Good Cold Dishes

Ambrose Heath (born Francis Geoffrey Miller; 7 February 1891 in London, England – 31 May 1969 in Wotton, Surrey) was an English journalist and food writer. He authored many cookbooks.

Heath wrote for newspapers including The Times and The Manchester Guardian, before becoming the food writer for The Morning Post. From 1933, when he published four cookery books, Heath wrote and translated more than one hundred works on food, such as Good Food on the Aga (reprinted by Persephone Books in 2003) and The Good Cook in Wartime. He was best known for a translation: Madame Prunier’s Fish Cookery Book (1938).

During World War II, rationing was practiced and food writers also embraced the challenge. Heath authored 29 cookbooks between 1939 and 1945, some of which promoted vegetable cookery. During this time there was an involuntary national shift toward vegetarianism and this is reflected in some of Heath’s cookbooks. Heath authored Cooking in Wartime (1939), Good Food Without Meat (1940), Making the Most of it (1942), Simple Salads and Salad Dressings (1943) and Vegetables for Victory (1944). Heath was not a vegetarian in his personal life but his book Good Foods Without Meat advocated alternatives to red meat and poultry. It was an early pescatarian cookbook as the recipes included fish and eggs.