Martine Diederik Wittop Koning (10 January 1870 – 29 July 1963) was a Dutch nutritionist,

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

activist and cookbook writer. She was a pioneer of

domestic science Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences (often shortened to FCS or FACS), is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and f ...

in the Netherlands.

Biography

Martine Konging was born in

Goch Goch (; archaic spelling: Gog) is a town in the Kleve (district), Kleve district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, close to the border with the Netherlands, south of Kleve and southeast of Nijmegen. History Goch is at least 750 years old: th ...

to Dirk Arnold Wittop Koning (1845–1909) and Martina Susanna Everdina de Moulin (1846–1928). She moved to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

with her parents and four younger brothers at age 14. In 1891, she attended Amsterdamsche Huishoudschool, a domestic science school on Amsterdam's

Prinsengracht The Prinsengracht is a -long canal that runs parallel to the Keizersgracht in the center of Amsterdam. The canal, named after the Prince of Orange, is the fourth of the four main canals belonging to the Grachtengordel, canal belt. History Const ...

and passed her cooking school teacher exam in 1893. In 1895, she moved with the school to its new building on the Zandpad opposite

Vondelpark The Vondelpark () is a public urban park of 47 hectares (120 acres) in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is part of the borough of Amsterdam-Zuid and situated west from the Leidseplein and the Museumplein. The park was opened in 1865 and originally na ...

where she was a resident cooking and nutrition teacher. She authored brochures about domestic science and also gave cooking lectures. In 1900, she became secretary of the Association of Teachers in Domestic Education. Konging later joined a new cooking school on Gabriël Metsustraat in 1906. She worked as a teacher for the school until her retirement in 1935. In 1928, she moved to a house in

Huizen Huizen () is a municipality and a village in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands. The name "Huizen" is Dutch for "houses" and this usage has been linked to the belief that the first stone houses in the region, instead of the more commo ...

which had been built by her brother, architect Adrianus Rudolphus Wittop Koning (1878–1961). Until her death at the age of 93, she was active and worked in her vegetable garden. Koning has been described as a pioneer of domestic science in the Netherlands and one of the most prolific cookbook authors in Dutch history.

Vegetarianism

Koning was a follower of strict dietary regulations. She was a teetotaller and became a vegetarian in 1900. The school board ordered Koning to eat her meals separately to students because she was a vegetarian. Koning advocated a meatless diet in her lectures and publications. She was a member of the Dutch Vegetarian Association but had to resign in 1919 as some of her non-vegetarian cookbooks contained meat recipes.

Selected publications

Her most successful was ''Simple and Calculated Recipes'' (1901), a cookbook for the bourgeoisie. Her other publications include ''Big vegetarian cook book'' (), ''The vegetarian dinner'' (Dutch:Het vegetarisch middagmaal), ''Vegetable salad recipes'' (Dutch: Rauwkost recepten), ''Our twelve o'clock lunch hour'' (Dutch:Ons twaalfuurtje), ''Food in children's homes'' (Dutch:Voeding in kindertehuizen) and ''In search of mushrooms'' (Dutch: Paddestoelen zoeken).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittop Koning, Martine 1870 births 1963 deaths 20th-century Dutch women writers Dutch health and wellness writers Dutch nutritionists Dutch vegetarianism activists Home economists People from Goch People from Huizen Dutch cookbook writers Vegetarian cookbook writers Women food writers