La Cena—Elizabeth David & Alicia Coello 

Awarded Pass in ISTD Student Assessment 2022

Commended in Irish Graduate Design Awards 2022

 This project is a response to the ISTD  brief 100 books that changed the world. Focusing on Elizabeth David’s ‘A book of Mediterranean Food’. Elizabeth David’s book revolutionised how the British public viewed food. She published the book in 1950 at a time when Britain was still recovering from World War Two. Her food inspired the public with new flavours and recipes that had never been seen before. I drew a personal connection to David’s story as my grandmother Alicia Coello emigrated to Ireland from Madrid in the late 1950s. Her story was similar to David’s but on a micro-scale. My grandmother was able to introduce her whole family to Mediterranean cooking and food.  

This is a very important project to me personally but it also ties into a broader audience. Food is something we all celebrate on a daily basis. ‘A book of Mediterranean Food’ delves into food as an experience, not just a necessity. I used this concept to create my response to the brief, celebrating how food can bring people together. The idea of this book is to set up a story and allow the reader to become part of it by creating the recipes from both women Elizabeth David and Alicia Coello.