  complicated. Some ingredients
may be hard to come by though, such as the eels for fried eels. 

The Toronto Reference Library has many unique historical cookbooks such as The Cook and Housewife's Manual: a Practical System of Modern Domestic Cookery and Family Management by Christine Isobel Johnstone from 1833. Two Victorian classics include Mrs. Beeton's Cookery and Household Management (originally published in 1861) and Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families (first published 1845).