The Two Fat Ladies
It is through the two fat ladies that I can begin to understand the British Empire. So few people with plumy accents and indomitable attitudes ruling over so many. With ladies like Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson you can start to see how they did it - all that fox-hunting, gin and those stiff upper lips.
Their food, whilst old fashioned, bourgeoisie and liable to fur up your arteries and steeply reduce your life-expectancy has a solidity and properness about it that’s undeniably attractive…For example, one of the few recipes available on the ‘net is the high tea (how long is it since you heard that term?) dish of Rigo Jancsi Chocolate Slices = jam, sugar, cream and chocolate and to hell with the calories.
The story of the Ladies on the web is one of desolation and moved or missing pages which is a shame - the BBC Food Site seems to have removed all recipes except for a rather forlorn one for Potted turkey (which I won’t even link to in disgust at the BBC) and the food network message board and dedicated page is long gone. To even up this absence, I’ll research some Two Fat Ladies Inspired recipes and bring them to mwnch soon … watch this space!
In the meantime, you might like to peruse some of the Ladies books.
If you like this, then try these...
Chickens and the gang of three on January 24th, 2008
My word, how TV cooks have changed.
Keith Floyd on April 3rd, 2008
Of all the cooks that I'm writing about in this series, Keith...
Rick Stein on May 4th, 2008
Rick is certainly in my top three TV cooks.
