Electric Decade: The Alice B Toklas Cookbook

BBC Radio 4 FM

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Electric Decade

Drama

Drama: Classic & Period

Classic titles that influenced and characterised the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

During 2020, we bring you a range of classic titles that influenced and characterised the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

During 2020, we bring you a range of classic titles that influenced and characterised the Jazz Age of the 1920s, from the beginnings of Modernism, through the parties and dancing as the shadow of the war was thrown off, to increasing uncertainty as the decade drew to a close.

Electric Decade: The Alice B Toklas Cookbook: Onion Soup

Onion Soup

The Alice B Toklas Cookbook

BBC Radio 4 - Electric Decade, The Alice B Toklas Cookbook, Onion Soup

The Jazz Age of the 1920s. Recipes and relationships are explored with Alice B Toklas.

Gertrude is frustrated and angry about repeated rejections from publishers and Alice is deciding which dish to cook for a young photographer called Man Ray.

In this new drama by Sarah Woods the story of the first half of the twentieth century, the modern age, is told through the lens of the food grown, purchased, cooked and served by Alice B Toklas for her partner Gertrude Stein and their eclectic and talented guests.   

First published in 1954 and one of the bestselling cookbooks of all time, a "mingling of recipes and reminiscence", we follow this couple as they eat their way around France and America, being painted by Picasso and written about by Hemingway. 

In human terms, this is a story about Gertrude's determination and desire for success and it explores the lives of two women whose lives challenged so many norms - yet who knew that, in France, a potato salad must always be served surrounded by chicory.

Episode 1: Onion Soup
In which Gertrude is photographed by a new arrival in Paris and Alice shares her recipe and thoughts: 

'Onion soup is a slow evolution in a new direction, which is the way great art is created - that is , everything is ready for it, and one person having the vision does it, discarding what they find unnecessary in the past.'

CAST:
ALICE ..... Deborah Findlay 	 
GERTRUDE STEIN ..... Sharon D Clarke           
MAN RAY ..... Rupert Evans

Writer: Sarah Woods
Producer/Director: Celia de Wolff
Sound Engineer: David Thomas
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Recipes and relationships are explored trough the food cooked and served by Alice B Toklas for her partner Gertrude Stein and their eclectic and talented guests.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Electric Decade

The Alice B Toklas Cookbook

Onion Soup

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4