Mary Berry: Queen of the Bake Off introduces long-time collaborator Lucy Young and whips up a fresh batch of cakes
By JUDITH WOODS
|
Mary Berry is renowned for her sound advice and scores of super-reliable cookery books. But she doesn’t work alone…
Here she introduces Judith Woods to her collaborator Lucy Young
'We trust each other implicitly and are so attuned to one another in the kitchen that we've never exchanged a cross word,' said Mary Berry (pictured in her kitchen with Lucy Young)
There is no way Mary Berry will ever be appearing in the Australian jungle, the Big Brother house, on ice or on Strictly, while there’s breath left in my body. Nobody’s laying their hands on my Mary!’
It’s a stirring declaration of loyalty to the doyenne of domestic cooking, delivered with heartfelt passion. But, intriguingly, this oath of allegiance comes not from Mary’s agent, nor her publisher, nor even her devoted husband Paul, but from Lucy Young, her prodigiously talented sous-chef, collaborator and confidante, the co-writer of her dazzling new book Mary Berry At Home, who has diligently worked alongside Mary for 23 years, largely unseen and unsung – until now.
‘I love Lucy,’ beams Mary, a slim, sprightly 77. ‘We all do. She’s a member of the family, like a daughter to me. We trust each other implicitly and tell each other everything, and we are so attuned to one another in the kitchen that we’ve never exchanged a cross word in all the time we’ve known each other.’
Lucy, a curvaceous, bubbly 43, arrived in Mary’s Buckinghamshire home as a part-time assistant aged just 19. Since then her role has evolved far beyond helpmeet and washer-upper to collaborator and equal. As well as providing the proverbial yin to the celebrity cook’s yang – writing recipes, devising menus, co-writing her books and organising her schedule – Lucy is, of course, her formidable gatekeeper.
‘A lot of the time I don’t even tell Mary about the television panel shows she’s been offered,’ says Lucy, matter-of-factly. ‘I felt I had to mention Strictly Come Dancing as I had a slight dread there was a tiny chance she might want to do it.
Mary, sporting a natty floral bomber from Zara, and Paul Hollywood judging the Great British Bake Off
Mary and Paul discuss the pros and cons of baking on the Christmas special of their hit show
Thank God she didn’t – I would have found it very hard not to lurk in the wings, wrenching her out of harm’s way. Mary is a seriously good expert, and will do shows she’s interested in but no more quiz shows – she doesn’t enjoy them.’
But when The Great British Bake Off was first mooted back in 2010, Mary and Lucy caught each other’s eye and instantly agreed it was a very interesting proposition.
Here was an opportunity to do something a little different and have fun alongside breadmaker extraordinaire Paul Hollywood on BBC2 – little did either of them guess that the show would catapult Mary to a late blossoming of her career and launch a kitchen table renaissance of battenburg cake and artisan cheese scones.
‘I was adamant that Mary should be allowed to be herself: polite, honest and a source of constructive criticism rather than being involved with anything unkind or sensationalist,’ says Lucy. Mary, needless to say, concurred. ‘I have unquestioning faith in Lucy, and I know she is terribly protective of me, just as I feel protective of her.’
The pair have an easy-going relationship, the result of many years working side by side. Lucy, who lives nearby, was Cordon Bleu-trained and catering dinner parties when her mother mentioned she’d heard on the grapevine that Mary was looking for an assistant.
The Great British lead off: Mary and Lucy with Mary's dog, Millie
'My mother is a great cook and I’d grown up on Mary’s classic Hamlyn All Colour Cook Book, so I was slightly terrified at the prospect of meeting her, but she was so kind and put me at my ease. Needless to say, when she offered me the position, I jumped at it. The first morning, she asked me to make some meringues and then went out for the day – it was so nerve-racking that I burned the first batch to a cinder, but by the time she arrived back, the fourth lot were quite good.’
The deeply poignant reason why Mary felt the need to take on some help was because her son William had just been killed in a car crash, aged 19. His death had rocked the whole family to its foundations and Mary wanted to work from home rather than travel, as she had done previously. Lucy’s assistance enabled her to do that.
‘I never met William but we talk about him and refer to him often, so I feel as if I did know him,’ says Lucy. It’s not hard to see why Lucy’s presence would have brought a little cheer to a household rocked by grief.
Warm, funny and down-to-earth, she radiates can-do positivity, without bossiness. ‘When I started, my office was a huge clunky typewriter on a desk in the gap under the stairs,’ she smiles.
‘I really do mean the gap – it wasn’t even a cupboard, although Mary had a door put on to give me some privacy.’ Within six months of joining, Lucy was running the Aga cookery school with Mary, and after several years, her workload had outgrown the space, so the old brew house, which adjoins Mary’s home, was converted into an office.
‘Lucy and I have lived through every cycle and fashion in cookery,’ says Mary. ‘There was the phase when stir-frying was the thing, then slow cooking when everything had to be in the oven for five hours and now we’re on to British classics like steak and kidney pie and sticky toffee pudding.
I remember 20 years ago, when fennel arrived on the scene, we dedicated ourselves to boiling it, roasting it, braising it and baking it, just to discover what uses it had!’ Mary taught Lucy how to create and write recipes.
The young woman would go home at the end of the day with her head crammed with combinations of flavours, textures and tastes. It was a steep learning curve, but she loved every minute of it – even the admin.
Mary and Lucy having a natter over a cup of builders' tea
‘Mary can get 200 emails overnight,’ explains Lucy. ‘Of those, 50 will want autographs, ten will want to know where she bought her scarf and four will be about some recipe their grandmother used to make in 1973, involving apricots and could they have a copy please?
Given that Mary has written 80 books, it’s pretty time-consuming to track down something like that. But there are also such special moments; just this morning she received a letter from a little girl which included a photograph of her brandy snaps. Mary said, “That makes my day.” And I know it did.’
Lucy may be Mary’s back-of-house Girl Friday without whom, by Mary’s own admission, she ‘simply can’t function’.
But arguably Mary’s contribution to Lucy’s life has been even greater: she found her a husband. ‘Because we chat as we work, I always know what’s going on in Lucy’s life and vice versa, so I’ve known all about her various boyfriends,’ says Mary.
‘Oh, remember that one we really didn’t like? The one who worked as a – ’
Lucy interrupts her with a comical shriek: ‘No! Don’t mention him. Yes, it’s true that Mary brought me a husband; he came to mend her computer, and as soon as I laid eyes on him, I set about lassoing him.
She was brilliant and kept calling him up to fix things that weren’t really broken and then melting away into the background so we were alone.’
Mary and Lucy discussing recipe ideas at the kitchen table
The chap in question, Peter (although they call him Pedro), was a South African IT expert, who was happily ensnared by the two women’s teamwork.
When he married Lucy two years ago, Mary gave a reading at their wedding.
‘Pedro is wonderful,’ says Mary firmly. ‘Not just because he takes such care of Lucy, but because he sees to it that she gets to work on time.
I can’t abide unpunctuality, and it’s the one niggle I have about Lucy.’
Lucy nods, unconcerned, in agreement. For her part, she is driven mildly bonkers by Mary’s inability to sit still.
‘I’ll be talking to her and she’ll wander off into the next room, while insisting that she’s listening, so I have to raise my voice to a shout or follow her in pursuit.’ Now it is Mary’s turn to nod, equally unapologetically.
‘I’m doing my memoirs with a ghostwriter but I can’t just sit down and reminisce, I have to do something. Last time she came I made soup.’
Mary and Lucy’s closeness prompts one to wonder whether her actual daughter, Annabel, feels jealous of the relationship. Annabel, who is married and lives near Oxford, used to work with her mother on their successful Mary Berry & Daughter range of salad dressings and sauces, but these days looks after her three children full time.
‘Oh no, Annabel’s not the type to feel put out,’ says Mary, heartily. ‘She doesn’t regard Lucy as a rival, but as a friend. Lucy is such a part of our lives we don’t even question it.’
‘Just this morning Mary received a letter from a little girl which included a photograph of her brandy snaps. Mary said, “That makes my day.” And I know it did’
‘I really don’t care about material things. It’s people who matter,’ she says.
‘When Lucy announced that someone had left a hot saucepan on my new worktop, I didn’t turn a hair. When I bumped my car into a wall the other day, I didn’t even get out to inspect the damage, I just made a mental note to get it fixed.’
Lucy greatly admires Mary’s practical attitude and generosity of spirit towards those whom she loves.
‘She buys me cashmere jumpers for Christmas and I bring them to work when they need washing, and she does it for me, because she knows I’d be rubbish at it.
Last year when I was snowed in over in the car park, it was Mary who came striding out with a shovel and started to excavate me, digging and pushing the car.
She’s unique, a one-off. Is it any wonder I’d literally do anything for her?’
Meanwhile, Mary’s media career brings ever more highlights; the recent hilarious Comic Relief version of The Great British Bake Off being especially memorable.
But it was, we all acknowledge, just an amuse-bouche to whet the appetite in advance of the fourth series of the show proper, which is being finalised.
Which brings us to the one genuine bone of contention between Mary and Lucy: Lucy’s broadcasting future.
She has written six books – Secrets of a Country Kitchen, Secrets of Aga Cakes, Secrets of Aga Puddings, Aga Easy, Cook Up a Feast and Tips for Better Baking. She has also made a few TV appearances, but professes no ambition to do more, claiming it’s not her forte. Mary, setting her chin at a firm-but-fair angle, disagrees.
‘Look, I won’t always be here,’ she chides. ‘At some point I’ll be off in heaven’s kitchen and you need to have built up a name for yourself by then.
You are wonderful on television. I think you would be perfect teaching young mums how to cook; simple, healthy, unfussy food.’
Lucy’s expression is balanced precariously between enthusiasm and scepticism, and it’s clear this discussion will run and run for some time to come.
I’d put money on Mary’s sweet-natured doggedness winning out in the end.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2270792/Mary-Berry-Queen-Bake-Off-introduces-right-hand-woman-Lucy-Young.html#ixzz2L6dnnVCV
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment