Name: Virginia Ross
Class Year: 1966
Country of Residence: UK
Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory?
In the summer of 1965 Ruth Lawson arranged an internship for me with Britain in Europe, a political pressure group in London. My lodgings were owned by fascinating Russian émigrés – a delightful downstairs neighbour had been a friend of Anna Pavlova, the Russian prima ballerina.
As an 80th birthday supper surprise for my neighbour, I bought a crab from a Saturday outdoor market and, not knowing what to do with it, searched for a cookbook. Luckily in a local bookshop I stumbled upon Summer Cooking, by Elizabeth David, “Britain’s first lady of food”, as I discovered.