Elizabeth David is the most important cookery writer of the past century – she revolutionised the way we, as a nation, think about food.
When Mrs David published her first book in 1950, post-war rationing was still in place and olive oil was only found in chemists in bottles marked “for external use only”. British housewives were making do with Spam, dried egg and over-boiled cabbage. David changed all that.
Her books, with their beautiful descriptions of mouth-watering Mediterranean cuisine, introduced the country to the previously unheard of delights of olives, apricots, avocados and basil.
This film tells the compelling story of the woman behind the Mrs David persona. At the heart of the drama is the one true love affair of David’s life – the affair which she claimed drove her to success as a food writer – and the moment where it all came crashing down.
Her misery at losing this great love was so extreme that she suffered a brain haemorrhage, which tragically and ironically robbed her of a full sense of taste.
Shot on location in the UK and Malta, the film stars Catherine McCormack (Spy Game, The Tailor of Panama, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Honest Courtesan, Land Girls, Braveheart) as Elizabeth David. Greg Wise (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, According to Bex, Sense and Sensibility) plays her long-term lover, Peter Higgins.