The Wizard of the Kitchen. How a Dutch Chef Became a Pioneer in British Culinary Education

The Wizard of the Kitchen. How a Dutch Chef Became a Pioneer in British Culinary Education Synopsis

They called him ‘the wizard of the kitchen’ because he was able to prepare dishes without meat, sausage rolls without sausage and baked potatoes without using a single potato. Dutch-born Iwan Kriens, headmaster of the first Hotel and Restaurant School in the UK, was a culinary authority in the first decades of the twentieth century. An English biography sheds new light on this untiring campaigner for culinary education, who taught the British public how to survive strict national rationing during the First World War.

No doubt, if Iwan Kriens (1871-1957) had lived in our century he would have been actively involved with cookery shows on television. He would have been a member of the jury in Master Chef or may even would have had his own programme. For Iwan Kriens was knowledgeable, charismatic, amiable, and not afraid to give his opinion.

The famous chef grew up in the Netherlands. Around 1900 he settled in London where he became headmaster of the very first government-funded cookery school for professionals in England, the London County Council Cookery Technical School at the Westminster Technical Institute, the current-day Westminster Kingsway College. Under his leadership, the school grew into a successful vocational training centre where generations of chefs learned the trade. And still do so. Westminster Kingsway College is one of the most prestigious culinary and hospitality schools in the world.

Apart from being an excellent teacher, Iwan was a prominent member of the Universal Food and Cookery Association, passionately campaigning for the importance of good and healthy food. During the First World War, when food was scarce and sometimes priceless, he provided cooking demonstrations and wrote a highly-praised cookery book, together with well-known journalist Dorothy Peel. In The Victory Cookery Book he explained how to prepare a tasty and nutritious meal with scarce products and alternative foods, confirming his nickname ‘The wizard of the kitchen’.

Although superfoods as we now have them did not exist as yet, Iwan Kriens and Dorothy Peel were already aware of the special features of certain vegetables and cereals. The importance of drinking water, the medicinal effect of a homemade

broth, the advantages of steaming instead of cooking vegetables and fish, the role of carbohydrates and minerals, all of which topics that are nowadays presented as totally new or innovative ideas by trendy chefs and health gurus, can be found in their simple cookery book from 1918. Several recipes from The Victory Cookery Book, such as oatmeal sausages, mulligatawni soup, potato scones and a frugal Christmas Pudding, are included in The Wizard of the Kitchen, a charming biography about a remarkable chef, which gives an interesting and amusing insight into a little piece of English culinary history.