Ursula Winnington's Culinary Legacy Finds a Home in Dresden's Archive
Ursula Winnington's Culinary Legacy Finds a Home in Dresden's Archive
Ursula Winnington's Culinary Legacy Finds a Home in Dresden's Archive
Dresden (dpa) – Once celebrated as the East's culinary queen, Ursula Winnington authored several cookbooks in East Germany, including Kitchen Cuisines of Other Countries and A Little Cookbook for Children. Each month, she penned the beloved column "Love, Imagination, and the Art of Cooking" in the highly sought-after DDR magazine Das Magazin. Now, just before the first anniversary of her death, her estate has been donated to the German Archive of Culinary Arts in Dresden.
Maraike Wittbrodt and Lilly Böhm, the author's daughter and granddaughter, presented the collection as a gift to the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB), the library announced.
The estate includes Winnington's personal cookbook and working library of over 150 volumes, as well as a handwritten 19th-century cookbook from her grandmother—the very book that first sparked her passion for cooking.
The SLUB also received a wealth of her publications dating back to 1964, from Das Magazin as well as Guter Rat and Sibylle magazines, along with reader letters and extensive correspondence from 1971 to 1999—including exchanges with VEB Exzellent Dresden, the manufacturer of the popular Worcestershire sauce.
Winnington passed away in Berlin in May 2015 at the age of 96. Over her career, she published more than 1,250 recipes, eight cookbooks, and a collection of her recipes and columns. Her final book, released in 2012, featured dishes like Mecklenburg's Götterspeise (a gelatin dessert) and French boeuf bourguignon.
"Her archive is a vital resource for diverse research and a treasure trove for anyone passionate about the art of cooking," Lilly Böhm said in a statement. She added that her grandmother would have been delighted to see her legacy preserved alongside those of DDR television chef Kurt Drummer and German gastronomy critic Wolfram Siebeck. "Through her cookbooks and recipe columns—charming cultural-historical journeys into distant worlds—she captured an East German way of life that enriches our understanding beyond the usual stereotypes."
Founded in 2022 by the SLUB in collaboration with Dresden University of Technology, the German Archive of Culinary Arts will now incorporate this donation as a significant addition to the history of DDR culinary culture, said SLUB Director General Katrin Stump.
The estate will be cataloged and made available for research, while the books will be publicly displayed in the SLUB's FoodStudio in Dresden.
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