14/05/2015 Meet the Author


14/05/2015

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Now on BBC News it's time for Meet the Author with Nick Higham.

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Mary McCartney is a photographer and food writer.

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She's also a member of a famous family, sister of fashion designer

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Stella, daughter of Paul, a musician of some repute.

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At my table is her second food book.

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It's described as a selection of vegetarian feasts

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for family and friends.

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Mary McCartney, this is a book of vegetarian recipes

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for all occasions, particularly celebratory occasions,

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family feasts and so on.

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There's an element of making a case for vegetarian cookery about it.

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Are you frustrated as a lifelong vegetarian that you still have

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to argue the case for being vegetarian and cooking

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in a vegetarian way?

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Luckily I actually don't feel these days that I have do argue my case.

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Growing up I very much did, I would go to dinner,

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the person next to me would find out I was vegetarian and harass me

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for most of the dinner.

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Now I find it is a good place for me, people are asking

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for vegetarian recipe ideas, that is why I have done the book.

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You were brought up as a vegetarian.

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Did you ever think of rebelling?

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I never needed to rebel, because my mum was a great cook

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and we all talked about food and ideas to fill that gap

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in the middle of the plate.

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When I did try, maybe a bit more fish, went I left home and started

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cooking for myselfand buying my own food.

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I was working as a picture researcher in Soho and I'd go

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and get a tuna sandwich.

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Then I realised I didn't feel good about it because I know how to eat

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this way and I prefer it.

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I enjoyed it.

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I love cooking vegetarian food.

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So, you prefer it and you love vegetarian food.

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Is the preference partly because you have an ethical

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disapproval of meat eating, or is it merely pragmatic?

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It started off for not wanting anything to be killed for my plate,

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and then it's turned more into, for me now it's more

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about the industry worries me, the big meat industry,

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the big fishing industry.

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It seems to be damaging the environment.

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It makes me feel better not buying into any of that.

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You can also make an economic argument for eating more vegetables.

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Yes, it's not practical.

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Feeding vegetables to animals is a very inefficient way

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of processing food for a growing world population.

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Exactly.

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It just doesn't seem practical to me.

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I realise I'm in quite a privileged position to have grown up

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as a vegetarian so for me it's not difficult.

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If you're a meat eater and you want to eat vegetarian food

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it can be a bit daunting, and it can be a bit like,

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what do I eat?

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So that's the reason for this book.

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And it's for celebrations, but it's actually quite

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casual, quite home-cooking.

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Mainly I cook for friends, very low-key, I like to get a group

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of people over, but I like to do a variety of things,

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show the variety.

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I cooked a couple of recipes out of this, I cooked the warm mushroom

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salad, very tasty it was, too, and the courgette and leek fritters.

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One reason I liked them is that what I ended up with looked just

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like the photograph in the book.

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That doesn't happen very often.

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You took the photographs yourself?

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Yes, and what happened was, I would write the recipe,

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I would think of ideas for recipes I thought sounded nice,

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like a warm mushroom salad for a dinner for two,

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you want it to have a bit more of a wow factor.

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So I thought it sounded nice, warm mushroom salad on a bed

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of lettuce with new potatoes.

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So I test the recipe, check the timings, and then

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I would photograph it on my kitchen windowsill very close-up.

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You're best known as a photographer of people, ballet dancers,

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fashion models and so on.

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Portraiture, yes.

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What are the particular challenges of photographing food?

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The lack of spontaneity.

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I like to...

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As a portrait photographer, I like to create moments and plan

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it, and then leave something to collaboration and spontaneity.

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But food photography, I enjoy doing it because I loved

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coming up with the recipes for this, but it is not

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going to become my career.

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It is too exact and planned out.

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There's one shot of maple syrup being drizzled over

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a pile of pancakes.

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You only get one go at that?

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Or you have to have an awful lot of pancakes.

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It was one go.

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It's true.

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I was kind of doing most of the whole menu plans

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in each sitting.

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So I sort of had them prepared, I had the plate prepared,

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and said, you start drizzling.

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So I had it drizzling, and then I had it drizzled.

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We had a choice.

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I work fast.

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You do!

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One hears a lot about the tricks that food photographers use,

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spraying glazes on and so forth.

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Do you do that?

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I have never witnessed it.

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I wouldn't know how to do it.

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No.

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Because, as I say, when I do these, I am testing the recipes at the same

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time, and then we would eat them and discuss how they taste.

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This is a book which majors on family.

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Family celebrations, there are pictures of your children

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in it, pictures of you as a child.

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That makes it a very warm book.

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When I was discussing with the publicist this interview,

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they said don't ask her about her family, which seems,

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now that I have seen and read the book, an odd thing to say.

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Why did they do that?

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I think they probably said it in that if you're an intellectual

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journalist you can ask, but I think they're used to some

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ridiculous questions, so they were probably trying

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to protect me.

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So if I...?

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That's what I imagine.

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You can imagine that some of the things we get asked

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are really not relevant.

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So I think with the cookbook it's completely relevant to talk

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about my family and how I have grown up as a vegetarian,

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but I think they probably meant don't go off-piste and asked me

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something completely unrelated and gossipy.

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I will ask you one question about your family.

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You grew up in an extraordinarily creative family, your mother

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was a photographer, your father a musician,

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your sister has become a fashion designer.

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There are two ways someone in that environment can go.

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One is to turn their back on the creative world entirely,

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and the other is to join in themselves.

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Did you ever feel inhibited, or were you always clear

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in your own mind that you wanted to be a photographer?

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No, I wasn't clear at all.

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I always knew I loved photography, and my first job

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was as a picture researcher.

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But I never thought to become a photographer until my early 20s.

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I think growing up in a creative family made me think that everyone

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could be creative.

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I was around a lot of artists and would see a lot

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of great artwork.

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And it actually took me going through one of my friends'

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holiday snaps to see how badly they were taken to really realise

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that not everybody could do it and give myself the confidence

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to take it up as a career, ironically.

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She hates me for telling that story.

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We don't know who she is.

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I'll tell you after!

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If you had to pick out one favourite recipe and why,

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what would it be?

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It's so hard.

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It really depends, because it depends what time of year it is.

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I usually think about who I've got coming over.

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We're talking in May.

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In May, probably the Mexican, because that Mexican menu plan has

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got tostadas, it's got corn bread, it's got avocado side dish,

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it's a real sharing table.

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So I would pick that menu plan.

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Mary McCartney, thank you very much indeed.

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Thank you.

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