Dainty Dishes

Drake, Lucy (comp).Text book for Nurses' Cookery Certificate...: dainty dishes for children, invalids & convalescents. Swinburne Technical College; [Melbourne],[ca.1923-9]. (170x165mm) printed wrappers, 36,[4]pp. (rev & enlarged by Dorothy M Giles) VG/-

DRAKE, [Miss] Lucy (compiled) [Miss Lucy Ann (1867-1923)] revised and enlarged by GILES, Dorothy M [Dorothy Marion (1896-1989)].

Text book for Nurses' Cookery Certificate required by the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association: dainty dishes for children, invalids & convalescents.

[Melbourne] : Swinburne Technical College [1927]¹. First edition. Printed by "Reporter" Print, Box Hill. Advertisements for Vegemite, Davis Gelatine, Lifeguard Condensed Milk, Ovaltine and Stone-Age Whole-meal Flour.

(170x165mm) printed grey stiff card wrappers, stapled and hand-sewn, 36,[4]pp.


Wrappers faintly soiled, owner name in ink "A H Jones" to p.1; corners lightly bruised.


Miss Drake trained in cookery at the National Training School of Cookery in London.  In 1912 she was teaching part time in the newly established Swinburne Technical College in Hawthorn. In 1914 she became Head of the Department, and in 1915 became a full-time permanent staff member until her unexpected death in 1923 having just returned from six months leave where she finished the manuscript for her book "Everylady's Cook- Book".

After the death of Miss Drake, her niece (and assistant) Dorothy Giles took over her post and revised several of her books including Everylady's Cook-Book and Home Cookery.  The nursing and invalid recipes were removed and published under the new title "Dainty Dishes".  Giles continued in the post of Domestic Instructor until 1930 when she took up positions first at the Gordon Technical College in Geelong and then the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy in Melbourne.  In 1946, Giles left the Emily McPherson College to conduct the McAlpin's Test Kitchen providing daily tests of the McAlpin's products and recipes and instructions to housewives.

Miss Drake's cookery books were the most popular cookery books in Melbourne during the interbellum and considered authoritative and full of economy and commonsense.   She notes (p.5) "A woman may be excused if she cannot make a cake, but it should be regarded as a social crime, if she is not able to prepare a good cup of beef tea or nourishing soup, and a few simple dishes, which will help, and not retard and invalid's recovery."

Scarce.  A near fine copy.


§  OCLC records 3 holdings all in Australia; Swinburne University hold a copy also.
§  Hoyle 416;

¹ The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.) Saturday 15 October 1927 p 68.