The Home Of The World’s First Celebrity Chef Hits The Market

Lasagna and spag bol, kebabs and falafel – now staples of any good British diet, these foods were once strange and foreign to English tongues. While globalisation meant that exotic ingredients (like garlic) started appearing on our dreary shores throughout the 20th century, the Mediterranean dishes in which they feature didn’t embed themselves into our cookbooks alone. 

Today, the idea of the celeb chef will conjure up images of Gordon Ramsay, Mary Berry and Jamie Oliver, but these stars wouldn’t exist without the pioneer that came before. The woman who bought moules marinière to our isles, Elizabeth David was one of the best-known food writers of her day. With her former home now on the market, here’s everything you need to know about the famed foodie. 

The Home Of Elizabeth David: The Woman Who Gave Us Mediterranean Cuisine

Who Is Elizbeth David?

Born in 1913, Elizabeth David hadn’t always dreamt of life as a chef. Schooled at St Clare’s Private School for Ladies in Tunbridge Wells, she first tried (and failed) to become an actress before briefly working as a junior sales assistant at fashion company House of Worth.

Her fate (and that of the culinary world) changed, however, in 1939 when she and her lover Charles Gibson Cowan set sail for Greece. By the time the war broke out, the couple were holed up in the south of France where they met writer and traveller Norman Douglas – the man who would become Elizabeth’s food guru and mentor.

She continued her travels around the Mediterranean with trips to Italy and a brief residence on the Greek island of Syros in the Cyclades before fleeing to Cairo after the German invasion of Greece. Spending the rest of the war in Egypt, she eventually abandoned Cowan for India army officer Anthony David. Moving to India with him in January 1946, she found the food ‘frustrating’, only coming to appreciate the cuisine later in life, as seen in the Indian dishes and recipes featured in her articles and books.

While abroad, she had been free to hold regular lunch parties, serve up kebabs and whip up homemade ice cream. Making her return to Britain in 1946, she was in for a cruel shock. With Britain still in the grips of rationing and the clench of post-war austerity, Elizabeth could no longer enjoy something as simple as a fresh tomato. Appalled at the quality of food on offer, she would scribble down lists of the items she most missed: apricots, olives, butter, rice, lemons, almonds to name a few. Passionate about revolutionising the dreary British diet, by 1949 she had started writing a cookery column for Harper’s Bazaar as she went on the hunt for a book publisher. 

Amused by Elizabeth’s extravagance and commitment to ingredients that were near impossible to buy on British shores, Julia Strachey published her first book, A Book of Mediterranean Food, in 1950, which featured ‘exotic delights’ such as moules marinières, spanakopita and bouillabaisse, alongside a wise quote from French Chef Marcel Boulestin: ‘It is not really an exaggeration to say that peace and happiness begin, geographically, where garlic is used in cooking’ – an ingredient then largely feared by British cooks who had yet to discover the wonders of cheesy garlic bread.

With the book launching her career as a food writer, she followed with French Country Cooking, Italian Food, Summer Cooking, and French Provincial Cooking, plus food pieces for Vogue and the Spectator. In 1965, she opened up her shop Elizabeth David Limited in Pimlico where she sold Le Creuset pans and other hard-to-get-hold-of kit, pioneering the idea of shops dedicated exclusively to kitchenware.

Receiving an OBE in 1976 and then a CBE a decade later, she was also the first cook to be honoured by an English Heritage plaque. Remembered as one of the most influential cookery writers of the 20th century, her work has shaped the likes of Rick Stein, Jamie Oliver and Prue Leith – with a new documentary about the OG celebrity chef set to be released early in 2026.

Step Inside Her Former Home

Now commemorated with a blue plaque, Elizabeth David lived at 24 Halsey Street in Chelsea between 1947 and 1992. An end of terrace four-bedroom home with ample entertainment space, David lived, worked and hosted here throughout her culinary life.

While the kitchen of this Grade II listed home has since been renovated, David was photographed extensively in the original kitchen which was then situated in the back extension from 1948 up until the 1980s, entertaining guests with wine and French cigarettes in hand. The famed kitchen had been designed by her nephew as an ‘unfitted’ kitchen and David frequently wrote of her love for it. 

Modernised and extended, the space includes a wide first-floor drawing room, landscaped paved gardens and a large conservatory extension, while being the only house on Halsey Street with the brick fronted third floor as opposed to a mansard extension.

Where Is It?

Halsey Street in Chelsea runs between Milner Street and Cadogan Street, situated equidistant between Sloane Square, South Kensington and Knightsbridge.

24 Halsey Street is on the market for £6m. Find out more at struttandparker.com