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Castaway
1 appearance
First television cook; invented "here's one I prepared earlier"; wrote 17M cookbooks including groundbreaking "Cookery in Colour".
On the island
Eight records
David Fieldsend with the Orchestra of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company conducted by John Pryce-Jones
The first is a Gilberts and Sullivan, because we're a great Gilberts and Sullivan family. My father was a very, very good musician who played classical music and everything, and sadly died when I was twelve. My mother, a very competent musician. My sister and I. Fortunately we had enough knowledge of music to know we were pretty awful, but our duets at Gilbert and Sullivan were the sort of variety act for the family, and so as I am loved going to Venice, I'm going to choose from the gondoliers take a pair of sparkling eyes.
Léopold Simoneau and René Bianco with the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux conducted by Jean Fournet
The second record goes back to an uncle of mine. My uncle had a very fine voice, and used to sing the Fishermen of England in a deep bass baritone. I didn't want to live with the Fishermen of England somehow, so I translated that to the Pearl Fishers. The duet between those two fishermen I think is absolutely magic.
Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra with the MGM Studio Orchestra conducted by Johnny Green
Like every youngster's day, I had my pop stars, and Bing Crosby was the first. And then, of course, along came Frank Sinatra, and I had a terrible time when I was thinking about these records. Who should I choose? Then I suddenly remembered I could have both of them in that lovely duet from High Society.
When the Lights Go On Again (All Over the World)
Jack Carroll with Les Brown and His Orchestra
Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus and Eddie Seiler
You hear a lot about the rations, you hear a lot about the gallantry of people during the war, but something that I shall never forget was the darkness. You imagine, as I did, coming back from working in London, twenty minute walk in your home town, but in blackness there wasn't a chink of light. So that when the lights came on oh, absolutely wonderful And I've chosen that when the lights go on all over the world.
Nous avons en tête une affaire
Now I'm departing from the lights to a comparatively recent love, discovering opera. I think the opera that excites me probably more than anything is common. And I'm going over to the scene in the tavern, where you have gypsies, you have the smugglers, you have Carmen, because that's the essence of lovely, lovely Spanish music.
The Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
I was torn between the magnificent RAF March and I thought, no, my efforts mustn't be classed with those gallant people. So it's the magnificent men in their flying machine.
My husband had bought me a ticket on Concorde for a day trip to Egypt. Can you imagine it? And you know, it was incredible how much we got done in that day. So in memory of my incredible, lovely day, I would like to choose a part of Act Two of Verde's Aida, The Glory of Egypt.
Well, I've been extremely lucky, as I've mentioned briefly, my family and lovely grandchildren and step grandchildren, who all are a sheer joy. And I've always loved being with young people. So my last opera is really to say how much I enjoy being with young people, how much I appreciate the way they treat me. I'm Marguerite, you know, I'm not sort of Mrs. Perton. So I've chosen the opera which to me summarises the friendliness of young people, and it is La Bohime.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:58What sort of things did you play [in repertory in Oldham]?
Hobson's choice was one, but there was one magic one where I was the intended victim. They were very vocal in Oldham. Every night somebody used to say, Look out, Love, he's behind you, which rather spoiled the plot. But I manfully went on. It was a experience, as it turned out. Well, I think, quite frankly, it was one of the most valuable periods of my life.
Presenter asks
5:46Why did you choose domestic science rather than home economics?
They really chose me. I discovered at about thirteen that I enjoyed cooking. Even at thirteen, I liked showing off and standing on the platform. Somebody said, well, why don't you put the two together? Let her train to be a home economist in industry, and then she'll be able to stand on the platform. So that's really how I came to do that.
Presenter asks
5:46What was the first thing you ever cooked as a young girl?
Oh, I cannot think to this day why I selected something so very ambitious, a rabbit pie. So I not only had to do the rabbit pot, but I had to do the pastry as well. And it was going beautifully until a school friend who was with me tipped my hand and the rabbit pie ended on the floor. And it's a disgraceful admission that Marguerite gathered it all up, dusted it down and put it back in the pie bit. And it was. Needs must, I think. Well, I had to. Everybody was coming home over home for lunch, so I had to do it. And didn't say a word about it until years afterwards.
The keepsakes
The book
Jane Austen
I think Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice because just like these music, I can see that I rejoice in mister Bennett. I wonder how he put up with that wife for all those years.
The luxury
I would ask please for a very strong trowel, because that would get me bending, not a spathey, that I could dig. And I could create perhaps a garden, a rockery garden maybe, or some kind of garden.
Presenter asks
10:53Do you remember how much you got paid [by Frigidaire]?
Um yes, I got paid five pounds a week, which was an enormous amount of money for a youngster in those days. And of course my family said it ruined me for life. I was told I must always travel first class and always stay in the best hotels to uphold the name of Fritcherdaire.
Presenter asks
13:36What kinds of people were you talking to [in Harrods during the war]?
Oh, most interesting, because as well as Britishers there, a lot of people from around the world were refugees from oppression, and they used to come to Harrods. And I was very fortunate because many of them used to say, Well, I've recipes from Czechoslovakia. Do they interest you? Of course they interest me. From Austria, all sorts of exotic. But you wouldn't have had the ingredients. No, I couldn't. But I got the recipes. And when the ingredients came back in the fifties, there I was, armed with an enormous library of recipes I'd never tried.
Presenter asks
30:31Do you think you'll ever stop [writing and appearing on television]?
Well, as long as people ask me to do things, I would like to go on. Only yesterday I was instructing a group of young Japanese women who were over here on the niceties, believe it or no, of an elegant British tea party. I wore a hat and I had my gloves on to start with to show them how tea parties would have been a long time ago. And then I shed my hat and came down to earth in 2001.
“I think you'd divide us as a nation really in half, the people who love to cook … and the people who are not going to cook. And I'm really very fascinated by the people who don't want to cook. And I want to say to them, Look, I know when you're busy it's easy to take a can, a packet or something like that, but please, when you've time, learn about the pleasure of handling food, the pleasure of creating a dish.”
“We didn't worry then, did we, about everything was piped with cream. No, we didn't. We hadn't heard the word cholesterol then. We did know about calories just about they were something far off that other people worried about, but we didn't worry about. But what we did know about is how to create a meal.”
“I am basically a demonstrator and I like to see my audience. Well, of course, in a theatre, you don't. So I evolved this, getting people to time. And it was a Swiss roll. And you've never heard such lunatic timing in your life. Of course, I looked at my watch very carefully, wasn't being caught on that one. And after two or three minutes, Swiss roll, Swiss roll. But they were participating. I knew they were there.”