Have Patience āMrs Gray lists uses for goose fat. In a cassoulet. In soups. On bread. On toast. On your chest, rubbed in in winter. On leather boots, if they squeak. On your hands if they are chapped.ā - Angela Carter, Novelist. Born on Halloween of 1917, in Shackleford, Surry, Patience Jean Gray (nee Stanham) was a visionary English food writer best known for āPlats Du Jourā written with Primrose Boyd, the bright pink-covered cookbook which introduced French dishes like Breton fish soup and Boeuf en Daube into British kitchens in the late 1950s and āHoney From A Weedā in 1986, an account of the Mediterranean way of life. In what wouldāve been her 100th year, itās right that her eclectic life is celebrated in a new biography; āFasting and Feasting: The Life of the Visionary Food Writer Patience Grayā. Stanham was a maverick. She began an affair with Thomas Gray (who was married with two children) whilst in London and had two children with him, a son Nicholas and a daughter Miranda. Stanham took the name Gray by deed poll in the āLondon Gazetteā on January 17, 1941. After raising her children alone Gray, who was always an advocate of being good to yourself, spent many years living in Tuscany, Catalonia and the Greek Islands with her partner, the sculptor Norman Mommens, before settling in an isolated farmhouse in Apulia, Italy. There they lived off the land, foraging and slaughtering their own pigs, subsiding according to the whims of the seasons. Of course, she still believed in enjoying a bottle of wine with dinner āwherever possibleā, a philosophy espoused in āPlats Du Jourā. Patience at her desk in the Billiard room. Photography by Stefan Buzas/The Observer, courtesy of Nicolas Gray. #chapeaulondon #chapeaublog #dedicatedtothethingswelove #wordsandpictures #amazing #london #lifestyle #patiencegray #patiencejeanstanham #platsdujour #primroseboyd #honeyfromaweed #mediterranean #foodwriter #cook #visionary #recipes #fastingandfeasting #chelseagreenpublishingco #book
