Florence White

Florence White (20 June 1863 in Peckham – 12 March 1940 in Fareham, Hampshire) was an English food writer. She established the English Folk Cookery Association in 1928 and published a number of books on cookery and other domestic subjects. Her cookery book Good Things in England remains in print.

White was sent at the age of 18 to live with two elderly aunts in Fareham, where she was introduced to traditional cookery. She later held a number of jobs, including schoolteaching and shopkeeping, before writing her first book, Easy Dressmaking (1891). This was published by the Singer Sewing Machine Company and sold 110,000 copies over eight years.

It was followed by Good Things in England (1932), a traditional cookery book which remains in print. Then came Flowers as Food (1934), and an autobiography, A Fire in the Kitchen: The Autobiography of a Cook (1938). Good English Food, Local and Regional was published posthumously in 1952.

In later years, White returned to Fareham and established a cookery and domestic training school there.

White's importance rests largely with her efforts to educate her readers about the importance of English culinary heritage.

The English Folk Cookery Association, founded by White in 1928, published in 1935 Good Food Register, a directory of restaurants and other places that offered English cooking. This was edited by White and later retitled Where Shall We Eat or Put Up?