Alan Eaton Davidson CMG (30 March 1924 – 2 December 2003) was a British diplomat and writer best known for his writing and editing on food and

gastronomy Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between food and culture, the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food, the cooking styles of particular regions, and the science of good eating. One who is well versed in gastr ...

. After leaving

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

in 1948, Davidson joined the British diplomatic service, rising through the ranks to conclude his career as ambassador to Laos, from 1973 to 1975. He retired early and devoted himself to full-time writing about food, encouraged by

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...

and others. He published more than a dozen books between his retirement and 2002, but his '' magnum opus'' was '' The Oxford Companion to Food'', a work of more than a million words, which took twenty years to complete and was published to international acclaim in 1999.

Life and career

Early years

Davidson was born in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

, the son of William John Davidson (1899–1959), inspector of taxes, and his wife, Constance, ''née'' Eaton (1889–1974).Levy, Paul
"Davidson, Alan Eaton (1924–2003), diplomatist and food historian"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2007. Retrieved 16 June 2020 He was brought up in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

in the north-east of England, where he attended

Leeds Grammar School Leeds Grammar School was an independent school founded 1552 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally a male-only school, in August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physicall ...

. His higher education was interrupted by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, during which he joined the

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a c ...

as an ordinary seaman and saw wartime and post-war service in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Pacific, ending the war as a commissioned officer. In 1946 he returned to England to complete his interrupted education at

, where he took a double first in classical moderations and Greats in 1948.

Foreign Office

From Oxford, Davidson joined the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

and between 1948 and 1973 he served in diplomatic posts in Washington, The Hague, Cairo and Tunis, headed two Foreign Office departments in London, and served as

head of chancery A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

in the British delegation to

Nato The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

in Brussels. In 1951 he married Jane Macatee. There were three daughters of the marriage. Davidson concluded his Foreign Office career as British ambassador to Laos, 1973–1975. A colleague later said of this posting: Davidson took early retirement from the diplomatic service at the age of 51 in 1975.

Food writer

While the Davidsons were living in Tunis, Jane asked her husband to look for a cookery book on fish because she did not recognise any of the local varieties and was unsure how they should be cooked. Not being able to find one he wrote one himself: ''Seafish of Tunisia and the Central Mediterranean'' "a handbook giving the names of 144 species in 5 languages, with a list of molluscs, crustaceans, and other marine creatures, and notes on cooking". It was a 126-page tract produced on a stencil duplicator and published in 1963. The British cooking guru

gave it a good review in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'' and introduced Davidson to Jill Norman, her editor at

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Paul Levy as "a revolutionary combination of scientific taxonomy along with the vernacular names of the fish, visual illustrations of them, and recipes for cooking them". Within four years the book had become "a classic", according to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'': "a masterly combination of reference book and cook book with a beautifully illustrated and annotated catalogue of fish, plus a collection of remarkable recipes". Further books on the same lines followed, much of the information in them supplied by Davidson's diplomatic contacts: ''Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos'' (1975), ''Seafood of South-East Asia'' (1976), and ''North Atlantic Seafood'' (1979), all of which went through several editions. In 1978 Davidson contracted with

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

to write what Levy calls his "'' magnum opus''", '' The Oxford Companion to Food'': "the house became a research centre, with the two basement rooms stacked floor-to-ceiling with cookery books and reference works in all of the several languages he, Jane, or their daughters could read". The same year the Davidsons edited and translated a 320-page selection from ''Le grand dictionnaire de cuisine'' by

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

, published as ''Dumas on Food''. In 1979 Davidson and his wife set up a publishing company, Prospect Books, to reprint rare cookery books."Alan Davidson", ''The Times'', 4 December 2003, p. 40 They also started a magazine, '' Petits Propos Culinaires'' "the first serious periodical dealing with food history" (Levy). In the same year Davidson was Alistair Horne Research Fellow at

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economi ...

. He convened a symposium on food history, in partnership with

Theodore Zeldin Theodore Zeldin (born 22 August 1933) is an Oxford scholar and thinker whose books have searched for answers to three questions: Where can a person look to find more inspiring ways of spending each day and each year? What ambitions remain un ...

, which grew into an annual event known since 1981 as the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. The Oxford Companion took Davidson twenty years to complete. It ran to a million words on 892 pages. There were contributions from more than fifty writers, but most of the book was written by Davidson. Elizabeth David, like the Davidsons, lived in Chelsea, and she made her extensive library available to him. Through her he met her favoured specialist booksellers in London and New York who helped him add to his knowledge. When the Companion was published in 1999 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it "The publishing event of the year, if not the decade", and ''

The New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' said, "… the best food reference work ever to appear in the English language … read it and be dazzled." Davidson died on 2 December 2003 at the

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is a 430-bed teaching hospital located in Chelsea, London. Although the hospital has been at its present site since only 1993, the hospital has a rich history in that it serves as the new site for the Westminst ...

, London, of heart failure, aged 79; he was survived by his wife and their three daughters.

Recognition

Davidson accepted the award of the CMG on his retirement, but later regretted it, deleted mention of it from his ''

Who's Who ''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a group of not ...

'' entry and refused further offers of official government recognition. In 2003 he received the

Erasmus Prize The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. I ...

from Queen Beatrix in Amsterdam in recognition of his establishing the Oxford symposium on food and cookery and writing the Oxford Companion. In March 2010

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

broadcast a television documentary called ''The Man Who Ate Everything'', a portrait of Alan Davidson by

Andrew Graham-Dixon Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster. Life and career Early life and education Andrew Graham-Dixon is a son of the barrister Anthony Philip Graham-Dixon (1929–2012), Q.C., and ...

."Television and radio", ''The Times'', 17 March 2010, p. 56

Publications

* ''Seafish of Tunisia and the Central Mediterranean'', 1963 * ''Mediterranean Seafood'', 1972 * ''Seafood of South-east Asia'', 1976, revised edition 2003, * ''Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos'', 1975, * ''North Atlantic Seafood'', 1980, * ''Oxford Symposium on National and Regional Styles of Cookery'', editor, 1981 * Phia Sing: ''Traditional Recipes of Laos'', editor, 1981, * ''Food in Motion: the migration of foodstuffs and cookery techniques: proceedings'', editor, 1983 * ''On Fasting and Feasting: a personal collection of favourite writings on food and eating'', 1988, * ''Seafood: a connoisseur's guide and cookbook'', 1989, * ''A Kipper with my Tea: selected food essays'', 1990, * ''The Cook's Room: a celebration of the heart of the home'', 1991, * ''Fruit: a connoisseur's guide and cookbook'', 1991, * ''

Oxford Companion to Food ''The Oxford Companion to Food'' is an encyclopedia about food. It was edited by Alan Davidson and published by Oxford University Press in 1999. It was also issued in softcover under the name ''The Penguin Companion to Food''. The second and th ...

'', 1999, . 2nd edition 2006 * ''Trifle'', 2001, with Helen Saberi, * ''The Wilder Shores of Gastronomy: twenty years of the best food writing from the journal "Petits Propos Culinaires" '', editor,' with Helen Saberi, 2002, * ''The Penguin Companion to Food'', 2000,

References and sources

References

Sources

External links

Obituary
(in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'')
Alan Davidson website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Alan 1924 births 2003 deaths Royal Navy officers of World War II Davidson, Alan Eaton Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George People educated at Leeds Grammar School Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Laos Cultural historians Writers from Derry (city) Irish people of Scottish descent Food historians James Beard Foundation Award winners