Episode 2 The Mary Berry Story

For many, Mary Berry is best known for her appearances as a judge on the Great British Bake Off.

The white chocolate ganache has a lot of cream in it and it is too wet.

I love the combination of flavours.

Today she is followed by an ever-growing band of home cooks who turn to her for her trusted recipes.

-Thank you very much!

-Mary Berry!

APPLAUSE

The most important thing to me is for people to make my recipes

and have success with them.

Last week we saw that Mary struggled at school

but in domestic science she excelled.

Here was something I could do, and I was getting praise, it was lovely.

In 1957, aged 22,

Mary left her home town of Bath for London to forge a career.

And by the mid-60s, she had become food editor of Housewife magazine.

I had to work exceedingly hard, most evenings.

But I was doing something that I loved.

This week, with a flourishing career and a young family to raise,

Mary makes some difficult choices.

I was really awfully nervous that if I took time off, would I get my job back?

And Mary's career goes from strength to strength,

-taking her on the nation's TV screens.

-The pan is boiling.

We are not pretending with this one, look at it. It is piping hot.

Mary's commitment and dedication have seen her enjoy

a life in food that has spanned over 50 years.

I don't think I am a workaholic,

because what I do is something that I enjoy, I don't think of it as work.

This is the Mary Berry Story.

This year, Mary will celebrate 47 years of marriage to her husband, Paul Hunnings.

But back in 1966, their life together was just beginning.

I met my husband through my brother at a party,

they were friends through rugby and were playing rugby and so forth.

And Paul said to my brother, "I quite like your sister,"

and my brother said, "You'd better get stuck in there."

Or something equally rude. And so he began asking me to do things.

This was an important time at work, too.

As food editor of a magazine,

Mary Berry was starting to make a name for herself.

When I got married I was dying to be Mary Hunnings,

and my boss, the editor, said to me, "Keep Mary Berry, they have

"gotten used to the name, why should they bother to have another one?"

The young couple set up home in London,

buying a house in the up and coming area of Notting Hill.

By 1968, they had their first child, Thomas,

followed a year later by William.

With two new members of the family to accommodate, Mary and Paul left

their London home, moving out to Buckinghamshire and the Red House.

45 years on, Mary is returning to her former family home

to revisit those early days of motherhood.

This is the home that I came to when the boys were...

They must have been nine months and Tom was one and a half.

And Annabel was born here.

I remember being in this kitchen with my brand-new Annabel,

so it has fond memories for me.

After I'd had the children, I had about...six weeks' maternity leave.

I never had the feeling that I wanted to stay at home with the children

because I knew what I wanted to do

and I wanted to do it well,

and I wanted to move on and I really have to thank my husband, Paul,

for encouraging me, but saying, "It is your decision."

I did feel guilty, working, because it wasn't the done thing.

My girlfriends all gave up work and then took it up later.

But I was really awfully nervous.

If I took time off, would I get my job back?

Lots of people would have liked to have been

the cookery editor of a magazine and would do it very well.

Leaving her three young children at home,

Mary returned to work as the food editor on Housewife Magazine,

commuting to London and the offices of publishers, IPC.

Today she is visiting their new head office,

where they hold an archive of her early work.

This is very strange,

coming back today to a totally different building.

This is so smart, so grand, so light.

Our offices in High Holborn were dark, dingy, grotty,

but I was very happy and I was doing exactly what I wanted to.

In her six years on the magazine, Mary's readership grew.

But in 1968 Housewife was merged with sister publication Ideal Home

Mary was the only person to keep her job.

Nobody on the magazine knew that we were about to have a merger,

but one day somebody came into the office and said,

"This is the last issue of Housewife magazine."

Sadly, every single person at Housewife was made redundant,

and I hated that.

But this was a big break for Mary. Ideal Home was a top title

selling 200,000 copies per issue and it still thrives today.

Mary is here to meet the current editor,

who sourced some of her articles from the '60s and '70s.

Isobel, do you know what strikes me? It is so peaceful.

There is a little bit of chitter-chatter.

In my day, there was this sort of chitter chatter of typewriters.

And when I look at your magazine now, it is all brightly coloured.

We had very little colour in the magazine.

Yes, it is very different now. Recipes are always photographed,

I have some of your old pieces here that were very interesting, I think.

You have had them all. They are beautifully bound. You can't lose them.

No, we don't lose them, we get them out for inspiration.

I thought this was a particularly interesting piece where you were

teaching people to make mayonnaise. This was a step-by-step guide.

And it's great, the method is brilliant.

Nowadays, we would video this

and put it on YouTube for people to follow.

Then you were illustrating it with a pen and ink drawing, how did that work?

How did that work? Would someone come and watch you do it?

Yes, the artist would come and it was too expensive to photograph it,

and this was much cheaper. I was just bringing in olive oil.

Now everybody has olive oil

but in this day you got it on the whole from the chemist.

How about some of the others that we have found?

Something like this,

-when you are writing a story about fish.

-That was done with an artist,

and that was the sort of thing I really did not like and I do not like.

I would do the recipes and they would say, "There is no picture this month"

and they would just do... That is just a pretty picture.

I would have liked a photograph that you can see a mackerel,

a Dover sole and a lemon sole.

We couldn't get away with doing this now,

we have to show them what the finished dish is going to look like.

We just can't get away with that.

There is another interesting piece here that

I thought seemed out of character for you. Do you remember this?

Good gracious me, do I remember that?

I can remember a huge argument with the editor.

The magazine industry, or so I was told,

was hard up and we were beginning to buy in pictures.

And so I was presented with that, in that disgusting bright green

and I would spend time making a recipe to fit the picture,

and the whole thing, when you look at it, yuck.

It is very lurid, isn't it?

She was in ecstasy about its beautiful bright colour

and I thought the whole combination was absolutely horrible

but you did as your editor said.

As the newly appointed food editor of Ideal Home magazine,

Mary's recipes were now seen by even more readers.

And with her growing fame it wasn't long before she came to

the attention of book publishers.

Ah.

Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook.

Brings back happy memories. That was my first major cookbook.

And what was different about it was that each recipe had its own

picture at the top, the recipe,

everything in order that you used it, a simple method and that was

one of the first books to do that and people really liked that.

In modern times, many of the food pictures are a bit misty

and a bit ethereal. These pictures, you see what you get

and people can look at it and think, "I am aiming at that."

I can remember every recipe as though it was yesterday.

These little chocolate pots, I got on my honeymoon.

It even had breads in here,

I don't think Paul Holly would think too much of my breads, but not too bad.

Put a nice shine on those buns over there.

It turned out to be the most successful book in Britain

at the time, and it sold in the end something plus 2 million.

I know that I was paid about £162 per 60,000 copies sold,

which is a pretty rum deal.

I think they felt a bit guilty

and when it got to 2 million, they gave us

a presentation book in leather and we were given £1,000 as a present

from Hamlyns and I was thrilled to bits with that.

With her books now bestsellers,

Mary Berry was fast becoming a household name.

But Mary wanted to find other ways to teach the nation to cook,

and TV was the perfect channel.

So many of you have asked me how it is possible to avoid cakes

splitting on the top and having that disfiguring crack, and I want to share with you the answer.

Cooking on TV had started back in 1955

when Fanny Cradock's television show hits the airwaves.

David, come back, I have forgotten an egg. Come here and let me break it in for you.

You must never miss a point even if you make a mistake.

Fanny's show ran for 21 years,

but by the 1970s times had moved on.

And her love of the piping bag, brandy and cream was

a world away from the cookery that Mary was promoting in her magazine.

In a moment you will hear how to obtain the booklet which has

all of the details of everything in the series.

In 1971, Mary made her first foray into TV on Collectors World,

hosted by Hugh Scully.

But this would be no opportunity to show off her modern recipes.

Someone has gone to an enormous amount of trouble and

taken a lot of time to recreate a dinner as it might have been eaten

in this Georgian house in the 1800s.

And that someone is Mary Berry, the cookery editor of Ideal Home.

I was so nervous, really nervous,

because remember, I had not done any of that.

It is bland and very firm, rather like chicken legs.

Mary was in the spotlight, as was her food.

And this was no ordinary menu.

He wanted a pike, they wanted ox eyes, an udder, and udder pie.

I mean how do you cook an udder when it is presented to you?

And they wanted sparrows.

About 30 sparrows arrived in this plastic bag, feathers on,

and I am really scared of dead birds,

and my brothers used to chase me with them on a stick.

I said, "I am sorry I will roast them but you will have to take feathers off."

I had to pretend that I was very confident about it and I certainly wasn't.

This little chap looks so much better now than

when I saw him when he had his feathers on.

Mary's first appearance on British TV came at a revolutionary time for food.

A time that saw the nation broaden its horizons and its palate.

By the mid-'70s, cheap package holidays gave Britons

the chance to travel abroad, to experience the sights, sounds

and tastes of far-flung destinations.

Where once roast beef would do,

know the people of Britain pined for paella.

To cater for this demand, foreign product started to hit the shelves.

Olive oil and spaghetti both made their debut,

as well as the avocado pear,

which caused confusion with shoppers who complained that it did

not taste very good with custard.

Mary was at the forefront of this food revolution and one dish she was

quick to promote was a little-known Italian main course called lasagne.

Today in her own kitchen,

Mary is going to recreate the dish following her original 1970s recipe.

This was a lasagne al forno.

and I tried to make it as authentic as possible.

And it is really quite similar to what we do today.

To make the Ragu sauce, Mary mixes bacon and mince with garlic, onion,

celery and thyme and then fries them in that old fashioned staple, dripping.

We were beginning to know in 1976 that it was good to use a little

less fat, but we were still putting the odd blob of dripping in the pan.

Now none of us have dripping.

My husband would like us to have dripping in the fridge to get that

nice meaty jelly on the bottom put on toast, but there is no chance he is getting it.

Now I will add the stock and bring it to the boil.

I have some redcurrant jelly

because I am going to add lots of tomato puree,

which is quite sharp, and I would suggest to people that

if you bought tomato puree in a can, a big can, you could use

a bit of it and freeze the rest because often it goes to waste.

You have a tin of it and you have it in the fridge

and you carefully cover it up and then one week later you lift the lid

and you see a nice little grey fur on the top and you chuck it in the bin.

Far better when you have taken off what you want in one dish,

to take the rest out and put it into an ice cube tray,

freeze it and then add it when you want it.

So I am now going to let that simmer with the lid on and you can do that

on the hob like this or put it into the oven, it will take about an hour.

For the bechamel or white sauce, Mary cooks butter and flour before adding milk and Dijon mustard.

So this was becoming quite popular to make at home.

People already were making spaghetti Bolognese

but this was becoming very, very popular.

And it was a good thing for entertaining.

Another good thing was freezers were becoming popular,

people were having freezers in their own homes.

First of all the chest ones and then upright ones.

And lasagne was perfect for freezing.

You could make it just as I am doing today, assemble the whole thing

and put it into the freezer for a party in two weeks' time.

Today, lasagne is a simple and quick dish to prepare.

Back in the '70s it wasn't quite so easy.

In 1976 there was no pre-cooked pasta,

Pasta had to be cooked in boiling water until it was soft.

And I decided that was a real bore to do

so I came to this idea of making the sauces a little bit thinner

so you could actually put the pasta in the layers without

cooking it first so that the pasta will take the moisture

from the sauces and cook in the time that it normally does in the oven.

And then of course a few years later you had this pasta

manufactured that you did not have to precook so that worry was gone.

So that is our lasagne. Completed and ready for the oven.

That's...quite heavy. Doesn't that look good?

That's the 1976 lasagne.

And the pasta is absolutely tender.

It looks good, it looks very meaty, not too much pasta. Let's have a go.

It is very, very hot. And it is very, very good.

I don't put celery in my lasagne now

but I think I will go back to my old one, it really is very good.

By the early '70s, Mary was an established food writer and author

but her big break in TV came when she was asked to present

a food slot on the Good Afternoon show with Judith Chalmers.

40 years on, the two lifelong friends are meeting up

to look back on one of Mary's earliest appearances.

'Hello, some of us have been feeling the effects of...'

Oh, my God!

I look like my daughter.

'Mary, what have you worked out?'

'I thought casserole would be a good idea

'because we are asked to use gas at off-peak times.'

That awful voice, it sounds like the Queen.

I am putting three onions in.

You made people feel always that they could do it, Mary.

Judy, I was so nervous and I didn't know where to look,

whether I talked to you or whether I looked straight to the camera.

You said to me, "Talk to one person.

"They might be doing the ironing and if you are not interesting

"and fun they will turn to the other side."

Well, a good idea is to use the old haybox method.

-I say haybox method, perhaps you weren't a girl guide.

-I wasn't.

'At guide camp, we would...'

I would get everything ready the day before

and arrive at Thames Television and they would build the whole scene.

But of course the drawers didn't open.

I was washing lettuce or something and I turn the tap,

and someone would signal to one of the props people,

they would turn the handle and out would come the water,

I would chat away to you and under the sink there was just a bucket

and no proper plumbing, so the water, as I was washing and chatting,

would go into the bucket and I can remember on one occasion,

the water filled the bucket underneath and we were flooded. And you were in

your best shoes and you are trying to say, "Turn the tap off!"

There we are, mix the coleslaw all together with the sauce.

Shall we tip it into this dish?

I still meet people now who say, "I can remember

"sitting down at two o'clock to Good Afternoon, feeding my baby.

"And the baby is now 40." I think it's years and years ago, isn't it?

'And just some curry powder.'

With the growing demands of TV and a flourishing writing career,

these were busy days for Mary.

When she did find time for a break

she and her family would head west to the Devon coast.

Summers in Devon have been a tradition in Mary's family

for as long as she can remember.

We would always come to this part of Devon for our summer holidays.

I can remember such happy times as a child.

I never remember a wet holiday. We went on the beach all the time.

My father was a very keen photographer

and I can remember Dad saying, "For goodness sake, smile, you lot!"

It was awfully strange, I was looking for a birthday card in a shop

and I was looking along the racks

and suddenly I came across a very familiar picture.

It was a picture of my mother, my brother

and a little rather fat me in a knitted swimsuit.

And it was entered into a competition in 1938 in one of the newspapers

and it was the photograph of the year.

We have this picture at home on the wall,

it has very happy memories for me.

Decades later, in the 1970s,

Mary would bring her own children to the beaches of Devon.

With a busy career at home, these trips were precious.

A chance to spend quality time with her family.

I think they were the happiest days, when the children were young.

And we would always take a picnic, paddle, made sand castles,

cricket on the beach. And we came back here year after year.

It was a great time in my life.

For Mary, this place holds strong memories.

The excitement of youth and the fulfilment of motherhood.

Even on holiday,

Mary couldn't pass up the chance to improve her culinary skills.

In Salcombe they had the most wonderful bakers

and in the mornings we would go down to get croissants and bread.

It seemed to be so good, and I got chatting to Jenny, who owns

the bakery, and I said, "Do you think I could come and bake with you?"

Because they were quite ahead of their time, making croissants.

The hours fitted in very well because we would all have supper about six,

the children were exhausted so they went to bed,

and I used to go to bed with them.

So I had a kip until around 11, then I would walk down the hill

to the bakery and became alive again, I really enjoyed what I did.

I was learning all the time

and I would be back with the bag of croissants for breakfast.

Paul thought I had a slate loose.

To him it was mad but I do not think I am a workaholic,

what I do is something I enjoy, I don't think of it as work.

While Mary and her family spent summers on the Devon coast,

Christmas was always held at her parents' house in Bath.

Every year festivities started on Christmas Eve,

with her mother Marjorie's fish pie.

This is the family fish pie, the Berry family fish pie.

We have had it every Christmas Eve.

We used to go down to my parents' for Christmas

and we would all be in the car, my mother-in-law, the dog, everything,

and the children would always say, "Can't wait for Granny's fish pie.

And we love it.

To start her fish pie, Mary fries onion

and then makes white sauce before adding fresh haddock.

But it wasn't always this way.

In my childhood time, every Sunday you had a roast

and then you would have on Monday, cold meat, Tuesday, it would be made

into a pie, a shepherds pie, cottage pie, and it is the same with fish.

If you look in old recipe books,

fish pie always started by being leftover fish.

I think it is much nicer to start with fresh fish.

The fish and the sauce is just cooked.

And I'm going to pour that into there.

This is the very same pie dish that my ma used,

and it's got a big chip in the side, and I don't mind one bit.

Blow health and safety - it's in the dishwasher every time I use it.

It's a good family size. This could well serve about eight people.

Mum always welcomed everybody.

All the boyfriends I ever had

- whether she liked them or whether she didn't. I never knew.

She welcomed everybody at home.

There was always something in the fridge.

She would make something out of nothing.

And I've learned that when you open the fridge,

before you think what's for supper, you use up what's there.

I am quite frugal like that.

But, on the other hand, if there was a lobster around the corner,

I'd like that too.

Following her mother's recipe,

Mary tops the mixture with a layer of boiled eggs.

That may be too much egg for some people,

but when Mum used to do it we had chickens,

and we always had an abundance of eggs.

Push them down so that they're absolutely level,

and all we've got to do is put the potato on top.

And I have my mother's ricer.

I'm not too sure if it wasn't her mother's before her.

It is an excellent bit of machinery.

You put the potato in there and squash it down,

and you let the little worms come out.

And of course the children love to do this.

When I'm making this, if they're passing,

when the little grandchildren are here, they love to push it through.

They think it's a great machine.

And then just push that so it's evenly over the top,

and it gives it a lovely crunchy top.

So there we are, into the oven for about 30 minutes.

That looks a bit of all right.

Perfect golden brown - quite homely, bubbling at the sides.

It brings back really happy memories when I look at this.

It's something that's been passed down from generation to generation,

and it certainly will go on. And that's as it should be.

Can you see the sauce underneath is runny.

It's just a perfect consistency.

You know what's missing? We always had peas with it.

And in the old days it would be big great peas.

But in our house now, we have petit pois,

because it is a special occasion.

That's what I remember.

Throughout the 1970s,

Mary's fame continued to grow.

Her magazine readership rose ever higher

and by the early '80s she was fronting her own television show.

I had been doing television in London -

packing up everything, kitchen built up there -

and that was a real chore.

And I persuaded the producer, Diana Potter -

please could we do it in my own house.

Because it would be much easier, there would be running water,

you wouldn't have to build the scene...

So she said OK.

What do you want to do?

So we did the first one, I think, was Mary Berry At Home. It was lovely.

And I always used to start the programme

with walking the dog around the village pond.

And when that music set up, you knew you were on the go. It was lovely.

Hello, welcome to the new series.

There are going to be six programmes over the next three weeks

on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at this time.

And they're all going to be here in my own kitchen at home.

Which is nice for me!

Gosh, that was just so wonderful to be able to prepare everything

ahead in your own home, everything worked, so we set to and did it.

But it was so different.

We took the main window out in my kitchen

because we had two cameramen, and they went in the garden

because the worktop was in front of the window.

Which made the kitchen jolly cold, and I'm a cold mortal,

so we had a blow heater at my feet, so I didn't get cold.

If you cook it in a water-surround, the French call it "bain-marie",

you'll find that you get nice even baking,

and this will take just about two hours.

So, I'm going to put it in the oven.

On one occasion I was making a chocolate cake

and I was talking to camera and all of a sudden there was a dog -

our dog, Wellington.

Her little face came up over the front here,

and I went on looking at the camera and beating away,

and she took all the chocolate.

But I went on beating, because I'd learned by then,

that you didn't stop until they said - "Stop!"

So I went on, and then at the very end I said to the cameraman,

"Why didn't you tell me to stop?

"What will the viewers say?"

And they said, "We knew what was happening and filmed straight

into your bowl and all we saw was you making the chocolate mixture."

During the 1980s, Mary continued to champion simple recipes

that anyone could make at home.

But this was the decade that saw the birth of the ready-meal.

And one piece of technology more than any other,

made that possible - the microwave.

It was a kitchen appliance born from the most unlikely of places.

-MALE NARRATOR:

-Radar - mystery name of an even more mysterious weapon,

result of the inventive genius of the 2,400 men

the RAF called "boffins".

Dr Percy Spencer, who developed radar during the Second World War,

was in his laboratory in 1946

when he stopped by a magnetron -

the power tube that creates microwaves to run a radar set.

He noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had begun to melt.

Thinking the microwaves were responsible,

he experimented with an egg. Which exploded.

It would be another 40 years before the microwave oven

caught on in the UK.

But when it arrived it would cause a revolution in home-cooking.

Why did you get a microwave cooker?

Well, it's small and I haven't got much room,

and it's a much quicker way of having a hot meal

whenever I want one, basically.

Mm. Right, now, that's the meat in. I'll just do the veg.

I don't use the microwave very much,

but one thing I find it's very useful for

is taking the juice out of lemons.

I find, if I've got to make something like a lemon tart,

you know, using five lemons, say -

to get the juice out takes an awful lot of effort.

And I haven't got great strong muscles!

So this is where a microwave earns its keep.

Take a lemon, cut it in half, across the lemon,

then put it in a bowl,

to catch some of the juice,

and just heat it until it's very hot.

That'll take about 30 seconds.

If you've got a lot of lemons, it's going to take a bit longer.

So, let's put it on full power - which it is.

So it's whizzing round.

PING! There it is.

And there's just a little bit of juice, in the bottom there.

The juice is beginning to come out without being asked,

so when you put it on to get the juice out

it comes out without any pressure,

and you're not exhausted when you're doing, say, five or six lemons.

And you watch how much juice you get out.

All that out of one lemon.

Without any effort.

As the 1980s came to a close, Mary's career was still in full swing.

Now aged 55, her children Tom, William and Annabel

had all grown up and left home to start their own lives.

I'm very lucky. The children always wanted to come home at weekends.

And Will came back from Bristol Poly on the Friday night.

He hadn't been home for a few weekends,

so I thought "I'll do roast lamb, cos it's his favourite."

We had the meal in the dining room.

Now we only have Sunday lunch in the dining room,

but I thought they're all going to be here, I'll make it special.

So we had roast lamb, mint sauce, redcurrant jelly - the works!

I can remember Will walking through the door on that Friday night

and saying, "Mum, who's coming?"

And I said, "It's you!

"It's so lovely to have you home, and Annabel is here, and Tom too."

So we had a nice family meal.

And then on Saturday, he asked if he could borrow the car.

It was a glorious January day,

and it was sort of one o'clock and he wasn't home.

The doorbell rang, and there was a policeman there.

And immediately then I knew why.

And he said, "There's been an accident and, erm...

.."I'm sorry to say, your son is dead."

So we both quickly got in the car and went to Wickham hospital.

I don't know, there seemed so many corridors,

and we were waiting in a room, and really they were so understanding.

And then they said, "Would you like to see William?"

And he just look so beautiful and so lovely - his little cold face.

And it was nice to say farewell.

As usual, the next day, we went to church.

And there's a plaque in church which happened to catch my eye -

it was just on the left.

And it was the Busbys had lost their three sons in the First World War.

And I looked and I thought...

I knew how I was feeling having lost one -

how would Emma be feeling, having lost all three?

In a way, I thought, erm...

Well, we're just so lucky to have the other two.

And I began to think, we had him for 19 years. And he was such fun.

And, you know, we have great, great memories.

I didn't really want to work in London after that,

because I didn't want to leave Paul.

It was a great comfort to us both to have each other.

Your lifelong partner.

I was so lucky to have him.

Following William's death, Mary left her working life in London,

retreating to her home in Buckinghamshire,

and for the first time in her life, she turned her back on cooking.

One year later, Mary felt strong enough to face the world again.

But on her terms.

Based in her own kitchen, she started the Aga workshop.

It was the perfect way to get back to work,

yet remain close to friends and family.

I thought, well, how do I start a cookery school?

And so, what I did, was write to all my friends that were journalists

and said come and have a cookery demonstration on the Aga.

I think we had two days of it.

And immediately they went back

and wrote about their day and said what they'd learned,

and people started ringing and saying when could we come to the school?

So we made two dates. Then another two.

And from that day on for the next 12 years, we never advertised.

It was always personal recommendation and we gave people a right day out!

In 12 years, the workshop attracted over 14,000 people to Mary's kitchen.

Book writing proved another way for Mary to continue

doing what she loved, from the comfort of home.

It's an occupation she continues to this very day.

I've always been very fortunate.

I've never had to suggest or ask a publisher

if I could write a book and would they publish it.

It's always been the publisher coming to me

and that's quite a nice feeling.

Then I have one or two things that I think about before I even start -

I want not too many ingredients, every ingredient must be available

all over the country, and not difficult to get.

And then we test the recipe.

I say "we" because we are a team here.

Lucy Young has been working with Mary for over 20 years.

And alongside Lucinda McCord,

they help Mary to test her recipes before they go into print.

Gherkin would go very well. I love sweet gherkins, but...

I don't think it needs it, does it?

And if you take these prawns and take...

'Testing takes quite a lot of time.'

It's got to be so perfect that everybody who does it must have success.

-I'll let you have some in a minute.

-After you!

That's absolutely fine. Put a quarter of that on top.

I always ask the publisher to pay for the ingredients,

because it means that I will test them as many times as it needs to get perfect.

I have a slight feeling, if they weren't paying,

I'd say "Maybe that's good enough." I hope I wouldn't.

Before it goes on the table we would put a little dressing

around the outside, and a tiny bit of celery salt.

-So you could make that in the morning, could you?

-Exactly.

I always say to people, just do as I say first time round,

and then make your own additions.

We're all brought up, aren't we, never to write on books,

but sometimes if I'm giving a talk somewhere

people bring a really old tatty book without a cover,

gravy all over the side, little notes on the side...

I'm chuffed to bits to sign it!

Because they've used it, they've loved it,

and they've had success with it.

If ever the girl who left school with just two O levels,

and failed at English, thought she couldn't write,

those doubts must be long forgotten.

Today Mary has over 80 cookbooks to her name,

which have sold in excess of six million copies.

During her career, Mary has witnessed many food fashions

come and go, but throughout she's stayed true to her loyal readers.

But even in the early 1990s, after 30 years of food writing,

Mary still had one weak spot - bread.

So when she was asked to write a book for Aga-owners,

to be delivered with every new cooker,

Mary was horrified to discover

that the publishers wanted a whole chapter on breadmaking.

I was daunted at the thought of having to write

a whole chapter on breadmaking.

I just didn't have the confidence.

So I came here.

And "here" is the Devon home of Tom Jaine,

former editor of The Good Food Guide,

and the man who taught the nation's Queen of Cakes, to bake bread.

I have to think you for teaching me how to make proper bread.

And I even gave you a little mention in the book.

It's saying that I had blissful two days in deepest Devon

with your family, goats, ducks, sheep and all.

-And they had names!

-Well, they did. Ajax and Flash.

Yes. No longer, I'm afraid.

But the bread then was different to what we would do now, actually, I think.

It was different.

The yeast was the main difference.

Everybody used fresh yeast

and you also explained to me that it should be lukewarm water.

Everything had to be warm.

But now you say that you use cold.

Yes. I tell you when heat is still necessary - or advisable -

is when you're making wholemeal.

And there you do like to keep your rising temperature all the way through the process.

Because the wholemeal is much more...um...

Well, it's much more fragile, really.

Mary, go on, you get your hands filthy.

-And, of course, most people now would do this in a machine.

-They would.

With a dough hook. And I don't see too much wrong with that.

What do you think? TOM LAUGHS

You know, the really good thing about this, is the large bowl!

I'm not getting flour all over me.

-No, no, you're still looking quite nice, Mary.

-So far so good.

Still got some at the bottom there. Isn't really coming up.

-Do I have to go on working?

-I've got an answer.

I think. Which would be a little bit of oil -

we used to say butter, sometimes, in the dough,

but nowadays oil is easier.

-Just a drop?

-A tiny bit.

Now that's a good idea, because it's just going to take up the rest.

-Now that to me looks all right.

-It's not bad.

We could knead that on the table now.

So, I'll move the bowl away, and you can slap it down there,

and I'd better do a bit of work.

You've been floggin' your guts out!

Now, you remember I used to make you do this for HOURS!

You did, and it was very mean.

-I get away with it now doing it in the machine.

-Hello. Yes.

Hello, mixer!

No wonder you've got such muscles! I'm going to hold the table still

or we'll be out of the window, in a moment.

Tom and Mary are going to make three white tin loaves.

Once the dough has proved it is split into sections...

and left to prove again for another three hours...

-Looks pretty good.

-Very nice. very nice.

..before being taken outside and placed in Tom's special bread oven.

After 20 minutes, they're ready.

Oh, gosh, I remember that.

And you swore by it - said it made the very best bread.

Well, it does! It does!

It's not like a modern oven, with air going through all the time.

There's no ventilation.

So it's a perfect sort of environment for baking bread.

-That's the first.

-It's a big deep oven, isn't it?

It is. Yeah. You can do 20 loaves in there.

I've got my gloves on. Hot, hot, hot!

Oh, they're a good colour, aren't they?

I can't stand it when the tins stick!

Well, they're well used, they won't stick.

That looks a good white tin loaf.

Yeah, they're great. Perfect for sandwiches. Wonderful for toast.

What England has existed on for 150 years.

And it's got a lovely crust.

I'm doing it halfway down, so we can see what the middle's like.

That's exactly what you do when you're judging the village show.

-Needn't be too thin for me.

-Oh, no, you've got to have them thin.

We're lady-like here, you know!

-Right, the moment I've been waiting for!

-Well, there you go.

I like my butter like cheese - vast quantities.

It doesn't need any jam or anything.

CRUST CRUNCHES

That's sheer heaven.

Well, the honour is all mine, Mary. All mine.

-Ohhh..!

-What do you think then?

Mm! Well, it's not bad.

Throughout the 1990s, Mary continued her career in food.

But as a new century dawned,

her professional life shifted down a gear.

After 12 years, her cookery school had shut its doors.

Her magazine days were well behind her,

and TV appearances were, by now, few and far between.

So everything had got a bit quiet, and Mum doesn't like quiet.

She was writing one or two books a year,

and I remember looking at her, saying "Are you all right?"

And she just looked like she wanted to be busier.

She was not used to not having all the people around, all the hubbub.

And I think she was bored.

I was doing more charity demonstrations,

I was still writing books, but time was quieter.

And then came the telephone call to say

would I like to be judge on the Bake Off.

And I was chuffed to bits, because I do know about cakes.

Every slice should look good on the plate.

Now, just how that looks is lovely.

Everybody is crazy about the Bake Off.

It is quite amazing. I can't really believe it.

It's just too bitter.

I disagree with you, and I have got a very sweet tooth.

I think it's plenty sweet enough.

Paul and I are really close friends now.

We don't always agree, but we share the love of baking, Paul and I.

Is it dry?

Mary Berry is the Bake Off and Bake Off is Mary Berry,

-without a shadow of a doubt.

-Absolutely.

There's a reverence that the bakers will have towards Mary in the tents.

Because they don't want to disappoint her.

I think Mary brings a real authority to the Bake Off.

It's lovely - the fruit and the cream and the sponge -

that's absolutely fine, but it's just not cutting right,

and it's looking a little bit untidy.

We enjoy enormously what we do.

And we gather that the viewers love it too.

Her position as a judge on the Bake Off has introduced

a whole new generation to Mary Berry,

and has put baking on the agenda in a way she's never seen before.

Are you getting excited down the front there?

I'm very proud to think that Paul and I have encouraged people.

Just like you've disturbed mine! LAUGHTER

You meet dads and the father will say,

"I've been baking with my daughter"

and then you bend down and she says,

"Yes, I made cupcakes."

And it's really got people, families, closer, I hope.

And people are learning that you don't need to take

a bunch of flowers or a bottle of wine when you see friends,

they're taking their own bake.

And I think this is lovely.

I'm very proud to have been part of it.

It's been over six decades since Mary's love affair with food

began as a student at Bath High School for Girls.

To her father's disappointment, Mary struggled academically,

but in domestic science, her favourite subject,

she excelled.

The course is still flourishing.

And Mary's returned to the Royal High School to join today's students

as they prepare a pudding that Mary made here over 60 years ago.

Well, good afternoon, girls. It is lovely to be back at my old school.

I was here in the '40s - a long time ago!

Do you know my favourite subject was Home Economics.

It was so much better than doing Latin and Maths.

So today you are going to be making one of the things

I made in my class, steamed syrup pudding.

And I'm going to be the lucky one to taste it.

You'll work in pairs, so off you go.

The girls have a list of ingredients and the very recipe that Mary followed.

And when have you done creaming before?

I did it quite recently when we were doing cupcakes.

-So you're really skilled at it!

-We've done it quite a lot.

It doesn't matter now but you can put a little square

of foil, like it says, at the top.

-Does it matter if we haven't?

-It doesn't.

And we've got so much treacle it will come out.

-But it means that it comes out on top.

-Then you take the square off.

You really need to beat that butter and sugar until it's very light

and fluffy to start with.

And then when you add the other ingredients, they'll go in smoothly.

So how are we getting on here?

-Um, good.

-But we forgot the baking powder.

-You forgot the baking powder?

-Yes.

It actually isn't the end of the world,

because we are using self-raising flour.

You might not get such a rise,

but it's very important, before you start,

-to read the recipe through. So it's in the steamer ready.

-Yep.

And about how long is it going to take?

Erm, 45 minutes.

-Good, you're on the ball now.

-Yes!

-Though you made a mistake earlier on.

Well, there are eight steamed sponge puddings a-steaming,

and a lot of mirth and laughter.

One or two of them have not followed their recipe,

but it brings me back to the day when I did a steamed syrup pudding

all those years ago.

I was so proud when I took it home,

and I opened the lid and Mum and Dad tasted it - their eyes lit up.

And I really felt I'd done something properly.

Suddenly, particularly my father, was taking an interest in what I did.

It was lovely. And I couldn't wait to get back to school

to do the next weeks's project.

The puddings have steamed through.

Now to see how today's students have fared with Mary's 1940s recipe.

That's it. Over you go.

GIGGLING

It's difficult with small hands. That's it.

And it should, underneath, have the most beautiful pudding.

And do you know, that looks really, really good.

And I can't wait to taste it.

Right.

I'll pinch some of the treacly top.

-Mm! That is... What do you think? I think it's really good!

-Yeah.

So, the second one, come on.

Looks nice and spongy.

-Now are you going to make that when you go home?

-Yeah, definitely.

So keep the recipe and give your families a surprise.

A lovely even texture. You must have given it a good beat.

And that tastes...absolutely beautiful.

I think we've got some brilliant results there.

You're very good bakers.

So a good round of applause for everybody!

Throughout Mary's life,

food has always been at the heart of family gatherings.

Picnics were a childhood favourite

and today Mary's preparing one for her own family.

She's set the time and the date

and now with the help of her daughter Annabel,

Mary's going to make the centrepiece.

An express chocolate cake,

layered with white chocolate icing, and to decorate...chocolate curls.

OK, so we've got some self-raising flour, which we'll pop in first.

Followed by the caster sugar.

And the cocoa.

-And the bicarbonate of soda.

-Yes.

And the baking powder.

And I'm cooking with your children,

I always put a big plate underneath, because particularly little Hobie,

when he cracks an egg on the side most of it goes on the table.

-So everything in the bowl then?

-Yes.

And all you have to do is mix it. All so simple.

I can remember you making one of your first cakes -

you made William a cake.

Can you remember that? With the tennis racket on top.

We took it to him on his birthday at school.

Drove it up to Scotland.

Yes, and you did... I remember thinking will she be able to do it?

You did a criss-cross right across the tennis racket.

Wonder where I got that from?

Now that's fairly equal in the tins,

and we're going to bake those - fan 160.

To ensure they bake evenly,

the sponges are placed on the same shelf of the oven.

As they cook, Mary makes the white chocolate icing.

Now, the heat of the cream is going to melt that. Then stir it.

Annabel spent her childhood surrounded by the trappings of Mary's celebrity.

As a young girl, these were exciting times.

We had the television crew from the age of about six in big tents,

-like a circus, in the garden.

-That's right.

That was all part of life. And it was great fun.

But also I have many happy memories of you doing demonstrations

and you'd haul me along and we had a whale of a time.

I can remember a demonstration in Launceston,

and you came with me - you might have been about eight.

And I turned on the processor without the lid on.

It was oil - a salad dressing - you were making.

And the oil spun around you like that. And the audience.

-But it got all over you and you had to carry on.

-I did.

-And I think I might have cried.

-You did. You cried.

And I was more upset that you were upset.

And we had 400 in the audience. It was group WI.

And...when people say, "Do things go wrong?" I often remember that story.

Once the sponges have baked for 25 minutes,

and have been set aside to cool, the cake's ready to assemble,

using Mary's luxurious white chocolate icing.

-It is lovely, isn't it?

-Delicious!

So just push that all over the top,

and you could put a spreading of redcurrant jelly underneath if you wanted to.

And let's have this one on top.

So many people have difficulty with white chocolate -

but this one, using full-fat cream cheese and cream, it works.

And you don't need to add extra sugar.

-How about you doing a bit of decoration?

-Oh, lovely.

You were always very good at decorating.

It's easier to manage doing curls with plain chocolate.

Milk chocolate doesn't roll so well.

That looks good.

And I don't go far without my shaker with icing sugar.

It just gives a finish.

And that's all ready for the picnic.

Can't wait.

With her family assembled,

Mary leads them out to her favourite picnic spot.

I've really been so lucky to have had this passion for cooking and baking.

And I've had the backing of my family.

So lucky with it being dry.

What a view down there!

For 60 years since I left college, I have been cooking.

And showing people how to cook.

I couldn't have changed my life, really.

It's just what I wanted to do.

I do get people very often saying "When are you going to retire?"

Now, why would I retire?

I'll retire when somebody doesn't want me!

And I'll do that quite graciously.

CHATTER

I am so lucky. And I know it.

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