Marguerite Patten
{{Short description|English food writer and broadcaster}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marguerite Patten
| image = Marguerite_Patten.png
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Hilda Elsie Marguerite Brown
| birth_date = {{nowrap|{{Birth date|1915|11|4|df=yes}}}}
| birth_place = Bath, Somerset, England, UK
| death_date = {{death date and age|2015|06|4|1915|11|4|df=yes}}
| death_place = Twickenham,Paul Levy, "Patten [née Brown], (Hilda Elsie) Marguerite
(1915–2015)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2019 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/110493 available online]. Retrieved 27 August 2020. Greater London, England, UK
| nationality = British
| occupation = Home economist, food writer and broadcaster
| notable_works = Everyday Cook Book in Colour (1961)
| awards = OBE 1991; CBE 2010; Lifetime Achievement Award from BBC, 1998; Lifetime Achievement Award from Waterford Wedgewood, 1999; Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award 2007
| spouse = Bob Patten (1942–97, his death)
| children = 1}}
Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|commas=on|CBE}} (née Brown; 4 November 1915 – 4 June 2015), was a British home economist, food writer and broadcaster. She was one of the earliest celebrity chefs (a term that she disliked at first) who became known during World War II thanks to her programme on BBC Radio, where she shared recipes that could work within the limits imposed by war rationing. After the war, she was responsible for popularising the use of pressure cookers and her 170 published books have sold over 17 million copies.
Early life and career
Born in Bath, Somerset, she was raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, where she won a scholarship to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Girls (now Queen Elizabeth's School for Girls).Obituary, The Times, 11 June 2015, p. 55 Patten was 12 when she began to cook for her mother and younger brother and sister after her father, who was a printer, died, and her mother had to return to work as a teacher. While she was not the primary cook for the family, she did take an interest in cooking from that age onwards.{{cite news|last1=Elgot|first1=Jessica|title=Cookery writer Marguerite Patten dies aged 99|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/10/cookery-writer-marguerite-patten-dies-aged-99|access-date=15 June 2015|work=The Guardian|date=10 June 2015}} After leaving school, she worked as an actress in repertory theatre for nine months, and then as a senior home economist for Frigidaire, promoting the benefits of the refrigerator.
Second World War
During World War II, she worked for the Ministry of Food suggesting nourishing and inventive recipes using the rationed food that was available. She broadcast her ideas and advice to the nation on a BBC radio programme called the Kitchen Front.{{cite news|last1=Hyslop|first1=Leah|title=Eight things Marguerite Patten taught us|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11665071/Eight-things-Marguerite-Patten-taught-us.html|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=15 June 2015|date=10 June 2015}} When the war ended, she demonstrated kitchen appliances for Harrods, including the pressure cooker which her work popularised in the UK.
Television and Radio
Following from her wartime appearances, she appeared on many BBC radio programmes, included Woman's Hour from 1946 until the 2000s.{{cite book|author=Catharine M. C. Haines|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/238 238]–}}
The TV programmes on which she appeared regularly included the first UK TV magazine programme Designed for Women (1947 - 1960) and Cookery Club (1956 - 1961). She was one of the earliest TV 'celebrity chefs' – a description with which she disagreed saying "I am NOT! To the day I die I'll be a home economist", presenting her first television cookery programme on the BBC in 1947.{{cite news|title=Marguerite Patten, cookery writer, dies at 99|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11664984/Marguerite-Patten-cookery-writer-dies-at-99.html|access-date=15 June 2015|work=The Telegraph|date=10 June 2015}} However, Patten seemed to have relaxed this stance later in life, describing herself as "the first Television Cook in Britain."{{cite web|last1=Patten|first1=Marguerite|title=Christmas Pudding Recipe from ANCHOR® Butter|url=http://www.howto.tv/show/how-to-make-the-perfect-christmas-pud|website=HowTo.tv|access-date=24 December 2016}}{{cite web|last1=Patten|first1=Marguerite|title=How To Make The Perfect Christmas Pudding|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hYeiqRXao |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/m6hYeiqRXao| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|website=YouTube|date=13 October 2009 |publisher=HowTo.tv|access-date=24 December 2016}}{{cbignore}}
She appeared on television some eight years before Fanny Cradock, whom she disliked and called a "bully", but whose ability to cook she appreciated. Patten did cookery demonstrations, once touring the world, and also appearing at the London Palladium on 12 occasions.
Books
Patten wrote many best-selling cookery books. In 1961, her publisher Paul Hamlyn produced a glossy book, Cookery In Colour, that proved influential on later publications. The Everyday Cook Book in Colour had sold in excess of one million copies by 1969.{{cite book |title=Everyday Cook Book in Colour |first=Marguerite |last=Patten |publisher=Hamlyn Books |year=1969}} She has since sold 17 million copies of her 170 books.{{cite web|last1=Wilkins|first1=Sasha|title=What Marguerite Patten meant to generations of British home cooks|url=https://www.the-pool.com/food-home/food-honestly/2015/23/what-marguerite-patten-meant-to-generations-of-british-home-cooks|publisher=The Pool|access-date=15 June 2015|date=11 June 2015}} Patten authored two vegetarian cookbooks, Meals Without Meat (1964) and Vegetarian Cooking for You (1979).{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005089%2F19841103&page=83|title=Happy Birthday to Marguerite Patten From Hamlyn|newspaper=The Bookseller|date=November 3, 1984|page=1923|url-access=subscription}} Her most popular cookbooks included Classic Dishes Made Simple (1969) and Spam: The Cookbook (2000).
Patten continued to contribute to TV and radio food programmes into her late nineties, following a brief retirement in her seventies.{{cite news|last1=Durrant|first1=Sabine|title='Let's get this straight': interview with Marguerite Patten|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8542679/Lets-get-this-straight-interview-with-Marguerite-Patten.html|access-date=15 June 2015|work=The Telegraph|date=5 June 2011}} Her approach to cookery instruction included teaching essential knowledge and skills needed in the kitchen. Her advice and books were instrumental in improving the quality of British cookery in the post-war years, when rationing meant that more exotic dishes were impossible to prepare. She has been an influence on other well-known cooks such as Gary Rhodes, who called her one of his two culinary heroes.{{cite news|title=Celebrity Chef Gary Rhodes at the Marine Hotel in Salcombe - Flying the British Flag|url=http://www.devonlife.co.uk/people/celebrity-chef-gary-rhodes-at-the-marine-hotel-in-salcombe-flying-the-british-flag-1-1630022|access-date=18 April 2017|agency=Devon Life|date=15 March 2011}} Her 1972 part-work 'Perfect Cooking' was made into an art installation, a paper-weave, by British artist Martin Slidel, and exhibited at The Paper Factory, London (UK), in 2006.
Honours
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1991 Birthday Honours for "services to the Art of Cookery"{{London Gazette|issue=52563|supp=y|page=11|date=14 June 1991}} and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.{{London Gazette|issue=59446|date=12 June 2010|page=8 |supp=y}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10296078|title=Food gurus Marguerite Patten and Prue Leith honoured|work=BBC News|date=12 June 2010|access-date=16 June 2014}} In 2007, she received the Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.{{cite web|url=http://www.womenoftheyear.co.uk/history/previous-winners|title=Previous winners|work=Woman of the Year|year=2014|access-date=16 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218033546/http://www.womenoftheyear.co.uk/history/previous-winners/|archive-date=18 February 2014}} She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2000 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel during the Food Show at Birmingham's NEC.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}
Death
Patten's death was announced on 10 June 2015. She died on Thursday 4 June aged 99, "from an illness stoically borne" according to her family. She had suffered a stroke in June 2011 which had robbed her of speech,{{cite news|first=Helen|last=Nianias|title=Marguerite Patten dies: Cookery writer has passed away|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/marguerite-patten-dies-cookery-writer-has-passed-away-10310339.html|access-date=10 June 2015|newspaper=The Independent|location=London|date=10 June 2015}} and towards the end of her life, she could no longer stand, thus preventing her from cooking.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_02_fri_05.shtml Marguerite Patten on BBC Radio 4] (includes sound clip)
- [http://bnb.data.bl.uk/doc/person/PattenMarguerite Bibliography] generated by the British Library
{{Authority control}}
{{English cuisine}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patten, Marguerite}}
Category:British women in World War II
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:English television chefs
Category:English cookbook writers
Category:English women food writers
Category:People from Bath, Somerset
Category:People educated at Queen Elizabeth's School for Girls