author
Mrs. W. G. Waters
A lively early food writer, she brought Italian cooking to English readers through a witty blend of storytelling, travel-minded taste, and practical recipes. Her best-known book turns a cookbook into a social comedy, making it feel surprisingly modern.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Published as Mrs. W. G. Waters, Emily Waters is best known for The Cook's Decameron (1901), a cookbook that presents more than two hundred Italian recipes inside a playful, conversational frame story. The book helped introduce many English-speaking readers to Italian dishes at a time when that cuisine was far less familiar in Britain.
Available records also describe her as the author of a second cookbook, Just a Cookery Book (1924). LibriVox notes that she was a skilled classicist and that she collaborated with her husband, William George Waters, on translations of Italian Renaissance literature, which fits well with the strong Italian literary flavor of her writing.
What makes her especially memorable is the tone of her work: warm, opinionated, and genuinely enthusiastic about good food. Rather than writing a dry manual, she made cookery feel like conversation, which is a big part of why her books still charm readers today.