The London French: Food, Language and History

Professor Debra Kelly is the Lead Researcher and Author of REF 2014 Impact Case Study: The ‘London French’: Temporal and Spatial Mapping of the French Presence in the British Capital from the 17th Century to the Present Day. Named in REF 2021 Impact Case Study: The London French: in history and in the contemporary city, on-land and on-line. Lead Researcher (with Saskia Huc-Hepher) for successful application to REF Case Study Funding Scheme 2018/19 for this impact case study.  

Public talks

  1. ‘Revolutions in French Food’, December 2016, Le Beaujolais, Litchfield Street, London organised by the Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation; comprised a three-course meal with dishes to complement the themes of the short talks given; co-speakers Graham Henderson (R&V), Ruth Cruickshank (Royal Holloway) and Marion Demossier (Southampton)
  2. ‘Frogs and Snails on the Streets of London’, ‘Soho’ - Difference Festival, University of Westminster, February 2018; round table chair with novelist Michèle Roberts; restaurateur Yannis Alary, Blanchette, Soho; and Ruth Cruickshank, Royal Holloway ( London)
  3. ‘Cuisine Cordiale. French Gastronomy in the UK’, November 2021, Alliance Française de Manchester; Invited online speaker with Olivier Troalen, Chef-Proprietor of La Bohème Restaurant, Cheshire
  4. ‘Why restaurant's history’? University of Westminster, March 2022; joint book launch of Fishes with Funny French Names. A history of the French Restaurant in London from the 19th to the 21st Century (LUP 2022) with Saskia Huc-Hepher’s French London. A blended ethnography of a migrant city (MUP, 2021)
  5. ‘Des poissons aux drôles de noms français. Le restaurant français à Londres du 19ème au 21ème siècle’, May 2022; Invited speaker, Le Club Français d’Epsom et Ewell, Bourne Hall, Ewell, Surrey 
  6. Language Acts! What are ‘Our Values’?, May 2022; Invited Keynote Workshop for UNESCO-funded Refugee Integration Through Languages and the Arts (RILA), University of Glasgow, Heart of Scotstoun Community Centre, Glasgow
  7. ‘In the heart of language: multilingual performance-practice, in conversation with Jasmina Bolfek-Radovani’;  Invited intervention for the launch of Knitting machines for exiled tongues,  February 2023, Morocco Bound Bookshop, Bermondsey, London
  8. ‘Free French Food. Dîner avec les Français Libres en temps de guerre à Londres’, University of Westminster, June 2023; Invited speaker for the members of the Association des Membres de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques and of the Association de l’Ordre National du Mérite (associations for members of the French Honours system in Great Britain)
  9. ‘The Archives of the Dispensaire Français -Société Française de Bienfaisance, London’, with Professor Emeritus Martyn Cornick, University of Birmingham, November 2023; Study Day on French Collections in the UK organised by the British Library; French Institute in London

Media

Soho Community Radio London (2018); in conversation with Leslie Hardcastle, former Director of the British Film Institute and member of The Soho Society; Thursday One Hour Soho Community Radio Programme, February 2018 concerning the history of French restaurants in the area.

Consultancy

  1. 2015: The ‘Huguenot Summer’ (with the Huguenots of Spitalfields charity and the Montagu Music Collection, Boughton House);
  2. 2015: Centenary of the French lycée in London; co-historical advisor and co-authored preface to Le Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle de Londres 1915-2015 (with the French Institute and the Association des Anciens du Lycée Français de Londres [French Lycée Alumni Association])
  3. 2020: Interviewee and panellist for GDR Creative Intelligence Consultancy concerning the language(s) of the pandemic; resulted in The GDR Assembly Report, ‘Navigating a Post-Covid 19 Future in Business, Retail and Hospitality’, June 2020 (Eric Coulon, Head of Strategy; John O’Sullivan, Managing Director)