I wasn’t exactly surprised to hear on the news tonight that Marguerite Patten had died, after all she was 99 years old, but it’s still a shame that she didn’t reach 100 and get a card from the Queen. Mind you she was given an OBE and eventually a CBE for services to the Art of Cookery.
She was called one of the first celebrity chefs but she was unhappy with that description, she insisted she was a home economist, in that she was just like Mary Berry who is also happier describing herself as a home cook.
I must admit that Marguerite has always had a comfy wee place in my heart as it was when Jack bought me a copy of her book Cookery in Colour that I realised that he was really keen on me. Until then the height of my culinary skills was those Vesta dinners which came in a cardboard box, freeze dried, just add water! Remember them, back in the early 1970s those seemed the height of exoticism.
Jack obviously wanted to make sure that he wasn’t going to starve if he and I ended up getting married. I fact, maybe he was testing me out and if I didn’t manage to come up with some decent meals from the book, I might have been ditched. Since then I’ve bought her Every Day Cook Book and Victory Cook Book, which contains the wartime recipes which she devised to cope with rationing.
I think though that just about anybody would succeed with Marguerite’s recipes, she kept the list of ingredients short and you probably already had a lot of the things in your store cupboard, unlike the more modern so-called celebrity chefs who seem to think that they have to find the most obscure and weird things to put into their dishes. I blame those Michelin stars.
You can see some images of Marguerite Patten – old and new here.
The Vesta meals struck a chord with me. My eldest sister, who was nine years older than me, used to ‘cook’ them, as our mum didn’t make anything ‘foreign’. I loved those meals, as you say, they seemed so exotic back then. It’s funny how such things stick in one’s mind and bring back memories. My sister passed away nearly three years ago now but thinking about this I can feel her presence and hear her voice in my head.
Karen White,
I’m glad I brought back some happy memories for you. I know that I felt as if I was actually cooking something rather special myself, when really all I was doing was adding a pint of water and stirring. I must say that those Vesta meals tasted better than a lot of the things which came out of my mum’s kitchen!
You had both me and my Jack rolling on the floor with your telling of your and your Jack’s culinary courtship!
Joan,
I think he had me on a trial which I knew nothing about, just as well I managed not to burn any of the recipes I tried from her book!
Small world – I too remember the Vesta meals – curry and rice comes to mind from the mid-70s! and I have Marguerite Patten’s “Cooking For the Family”.
Valerie,
That’s one that I don’t have, but probably a lot of the recipes are similar. I love the photos featuring the pots and pans of the day, all of them even more desirable nowadays in retro shops, or charity shops if you’re lucky.