When Elizabeth’s father, Rupert, died suddenly in 1924, Elizabeth and her sisters were sent to various boarding schools whilst her mother pursued her own interests, moving to Jamaica in 1933 and remarrying. When Elizabeth was sixteen, she was enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to undertake a course in French civilisation and culture, and it was here that she first experienced the joys and pleasures of continental cooking. After Paris, Elizabeth continued her studies in Munich, returning to England in 1932.