The Victorian Kitchen

\""The Victorian kitchen -- the words conjure up an 'upstairs downstairs' image of maids in their starched aprons, overseen by an outwardly stern cook with a heart of gold, cosily ensconced around a scrubbed wooden table. But what was life really like 'below stairs' in Victorian times? In her book 'The Victorian Kitchen', which accompanies the major BBC television series, Jennifer Davies takes a look behind the scenes. We discover that 'kitchen and scullery should never assert their nearness through the nose', we look at the vast collection of equipment used -- from the dusty, smoky range, which had to be cleaned out and coaxed into life at 6 o'clock every morning, to the gleaming array of 'coppers' which were every cook's pride and joy. We meet 'The Victorian Kitchen''s cook, Ruth Mott, who started her working life as a scullery maid in an old-style country house in 1930 when mansion kitchens were still run on Victorian lines. Ruth and other former kitchen and scullery maids tell of .