LEEDS.- A new exhibition at the University of Leeds explores the rise of the celebrity chef and how recipes have been collected and compiled since Roman times.

Cooks and their Books: Collecting Cookery Books in Leeds is the latest exhibition at the University’s Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery.

Opening on 1 September and running until the end of January, it highlights the University’s outstanding Cookery Collection of books, papers and objects relating to food, drink and cooking which date from 2,500 BC to the present day.

The collection was established in 1939 when Blanche Legat Leigh, a former Lady Mayoress of Leeds, donated her collection of 1,500 historic volumes and manuscripts to Leeds University Library.

Dr Stella Butler, University Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection, said: “This exhibition showcases the University’s rich collection of books on cookery and related subjects which contains many unique items. The display will interest anyone interested in in the history of food with its fascinating stories about how what we eat has changed over time.”

The exhibition, co-curated by renowned food historians Peter Brears and Dr Eileen White, showcases the world’s first illustrated cookbook; the first English cookery book ever published outside London – which was printed in Leeds; and why a long-forgotten writer dubbed the ‘Queen of Ices’ really deserves the Victorian cookbook crown taken by Mrs Beeton.

Dr White said: “Cookbooks aren’t just for cooks. They give us an insight into society and into major events in history. They are a vital resource for understanding the way that people live.”

Co-curator Mr Brears added: “The scope of University’s collection is very impressive and contains some fascinating artefacts. This exhibition is the tip of the iceberg but encompasses many of the major highlights.”

Highlights on display include:

· A.B. Marshall, Mrs A.B. Marshall’s Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (London, 1891) and A.B. Marshall, Fancy Ices (London, 1894)

Mrs Marshall was the celebrity chef of the 1880s. Her books, cookery school, demonstrations and weekly paper The Table instructed the booming middle class in fine cookery. She earned the nickname the ‘Queen of Ices’ for her writing on ice cream and other frozen desserts and was granted a patent for a machine that could freeze a pint of ice cream in five minutes.

· Bartolomeo Scappi, Opera dell'arte del cucinare, (Venice, 1570)

The Opera dell'arte del cucinare was the first-ever illustrated cookbook. This beautifully detailed book was by Italian Renaissance master chef Bartolomeo Scappi, who worked for Pope Pius V in the Vatican at the same time that Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The book gives a glimpse of 16th century tastes and recipes, including pizza toppings such as sugar, pine nuts and rosewater. There are also wonderful illustrations showing the kitchen furniture, utensils and other equipment that would have been used to prepare and serve food in Renaissance Italy, including the first labelled picture of a fork.

· Roberth Macnish, The Anatomy of Drunkenness (Glasgow, 1840) and Reginald Scot, A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden (London, 1578)

These two items come from Alfred Chaston Chapman’s extensive collection of books on beer and alcohol. Chapman was President of both the Institute of Chemistry and the Institute of Brewing. His diverse collection contains a rare survival of a 16th-century treatise on how to keep a hop garden and a well-used Glaswegian publication about the ill-effects of alcohol, including the ‘Spontaneous Combustion of Drunkards’.

Other notable objects on display:

· A first edition of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management containing a handwritten note from Mayson M. Beeton, the author’s son.

· Platina’s De honesta voluptate ac valitudine (Venice, 1487), which contains the oldest recorded usage of cannabis in cooking, in a recipe for a health drink.

· De re coquinaria, (Venice, c.1490-1500), a collection of Roman cookery recipes, thought to have been compiled in the late fourth or early fifth century AD. The book claims that the tongues of flamingos have a particularly fine flavour.

Cooks and their Books: Collecting Cookery Books in Leeds, opens on Friday 1 September at the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery and runs until January 31, 2018. Entry is free.