Mary Berry – Cook and Share episode 1: Dame Mary Berry journeys to some of the places closest to her heart, sharing memories from her past and creating new ones whilst inspiring and delighting those she meets along the way with delicious new recipes.
Special occasions are always a great excuse to make delicious food and share it with your nearest and dearest – and what better cause for celebration than a wedding? In this episode, Mary is working behind the scenes at a beautiful Indian wedding – she’ll be helping the caterers pull off this huge event that feeds 400 people from morning to night while adding a recipe of her own to the menu. Blown away by the traditions, customs and vibrancy of the wedding, Mary takes time to reflect on her own special day.
She’s cooking some of her own delicious recipes that are perfect for a special occasion: her elegant avocado, beetroot and prawn stack, which is sure to wow guests, a roasting-tin spiced chicken that can be easily scaled up to feed a crowd, and a tear-and-share bread recipe that was made for sharing. Mary will add her divine chocolate shots to the wedding afternoon tea, and finally, her triumphant celebration chocolate truffle dessert – a magnificent, layered cake with an indulgent truffle centre.
Dame Mary Rosa Alleyne Hunnings, known professionally as Mary Berry, is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter. After being encouraged in domestic science classes at school, she studied catering and shipping management at college. She then moved to France at the age of 22 to study at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, before working in a number of cooking-related jobs.
Berry’s first job was at the Bath Electricity Board showroom and then conducting home visits to show new customers how to use their electric ovens. She would typically demonstrate the ovens by making a Victoria sponge, a technique she would later repeat when in television studios to test out an oven she had not used before. Her catchment area for demonstrations was limited to the greater Bath area, which she drove around in a Ford Popular supplied as a company car.
Her ambition was to move out of the family home to London, which her parents would not allow until she was 21. At the age of 22, she applied to work at the Dutch Dairy Bureau, while taking City & Guilds courses in the evenings. She then persuaded her manager to pay for her to undertake the professional qualification from the French Le Cordon Bleu school.
She left the Dutch Dairy Bureau to become a recipe tester for PR firm Benson’s, where she began to write her first book. She has since cooked for a range of food-related bodies, including the Egg Council and the Flour Advisory Board. In 1966 she became food editor of Housewife magazine. She was food editor of Ideal Home magazine from 1970 to 1973.
Her first cookbook, The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook, was published in 1970. She launched her own product range in 1994 with her daughter Annabel. The salad dressings and sauces were originally only sold at Mary’s AGA cooking school, but have since been sold in Britain, Germany and Ireland with retailers such as Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Tesco. She has also appeared on a BBC Two series called The Great British Food Revival, and her solo show, Mary Berry Cooks, began airing on 3 March 2014.
