Original Victorian and
Edwardian Recipes
Restored To Modern
Day English
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The recreation of Lilly Longman’s recipe book was a long and interesting process and began with two people who live on the Greek island of Corfu who turned out to have a lot in common becoming friends. It could be called a quirk of fate.
Alan Smith is pictured top right and lives in the hills above the resort of Acharavi on the Northern coast of Corfu. For the purpose of this web-site we refer to this Alan as “Big Al”. After all we have to remember that he did cook ALL the recipes in Lilly’s recipe book in order to author the modern day version!!!
Alan arrived on Corfu in 1989 with nothing more than a video camera and £40. After a few weeks Big Al secured a contract to produce videos of trips on a BBQ boat which he sold to the guests. Back in 1989 video cameras were not generally available to the public so the people on the boat relished the thought of being able to take home video memories of their trip out.
Alan eventually purchased his first house on Corfu then spent around 20 years working in the property market on the island. His projects are too numerous to mention here but, needless to say, after 20 years he has a great deal of experience.
He tells me “I have two houses on Corfu, a house in Bulgaria, have worked hard for 21 years here but still only have forty quid!!!
Alan Taylorson (“Little Al”) is pictured bottom right. He arrived on Corfu in 2005 after establishing and running one of the largest window blind manufacturers in England, Homefair Blinds and becoming involved in property in the UK. He sold the company and retired to Corfu.
Big and Little Al didn’t actually meet to become friends until 2008. They found that they had a lot in common. Obviously the property link was the closest common denominator, however, after a while being friends they even found out that they BOTH owned a sausage machine and began trying sausage recipes which they scored between 1 and 10. The results, of course, remain secret!
A short time after the “sausage machine” incident, Little Al spoke of a recipe book which was written by his Grandmother Lilly Longman around 100 years ago. At the time it was with Little Al’s sister in the UK. Big Al immediately became filled with enthusiasm and the idea to translate the text into modern English and create an illustrated recipe book with all of Lilly’s recipes was born.
The book was sent to Corfu by courier and, after an anxious wait, it arrived on Corfu. This was the beginning of “the project” which was to take some 18 months and result in a wonderful recipe book containing recipes from the Edwardian and Victorian times, effectively preserving history.
Alan Smith (“Big Al”) painstaking recreated every recipe and translated the text into modern day English as he authored the modern day recipe book. The photographs in today’s recipe book are not enhanced and are not studio produced. They were taken by Alan with a standard digital camera when the dish was still hot.
Alan Taylorson (“Little Al”) is the current owner of Lilly Longman’s original recipe book. He was involved with the restoration and is thrilled with “Big Al’s” hard work re-creating Lilly’s recipes and preserving history.
Interview carried out by Kevin Baker (web-master) in June 2010
