Marguerite Patten OBE
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Doyenne of food writers and original `Celebrity Chef`, Marguerite Patten OBE has a career that spans more than 60 years.
She began before the war when only a quarter of British households owned a fridge, guiding us through rationing and became the BBC’s choice as the country’s first television cook.
Cookery writer, demonstrator and home economist, Marguerite Patten’s tally of cookery books is rapidly approaching 170 with worldwide sales of more than 17 million. For many decades she has travelled all around Britain giving cookery demonstrations to thousands in large halls and theatres, including the London Palladium. She has toured Australia and South Africa giving demonstrations on television and in public halls. She is a highly experienced public speaker and enjoys giving after-dinner and after-lunch talks as well as addressing audiences at conferences and on passenger cruises.
Recent topics include: A Century of Change, Celebrating Coronations, How the British celebrated the events, Dishes Around the World, The Modern Way to Entertain, Remembering Dried Egg and SPAM, What’s Cooking? Marguerite Patten’s life in the world of food from the time she began, Early days of TV and radio, Shows around Britain. Good Food – Good Health, Strange diets past and present. She has – especially for cruises – arranged quizzes which lead to much discussion and not a little amusement! An accomplished speaker, Marguerite Patten can also give talks on special subjects as requested.
Recent audiences have included members of the media at The Cabinet Rooms, Rotarians; members of the public; school children and their parents as well as guests at the following events. She gave a lecture at the Royal Society of Arts; she gave a series of talks at the International Conference Centre in Bournemouth; she was a speaker at the Oxford Literary Festival Dinner; and she has given lectures for special events at a number of hotels including Eastbourne’s Grand Hotel, Chewton Glen and Ashdown Forest. Later this year, she will be giving the opening address at the Chef’s Forum at the Conference Centre in Eastbourne, and speaking on an autumn African/South American cruise.
Honours
In 2007 Marguerite Patten was awarded Woman Of The Year and in 1991 the OBE for “services to the art of cookery” and she has been honoured with four Lifetime Achievement Awards. The first was in 1995 by The Guild of Food Writers; in 1996 the Trustees of the André Simon Memorial Fund honoured her with an award for her services to cookery; in 1988 she received the BBC Good Food Lifetime Achievement Award; and in 1999 Waterford Wedgwood presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2000 she was the subject of This is Your Life; and in 2001 she was the castaway on Desert Island Discs.
The early days
Marguerite Patten was born in Bath and then moved to High Barnet, near London, where she was educated and trained as a Home Economist. She began her career in the electrical industry (abandoning the role of home economist for a short time to go on the professional stage). In 1942 she became a senior Food Advisers in the Ministry of Food, working in East Anglia and London showing people how to keep their families healthy on the rations available. From late 1943 she ran the Ministry of Food advice Bureau in Harrods, which became the Harrods Food Advice Bureau in 1947. In the same year Harrods opened their Home Service Bureau and Mrs Patten, with her team of home economists, was responsible for all demonstrations on cooking and on newly introduced household appliances. These years of meeting the public enabled her to appreciate the needs and the cookery problems of a great variety of people. She left Harrods in 1951 becoming a freelance presenter and cookery writer.
Radio
Early in 1944 Marguerite Patten was invited to become one of the speakers on the BBC’s early morning Kitchen Front series. From 1946, when Woman’s Hour began, she became a regular contributor – and continues to make guest appearances on this and other programmes. In 1999 she was given her own series, ten 30-minute programmes on Radio 4, Marguerite Patten’s Century of British Cooking. She cooked as she detailed the favourite dishes of each decade of the twentieth century. Social events and music of each period were included to add to the atmosphere.
Television
In 1947 Marguerite Patten was asked to become the regular cookery expert in the very first BBC television magazine programme called Designed for Women; she continued with this programme until it ended in the early 1960s. In 1956 the BBC started their Cookery Club and appointed Marguerite as President. Each month for five years viewers sent in their special recipes, which Marguerite tested and then showed on TV. More recently she has enjoyed participating in various television programmes such as Food and Drink (BBC 2); Carlton Food (now Taste), and as a judge on Masterchef. She was the Food Consultant on the Channel 4 1940 House series and appeared in several episodes. She did a series of 12 programmes for Taste called Patten on a Plate and is a regular guest on various televison and radio shows.
Author
It is as an author that Marguerite Patten is so well known today. She has written close on 170 cookery books dealing with a vast range of subjects. Sales amount to over 17 million worldwide and her cookery cards sold in excess of 500 million.
In the 1990s and in the first few years of this century she has written a number of books including:- Eat Well – Stay Well – a book for older people, The Complete Book of Teas – covering the history of tea, the way it is enjoyed in most tea drinking countries of the world with teatime recipes, plus others in which tea plays an important part, What’s Cooking? – an autobiography covering Marguerite’s professional and private life, plus a selection of her favourite recipes, Classic British Dishes detailing the wonderful dishes that have been famous for generations, The Victory Cookbook (a companion volume to We’ll Eat Again published in the 1980s) – the dishes that would have been made to help the nation celebrate VE and VJ days, Preserves , The Tasty Taco – a small book for school children covering recipes from several countries, Her Soup Book, The Post War Kitchen – covering world and national events from 1945 to 1954 plus dishes that evolved as rationing began to come to an end, Marguerite Patten’s Century of British Cooking details the amazing changes in food and cookery from 1900 to 1999. It gives recipes for the favourite dishes and important events of each decade. The book received many complimentary reviews, and a Foyles Literary Luncheon was given in honour of the book and its author – Marguerite was the speaker, The Spam Cookbook details the history of SPAM, the events which made it so popular during rationing, also with the Armed Forces throughout the world. It includes poems and quotations, Eat to Beat Arthritis Marguerite Patten is co-author with Dr Jeannette Ewin of this book that gives advice and modern recipes to help deal with this complaint. Marguerite herself uses diet to help combat arthritis,The Coronation Cookbook is a culinary and historical review of the coronations of Edward VII, George V, George VI and Elizabeth II. There are over a hundred recipes from official royal banquets and coronation street parties,The Basic Basics Handbooks on Soups, Preserves and on Baking,The Healthy Gut Book once again co-authored with Dr Jeannette Ewin deals, not surprisingly, with healthy diets for gut problems.
She is the President of the Microwave Association; an active member – with even a recent appearance in a play performed for charity under her belt – of the Guild of Food Writers; and, as nutrition, as well as good cooking, is of great interest and importance to her, is a member of the Forum on Food at the Royal Society of Medicine.
She has been associated with Soundaround, for many years. This charity provides a monthly magazine on cassette for blind people. She records hints and recipes each month and deals with cookery problems encountered by her blind listeners. She fronted the BBC Radio 4 appeal for Soundaround in 2001.
Marguerite Patten lives in Brighton in East Sussex and as well as constantly devising new recipes and testing them, usually having at least one cookery book in the preparation stage, and writing for two national magazines, she is an avid gardener and opera lover. She is a widow with one daughter and two adult grandchildren.
© Biography Celebrity Chefs UK 2010
