The Professor

Name: Damson Penelope Sedgwick
D.o.B: 29 April, 1932
Place of Birth: A small potting shed at the bottom of grandma’s garden
Nationality: British
Occupation: Professor of Culinary Antiquities, Author and Qualified Chef.

Professor Damson P. Sedgwick is a world-renowned expert in culinary antiquities. His area of expertise covers Ancient Greece and Rome, and his interest spans into the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Although he experienced the pleasures of rationing during the second world war, and being merely a child at the time, he was heralded a hero in his local community of Fordingbridge, Hampshire for his most innovative recipes.

His parents, Sorrell and Frederick Sedgwick, were local farmers, established in the area since medieval times, and owned quite a few many sheep as well as having a market garden. They would sell there wares in the village, where ladies of all ages, finding Damson a delightful little chap and full of ideas, would seek his assistance in devising recipes for dinner and special occasions. During the school holidays, Damson would often be found entertaining the tourists with his blackberry tart and lemonade stall at the local archaeological site, Rockbourne Roman Villa. This activity he continued throughout his teens, and in addition to being a tour guide at the site until the year he graduated from Oxford, he would go on to publish the recipes he had exchanged with the tourists in his first cookery pamphlet, Portable Picnic Food for the Discerning Tourist, Fordingbridge Teddyvisual Press.

Sedgwick then moved to London to continue his doctorate in Culinary Antiquities whilst holding down his first job cataloguing ancient artifacts in the secret vaults at the British Museum. After ten years and a steady progression up the career ladder, Damson found himself as curator of culinary Ottoman artifacts and antiquities. This led to his secondment, during the mid 1960s, to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum where he was instrumental in the research and development of a culinary tour of Turkey. He collaborated with the locals on traditional and ancient recipes popular during the time of the Ottomans. Whilst there, there was a misunderstanding with some traders in the 16th Century Egyptian Spice Market in Istanbul which led to his imprisonment for a brief spell. All was not lost, however, and two years after the incident, Sedgwick birthed his best selling novel, Two Partridges and a Handmaiden, which catapulted him to international stardom, quite literally overnight.
This book, which is now in its tenth edition, has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for several decades, and was the beginning of a long string of novels and cookery books celebrating the food of the ancient world. Titles of novels include: The Fishcakes of Flavia Marcellus, Juno and the Sacred Goose, Solomon’s Banquet, and cookery books: Nectar and Ambrosia, Fragrance of the Gods, By Zeus He’s Hungry, and the best-selling Libations and Cordials: Alcoholic and Virgin cocktails for all occasions.

When he is not busy writing novels, Professor Sedgwick lectures a post graduate class on Ancient Utensils and Chefology, gives a Classical Cuisine master class at the City and Guilds Teddyversity and runs an extra-curricular evening class for teddies of the third age in How to Construct (and ride) your own pogo stick.

Professor Sedgwick is married with four grown-up children of varying design.

Academic Qualifications
BA Hons Classics and Archaeology, Oxford Teddyversity
MA Classical Antiquities, Oxford Teddyversity
PhD Classical Banqueting Arts, London School of Teddology
PhD Pogos and Unicycles: A history of construction and application, TST, Istanbul.

Books and Articles:
1953, Portable Picnic Food for the Discerning Tourist, Fordingbridge Teddyvisual Press.
1955, ‘Dandelion Soup for the Soul’, article August, Teddy and Home Magazine
1956, ‘A touch of Winter Spice’ article, January, Teddy and Home Magazine,
1958, ‘Wise words from a discerning sprout’ Autumn, Cook’s Quarterly
1959, ‘Why ancient soups still taste so good’ Article in Teddyversity Newspaper, based on Thesis premise
1964, ‘The artifice and edifice of ancient banqueting techniques: Better late than never’ Thesis published in Journal of Culinary Antiquities, Oxford Teddyversity Press
1967, Two Partridges and a Handmaiden, Teddy University Press
1969, Solomon’s Banquet, Teddy University Press
1972, Juno and the Sacred Goose, Teddy University Press
1975, Once Bitten, Twice Plump: A Collection of Short Stories, Teddy University Press
1979, The Famous Fishcakes of Flavia Marcellus, Teddy University Press
1985, Nectar and Ambrosia, Bear Necessity Press
1985, King Akkram and the Mummy of Cheese, Teddy University Press
1988, Fragrance of the Gods, Bear Necessity Press
1991, Libations and Cordials: Alcoholic and Virgin cocktails for all occasions, Bear Necessity Press
1993, The Wedding Feast of Flavia Marcellus, Teddy University Press
1994, The Mediterranean Adventure of Flavia Marcellus, Teddy University Press
1996, By Zeus He’s Hungry, Bear Necessity Press
2000, Old Cheeses for all occasions, Bear Necessity Press