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MANILA, Philippines - Who is the English chef and television personality whose basic cooking is the UK’s best-selling book with more than 18 million sold?
She was born in Surety on June 18, 1941, and had various jobs after leaving school before she went into cookery. At 21, she started working in a small restaurant in Paddington, and started reading cookery books at the Reading Room at the British Museum.
With this knowledge, she was taken on as the cookery writer for the Daily Mirror’s new magazine in 1969. Her first piece featured kipper pate, beef in beer, and cheesecake.
In 1972, she started writing a column for the Evening Standard, which she was to write for 12 years.
She became famous by hosting a cookery television show Family Fare, which ran between 1973 and 1975. Later, she approached BBC Further Education with an idea for their first televised cookery course.
Her aim was to teach people how to cook: to take them back to basics and cover all the classic techniques. Accompanying books were needed to explain not only how but also why things happen. This led to her three Cookery Course books.
Since that time, she has influenced cooking trends in the UK.
Her television series How to Cook (1998) reportedly led to a 10-percent rise in egg sales in Britain, and her use of ingredients (such as frozen mash, tinned minced beef, and onions in her 2008 TV series) or utensils (such as an omelette pan) could cause sell-outs overnight.
This phenomenon was most recently seen in 2008 after her new book How to Cheat at Cooking was published. Her fame meant that her first name had become sufficient to identify her to the public.
She has written many best selling cookery books, all reflecting her no-frills taste — How to Cheat at Cooking, Recipes from Country Inns and Restaurants, The Evening Standard Cookbook, Frugal Food, Cakes, Bakes and Steaks.
Her Complete Illustrated Cookery Course, and How to Cook Series have inspired a new generation of English chefs. Her most recent books are Kitchen Garden: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing and Cooking Fruits and Vegetables, and Happy Christmas.
A convert to Catholicism, she is also known for her spiritual books. These include A Feast for Lent, A Feast for Advent, and a full-length book on prayer — A Journey into God, Already an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009 “in recognition of her contribution to television cookery and recipe writing.”
Last week’s question: Who is the American modernist architect who worked on landmark projects like New York City’s Grand Central Terminal; the Biltmore Hotel and the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach; and the Park Lane, Lexington, Pierre, and Waldorf Asstoria Hotel in New York?
Answer: Leonard Schultze
Winner: Anne Sherill C. Suarez, Quezon City
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Text your answer to 0926-3508061 with your name and address. One winner will be chosen through a raffle of texts with the correct answer. The winner will receive P2,000 worth of SM gift certificates for use at Our Home, SM Department Store, or SM Supermarket. They can claim their prize at Our Home in SM Megamall. Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.
