At the age of 89, my great auntie Sylvia was eating fried egg and chips at least twice a week. A gutsy, stubborn woman who’d survived The Blitz and her husband’s long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease, she’d settle for nothing less than good, hearty sustenance. Sometimes it was a ‘potato in its jacket’ and others it was a monster of a bacon sandwich - despite her Jew-ishness. She also enjoyed, as we found out weekly inspection of her food cupboards, a nightcap of caramel Baileys…
Ask her about ‘healthy eating’ and she’d most likely hand you a tin of fruit cocktail (in syrup) and send you on your way. When she died four years ago aged 90, it was, according to her ‘far too late’. The mild angina wasn’t destroying her heart quick enough. She’d lived a healthy, happy, fulfilled life, was ‘blessed’ with three children and five grandchildren but, by the age of 85, she’d had enough. Best friends, uncles, aunts and her beloved husband of 65 years had flown to far away land and now she’d be with them. Fair enough, I thought. When people learn about the Not Plant Based philosophy, they often launch into tales of a granny or great granddad who ate a bar of Toblerone a day and were ‘perfectly healthy’. And whilst it’s a wildly unscientific basis to construct any conclusions about healthy diets, it must mean something – right?
Of course it does.
It means that whether you eat white bread or not has little impact on the longevity of your life. It means that life is mostly random and nonsensical, and largely defined by the genetics you receive from generations past. The best we can hope for to dodge a diagnosis until we hit 80-ish. Eating fruit and vegetables, being middle-class, not smoking and doing a bit of exercise give you a better chance of getting there – but not a guarantee. It is literally as simple as that. For further proof, I spoke to the women behind Grand Dishes – an award-winning blog that tells the foodie stories of grannies around the world, along with their most treasured recipes. Journalist Anastasia Miari and creative director Iska Lupton started the project in 2016 as a celebration of their respective grandmothers’ classic dishes. Soon, they extended the idea to outside their families, travelling up and down the country – and later across the world – to sample other people’s home-cooked meals. Today, they’ve interviewed hundreds of grannies from all walks of life about the food they like to eat. The one thing they share? Nothing is off the table…
They kindly carved out some time during their epic road trip across the American south to let me pick their brains.
Q: HOW DID GRAND DISHES COME ABOUT?
GD: We were inspired by our grandmothers who show us love with the food they cook for us, and what they put on the table. They’re both quite stern ladies and stoic. But the way they showed love for us was cooking an amazing feast. I [Anastasia] wanted to do a recipe book of my own Greek grandmother’s recipes and we realised Iska had stories to tell too, so we decided to come together and do the book.
Q: TAKING WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED FROM THE GRANNIES, WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST MYTHS ABOUT HEALTHY EATING?
GD: That fad dieting and cutting anything out of the diet is healthy. None of the grannies do that. My [Anastastia] grandmother is 84 and is still farming, planting her own vegetables, making her own olive oil and her own wine. She still has a glass of wine at lunch and at dinner and doesn’t omit anything from their diet. Her diet is really varied. She’s still very healthy and strong at 84 - a bit of what you fancy really does do you good. The only common thread is that the grannies treat ingredients in a pure way. So they’ll just cook something from scratch using the most basic form of ingredients. My [Iska] granny loves a simple dinner such as spinach and a fried egg, for example. All they’re doing is eating food in its original format.
Q: HAS THE PROJECT CHANGED YOUR ATTITUDE TO FOOD?
GD: Not really, but it’s solidified what I already knew about the absolute importance of cooking for people – it is so special. I want to have dishes that I’ve been cooking since I was 20 when I’m 80, just like the grannies. I want to associate cooking different dishes with different special points throughout my life. I [Anastasia] now, more than ever, really value taking the time out to cook a meal. Even if it’s just for me. I’ll put as much time into making a lovely bowl of pasta for myself. Most of these women live on their own but they still do that. I definitely make more of an effort when I’m feeding myself to make something proper, rather than making a quick sandwich.
Q: GIVEN YOUR GRANNIES’ EXPERIENCES OF FOOD, WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF CLEAN EATING?
GD: [mildly irate] There’s no such thing as clean eating! The trend insinuates that certain eating is dirty. Am I filthy if I eat a piece of cake? Of course not. These grannies do not eating any of the things associated with clean eating, like matcha powder. They just eat normal ingredients. No, we don’t agree with it. All it does is make you think of food in a negative way. And that’s not us.
For more information about Grand Dishes’ upcoming book, click here.
