 Clarissa Dickson Wright , in her A History of English Food , calls Acton " the best cookery writer of the period " , noting that she paid " considerable attention " to curry in the book . Dickson Wright comments that Acton knew about " her countrymen " ' s lack of understanding of curry and " lamented ' the great superiority of the oriental curries over those generally prepared in England ' " . She further notes that Acton suggested practical improvements , such as grating coconut into the gravy , and using tamarind , acid apples and cucumber to simulate the " piquancy you get with bitter gourds , mango , and so on " , which she comments was certainly better than lazily adding lemon juice , but still nothing like " anything prepared by my grandmother 's Indian cook . " 
