Nigella, Come For A Meal

I don't often find myself tuning in to listen to Woman's Hour, for no particular reason, but I did recently. I think maybe I caught a tweet or two saying that Nigella would be on, alongside Diana Henry, Bee Wilson and Cara Nicoletti all chatting about food and feminism - it sounded fun. They'd be discussing if we all should just 'ditch the guilt' and just enjoy the 'many pleasures that food and cooking offers'. So it had to be worth tuning in. Woman's Hour began in 1946 and dear old Fanny was a regular contributor back in the 60's and 70's - she would have been a fantastic addition to the line-up of today I think! I wonder if those shows were much different to today?

The BBC produced a handy booklet in 1966, encouraging listeners to cook, eat and make others happy. They asked 12 Woman's Hour contributors to design a menu each. It's all a bit Come Dine With Me, except they called it Come For A Meal. You get the idea. Each menu was for a different occasion, and surprise surprise there was even a Vegetarian Dinner. If you fancied Tomato Soup followed by Stuffed Marrow and Lemon Sorbet you were sorted! A Vegetarian Dream. Fanny of course had much grander ideas...

Fanny's menu was for those times, that we can all relate to, when you have four guests staying the whole weekend, and you need to plan an entire menu for six from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. Fanny provides her ideal menu to 'sustain them', "someone has to" she says with a knowingly resentful glance to the radio listeners. You really get the impression these guests are not welcome at all. Best of all Fanny says, you should be able to make all this 'without help' which must've been such a boon for the ordinary housewife listener. Perhaps the domestic is away for the weekend, or worse still your very favourite assistants have the weekend off? Eeeew! Surely not...

Each dish of course is presented with it's very fancy French name, and features a mix of cold dishes ready to 'dish up' as well as others ready to pop into the oven or steamer to 'take care of themselves'. You don't want to neglect your guests while nourishing them. Easy peasy. Your weekend guests will be simply thrilled with Scallops with Cheese Sauce, Jacket Potatoes with a 'difference', Pork and Cider parcels, Ice Cream with Citrus Fruits, Pate Pie, Chicken with Cheese Fondue Sauce, and an untranslatable French Flan, a recurring favourite, which Fanny calls Tarte Fleurette.

So, flash forward to 2015, Nigella is busy cooking Poached Salmon, Avocado, Watercress and Pumpkin Seed Salad, from her new Simply Nigella book. Different ingredients, but perhaps the same sentiment? Nigella urges us to eat good, wholesome, real food. "Cooking is an act of love, whether that's expressed to yourself or others". So whether its 1946, 1966 or 2015, the Woman's Hour message is the same, relish cooking and revel in entertaining. Fanny's additional and unique message was still to fancy it all up in French, naturellement.

I was fortunate enough to meet Nigella at her "An Evening With..." with my friend Karen in Edinburgh not long after her Woman's Hour appearance, squeeeeel. It was a joy to hear her being interviewed and talk about her love of all things food. I can't imagine Fanny releasing a simply stripped back book like this, but both 'home cooks' are linked through their passion for cooking, eating and sharing with readers, listeners and viewers alike. Fanny was all frills, Nigella, well, was Simply Nigella. Next time Nigella, come for a meal, I'll pop the radio on and we can flick through Fanny's books...

Diamonds Are Forever - Sixty Years of Kitchen Magic

Somewhat unbelievably, 2015 marks the simply sensational sixtieth anniversary of Fanny Cradocks first ever proper TV show. Well, proper in Fanny's own special way. Prior to 1955 she had been a regular on radio of course, dispensing Hints for Housewives on Womans Hour, cooking up 'dishes which can be done in a flash'. However, it wasn't long before Fanny (then know plainly as Phyllis) and Johnnie transferred to TV. Their first 15-minute BBC show, The Cradocks with Kitchen Magic, was interestingly even then billed as 'an unusual style of TV cookery to a TV audience', but the ratings delivered with them scoring 73% of the potential audience despite its after dark time slot. I don't think any footage exists, although they later recreated it for Gas Board promotional film, but what a treat if it ever turned up!

Fanny and Johnnie filmed a follow up, the crackingly titled The Cradocks are Frying Tonight ('an evening dress version of their afternoon show') for the BBC before switching to independent TV for Associated Rediffusion who lured them with the glory of full half hour shows. Fanny felt they were much more suited to them than the measly 15 minutes the BBC offered. Chez Bon Viveur and Fanny's Kitchen were independent hits, but they soon returned to the BBC with Challenge in the Kitchen - where Fanny was pitted against a French male chef to explore 'if men cooked better than women' - and their very first Christmas show, the Bon Viveur Gala Christmas Dinner broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall.

The 1950's ended with yet more TV appearances with Fanny and Johnnie introducing their soon-to-be-well-established cookery club idea to the Mainly for Women afternoon show by making assiette de crudités and boxes of chocolates. Presumably these were particularly called for back then. They continued to make appearances on a variety of programmes, among them making exciting party feasts For Deaf Children and making a case for elegant presentation on Home at One Thirty. It was here that Fanny introduced her idea to make three course meals in 15 minutes. Beat that Jamie! Fifty years before his quick-fire series, just saying.

Fanny was still developing her unique persona and style, personally, as a TV cook and as a TV personality, confusingly popping up as a gardening expert in Living Today before returning to radio for Beginning to Cook, following another familiar future theme of six elementary lessons. The 1960's were a boon time for Fanny and TV however, with Kitchen Party, Home Cooking, Adventurous Cooking, Problem Cooking, Ten Classic Dishes, the ground-breaking Colourful Cookery which Fanny was surely born for and Giving a Dinner Party all airing. All with the essential accompanying booklet of course, and all in between popular appearances on Juke Box Jury or Call My Bluff. We just couldn't get enough Fanny.

The 60's also saw Fanny's first full Christmas series, Christmas Cooking, which covered the Pudding, The Cake and the Birds - all the festive fundamentals. The 1970's are often seen as the glory years for Fanny on TV, but perhaps this is simply because most of the footage still exists? With Fanny Cradock Invites, she invited us to a range of parties each episode from Cheese and Wine, Sunday Brunch and even one for Teenagers. very much the Nigella of her day. Again, it was all in the booklet. Fanny jumped from Generation Game appearances to frolicking around Europe exploring their cuisines and giving expert advice to other cooks for Nationwide. This new role as 'advice giver' would come back to haunt but, but as 1975 continued we saw perhaps her most famous shows, the wonderful Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas, which are still shown regularly each festive season, often to collective gasps from TV audiences and Twitter alike.

The 1970's also saw the demise of Fanny's TV career with the ill-judged Gwen Troaks Banquet on the Big Time. It is often cited as her final TV appearance, following a rude demolition of poor Gwen's ideas and skills. In scenes which would be popular for 'judges' today, the viewers in the 70's found it hard to swallow. However, during the 1980's she popped up on Pebble Mill, Wogan and the unusually titled Sin on Saturday to name but a few. I'd love to see that one particularly! Her final TV cooking slots were for independent breakfast TV, introducing the early morning TV-am viewers to the wonders of filo pastry.

Rather sadly, most of Fanny's TV appearances remain either in the vaults or have disappeared forever, sometimes popping up in a welcome manner on compilation shows and tribute programmes like TV Heroes, Look Who's Cooking and the Way We Cooked. I'd love to have a rummage around in the archives though, and I'm sure we'd all enjoy the televisual treats that could be uncovered. Perhaps the BBC are already planning a suitably splendid Fanny Cradock Diamond Anniversary Celebration? We are still hungry to see Fanny's unusual style of cookery... Aren't we?