178 
COOKERY AT SOUTH KENSINGTON 
HE most successful department of the International 
Exhibition this year is undoubtedly that connected 
with Cookery. Twice a day is alecture delivered on some 
practical department of cooking, and at the same time a 
demonstration is given by a well-trained group of female 
cooks, in a conveniently fitted-up kitchen open to the au- 
dience. These lectures are the great attraction of the 
Exhibition, and many persons anxious to gain admission 
are turned-away for want of space to accommodate them. 
This shows, at any rate, on the part of the public, an 
appreciation of the subject and a desire to be instructed 
as far as possible. 
At the same time it is to be lamented that the class of 
persons who most need instruetion in cooking do not 
attend. The charges cf sixpence and a shilling for 
entrance to hear these lectures and see the cooking demon- | 
strations must exclude the class of people for whom such | 
instruction is most needed. Although there is a wide- | 
spread notion that people in England do not know how 
to cook at all, yet we question very much if the civilised 
world produces better dinners than are to be found daily | 
onthe tables of the wealthy classes of England. They | 
need not to consult economy either in the cost of mate- 
rials of food or its preparation. For them lectures on 
cooking are not needed, and even their cooks, who get 
from fifty toa hundred poundsa year, could hardly be 
instructed by Mr. Buckmaster and his bevy of cleanly 
cooks. If anything is wanted by the wealthier classes, it 
is a more scientific knowledge of the nature of food and 
the processes by which it is prepared for digestion. This 
they will not get at South eeneton.. Mr. Buck- 
master’s lectures are not intended as a scientific exposi- 
tion of the chemical or physical properties of substances 
used as diet, or of the way in which they affect the palate 
or act on the body. They consist simply of directions 
how to prepare dishes, and the cooks in the kitchen 
follow his directions. There is no doubt that to 
thousands of people this is of great service. No house- 
keeper, however low in the scale of society, but must be 
benefited by seeing prepared poor man’s soup, omelettes, 
macaroni, and Australian meat, in Mr. Buckmaster’s 
kitchen. At the same time they will learn only how to 
imitate the methods of cooking they have seen: they 
will learn no principles. They will hear nothing about 
the nature of the materials they see cooked, unless it is 
that hot water and heat act upon them to produce the 
results théy see. They will see eggs made into an 
omelette in a frying-pan, but hear nothing with regard to 
the nature of eggs, their value as an article of diet, and 
other means ot cooking them besides frying. 
Another defect we observed in these lectures was 
the truly British defect of ignoring weights and mea- 
sures. Mr, Buckmaster’s lecture sounded very like the 
magnification of a receipt out ot an ordinary cookery 
book. Take a piece of this, a pinch of that, and a hand- 
ful, a sprig, a few teaspoonfuls, and so on for every 
ingredient used. We know this is the rule of the 
kitchen, and any attempt to introduce scales and weights 
would be flouted with contempt. It is the same with 
temperature ; water is called “ cold,” “warm,” and “hot,” 
without the slightest allusion to temperature. Surely 
| Mr. Buckmaster’s chef, and the four young female cooks, 
[¥uly 3, 1873 
in lectures like these accuracy ought to be studied; and 
when things can be measured and weighed, so good 
an opportunity of teaching the importance of this should 
not be lost. It is because of the neglect of these mat- 
ters in the kitchens of our wealthier classes that they 
seldom have put on their tables dishes two days alike. Nay, 
we know more: we tasted some macaroni made bya cook 
who had been to Mr. Buckmaster’s lecture, which was no 
more like the macaroni made in his kitchen than his was 
like plum pudding. This arose entirely from the cook not 
measuring rightly the time of cooking the macaroni and 
the quantity of the flavouring ingredients. 
Now we do not Say it is possible to teach all the science 
of cookery in one lecture, but we do say that it is possible 
to speak accurately about the wezg/ts of the materials 
used, the degrees of Acat to be employed in cookiag, and 
the “ve that things require to cook. 
We throw out these suggestions in the hope of seeing 
them acted upon. There is no doubt that it would be 
attended with some difficulty. There is the Italian cook, 
all not only to be educated, but to be got into the frame of 
mind to submit. We see also that there is a Cookery 
Committee, who would, we suppose, have to be consulted 5 
but these gentlemen would, we are sure, assist in intro= 
ducing so desirable a system of instruction. Mr De 
Rivaz is on the Committee, and he is well known for 
his book on cookery called “ Round the Table,” as also 
for his receipts in the Qveex newspaper. 
Whether there is any inténtion on the part of this Com- 
mittee to extend the lectures, and give a course on cookery 
comprising the teaching of the elements of the sciences in- 
volved in the facts acted upon in the kitchen, we do not 
know, but this would be a worthy object and probably 
would succeed, as the public is evidently disposed to listen 
to the subject. It must, however, be done at once, and 
done in the International Exhibition. It cannot be dotle 
at South Kensington; the experiment has been tried there 
and failed. The country gentlemen in the House of 
Commons do not see their way to voting public money 
for the instruction of people in London. Whether done 
in London or the country, such courses of instruction 
would be a capital way of getting a little scientific know- 
ledge into the heads of people edgeways, as it weré. 
But now we come to the question of opening the presént 
lectures to the poor. These lectures were intended for 
their instruction and got up in their interest, but they are 
conspicuous by their absence at these lectures. The whole 
Exhibition is open to them for a shilling, and when they 
have screwed this sum out of their hard-earned wages, and 
paid fora crust of bread and cheese and half-a-pint of beer, 
they have nothing to spare for learning cookery. Yet we are 
quite sure the money would be well spent. The persons 
in the community who suffer most for want of economy 
in cookery are the very poor. They buy their food in the 
most expensive way, by buying it in small quantities, and 
when they have got it they know less than any class how 
to cook, They know nothing of the way of making, or of 
the economy of using soup. They hardly know the differ- 
ence between warm, hot, and boiling water in cooking 
food. The fact is, we believe, that half the food of this 
class is really lost for the want of a knowledge of the 
proper means of cooking it. To such people these lectures 
