Apron Strings
£10.00
A Suite of Studies and Technical Tips for Kitchen Performance.
A Recipe Book collected and arranged by Rodney Slatford and Geoffrey Thomason.
Preface to the Second Edition
Originally published to raise money for the British Branch of European String Teachers Association’s International Youth String Orchestra, the initial run of Apron Strings quickly sold out. The orchestra formed the centrepiece of ESTA’s international conference at Portsmouth in 1999 and provided an opportunity for students of ESTA members from all over Europe to play together. I was Chairman of the British Branch at the time and was responsible for helping to raise funds to support the venture.
The Royal Northern College of Music, of which I was Head of the School of Strings for sixteen years, boasted a flourishing wine society, run for and by members of staff. Once or twice a term tutored tastings were held in the Senior Common Room when wines were shown by people in the trade and others who really knew their onions! After the tasting a buffet provided an opportunity to mingle over an additional glass or two. The food, to which many of us contributed, was invariably good.
Geoffrey Thomason, Senior Assistant Librarian at the College and a guiding light behind the catering, helped me draw together an interesting collection of recipes and anecdotes from musical friends who shared our enthusiasm for good food and travel. Thus Apron Strings.
This second edition includes one or two minor corrections but otherwise the narrative has not been updated. Some contributors and friends mentioned in the text are sadly no longer with us; others, like myself, have ‘retired’ or moved on. But as I mentioned in the blurb on the back cover of the first edition, the book is ‘a light-hearted guide to good practice in the kitchen, seen through the eyes of musicians with a passion for cooking’.
Identification of the full score used as a background on the covers proved a challenge for many. As the reprint is to raise funds for the refurbishment of the Yorke Trust’s premises in South Creake in celebration of the Trust’s fortieth anniversary, there are no prizes for submitting the correct answer. A clue: think ‘strings’, of course, and Middle Europe. Got it?