Cooking Up A Treat

BBC4 Showed a wonderful interview with Marguerite Patten yesterday evening.  It was in the usual Mark Lawson Talks to slot and I was impressed as to how much in control Marguerite was. She wasn’t standing for any messing from Mark Lawson, even when he pressed her about convenience and fast food. I think he was expecting her to condemn it, but she said that she could see a place for it in busy lives, but it needed supplementing with vegetables or whatever in order to gain the proper nutritional balance. Also I was impressed with her refusing to name any specific products throughout the interview. Here’s someone who knows how to avoid product placement!

The interview itself was facinating, as I knew that Marguerite had worked for the Ministry of Food during the war and had become thetelevision cook during the 1950s, but I knew very little else about her personally. I have admired her cooking for many years and her cookbooks grace my shelves, as they did for my grandparents. Her wartime sense of making meals out of very little was a godsend during my student days. I even went through a phase of wanting to be a home economist like her (although I had many career aspirations when I was nine!). She came across as a very clear headed, down to earth lady who is still going strong into her 90s. I only hope I can be even a little like her if I get to that age.