The history man

With a long and deeply held interest in literature and the classics, Shaun Hill, chef-proprietor of the Merchant House, in Ludlow, Shropshire, was the perfect choice as guest curator for a display on cooks and their books that was launched at the British Library last week, in association with Caterer.

For Hill, though, the level of his involvement came as something of a surprise. "I thought I was being asked along to just give some general advice," he says of the Eating Out display, which runs in the caf‚ at the British Library until 25 May. "But then I discovered that I was actually curating the event."

Despite his initial reaction, Hill has thoroughly enjoyed the experience, which has involved several visits to the British Library for research alongside the library's cookery experts. The result is the bringing together of a collection of books, menus and manuscripts, reflecting a culinary history that dates from Bartolomeo Scappi, the chef who served successive Popes in Renaissance times, to present-day chefs such as Raymond Blanc, Anton Mosimann and Marco Pierre White.

The Eating Out display follows one on Eating In, curated by Delia Smith, who was originally inspired to write about domestic cookery by reading the works of Eliza Acton in the British Library.

"With Shaun's help, we wanted to put together a collection of books and exhibits which reflect something of a potted history of the restaurant trade," says Heather Norman-Soderlind, head of public and regional marketing at the British Library. "He's worked with our specialists in the 18th and 19th centuries but, at the end of the day, the final choice of books has been his."

Hill's task has not been easy, as the history of eating out has been poorly chronicled - particularly in the early years. This, of course, all changed in the latter half of the 20th century with the publication of the first Good Food Guide in 1951, followed later by the plethora of glossy food books that have become a business sideline for restaurants of every conceivable type all over the world.

"The problem, of course, was the fact that, earlier on, those who cooked for a living were rarely able to read or write," says Hill. "Books that were written were most likely to be directed towards those in charge of the cooks rather than the cooks themselves."

Also, earlier books did not reflect eating out in restaurants as we know it today but, rather, depicted the kind of meals that were served at state occasions and banquets or when entertaining in grand country houses. Hence, the inclusion of Bartolomeo Scappi's Opera, which, dating from 1570, is the oldest book among Hill's selection. "It includes some wonderful details about the grand banquets served to the cardinals when electing the Pope," explains Hill.

As a result of his studies, Hill dismisses the generally held belief that the first restaurant ever to open its doors to paying customers was in Paris in the late 18th century. "Food was supplied as a service to travellers in the same way that a bed and feed for the horse were supplied, in 100BC," he says. "For hundreds of years, food outside the home was generally found either in hotels or at formal occasions, such as when a group of noblemen or lawyers came together.

"However, eating out as a pure recreation, something that is democratic and available to all sections of society, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Even during my lifetime, the changes have been significant. In my youth there were a few trattorias around, but most eating out was done in grand restaurants where the excruciatingly formal meals were aimed at the upper classes. There was a ritual of dining out that existed then, which has now been broken down - and good bloody riddance to it, I say."

For Hill, the author who has had the most significant impact upon the development of eating out is Auguste Escoffier (see panel). "There is no doubt that he stands head and shoulders above all the others," he says. "It is nothing to do with his recipes, but his views on the way a kitchen and the front of house should be run are ones that have been universally adopted. His systems work and are still in use today."

Moving into the second half of the 20th century, the publication of books linked to restaurants mushroomed. "These books, though, were very different from what came earlier," says Hill. "Books from the likes of Anton Mosimann and Gordon Ramsay are intended to be inspirational rather than teaching readers anything about the mechanics of how to deliver food to the table in a restaurant situation. They tell you nothing about how to serve different meals of great complexity simultaneously. This is what you need to do in a restaurant, and that is why what Escoffier had to say was so important."

Hill is not knocking today's chef-writers - he is one himself, after all, having written three: Gidleigh Park Cookery Book, Cooking At The Merchant House and the recently published How To Cook Better (see Competition panel). He is simply highlighting that the reason for chefs putting pen to paper - or finger to keyboard - today is very different from the likes of Escoffier and other earlier chefs, such as Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and Antonin Carˆme.

"Books by chefs are now souvenirs for restaurant-goers," says Hill. "I know only too well how it works. I've only got a 22-seat restaurant and I sell around 10 books a week." n

The British Library is at 96 Euston Road, London NW1. The Eating In and Eating Out displays run until 25 May and are open daily (for opening times go to www.bl.uk/everyone). Commentaries recorded by Delia Smith and Shaun Hill, explaining their choice of books, accompany the displays. Admission is free.

The British Library
The British Library holds more than 14,000 cookery books and cookery-related items. Some of the library's rarer treasures include:

• Apicius's De Re Coquinaria [On Cookery], the first printed edition of the only surviving cookbook from the Roman Empire. It was published in Milan in 1498.
• Opera by Bartolomeo Scappi, an Italian chef of the mid-16th century who served several Popes, in particular Pope Pius V. Published in Venice in 1570, this culinary treatise, illustrated with engraved plates, consists of six books on cooking methods, ingredients, dishes and menus created by Scappi for official banquets.
• The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected by William Rabisha, published in London, 1661.
• The first edition of Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, published in London, 1747.
• The first edition of Isabella Beeton's Beeton's Book of Household Management, published in London, 1859-61.
• Early and very rare guides to the coffee houses, inns and taverns of London.
• Advertisements for restaurants in the 19th century from the Evanion Collection of Victorian Printed Ephemera.

The academic Shaun Hill
Born in 1947, Shaun Hill left school with A levels in Latin, Greek and ancient history and looked set to continue his academic studies, having won a place to read classics at Queen's University, Belfast. His social life, however, got in the way of his studies and Hill abandoned university for a series of jobs. A love of eating out eventually led him to his first cooking position, working in London for Robert Carrier at his restaurant in Camden Passage, Islington.

Throughout his well-chronicled career - taking him through the London kitchens of the Gay Hussar in Soho, the Inter-Continental hotel at Hyde Park Corner, the Montcalm hotel, the Capital hotel and the Hempel, before abandoning the capital for the countryside and the Lygon Arms in Broadway, Worcestershire; his first independent restaurant venture in Stratford-upon-Avon; Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Devon; and now his own highly successful Michelin-starred Merchant House in Ludlow, Shropshire - Hill has not let go of his interest in the classics.

For the past 15 years he has held a research fellowship at Exeter University and has written several academic papers and books, including one on the work of Archestratus, a Sicilian Greek of the 4th century BC, who is the world's first known food writer for his poem, Hedypatheia. Hill is currently three years into the writing of a book on food between the 5th century BC and early Christianity, Food in Antiquity, in collaboration with Professor John Wilkins of Exeter University.