Mary Berry

by A. S. Dagnell

  And when it came to the final of the third series, Mary and Paul had some tough decisions to make. John was the underdog – and was widely seen as being lucky to have reached that stage of the competition in the first place. James, then 21, was the favourite to walk away with the trophy after being named the ‘star baker’ of the series three times, and with Mary hailing him for his creativity. Meanwhile Brendan had a wealth of baking experience behind him and had impressed both Mary and Paul with the precise nature of his baking. But, in a shock twist, John was announced as the surprise winner of the series. He couldn’t believe his luck … not least because PR guru Max Clifford said he could easily make £500,000 in the 12 months following his win if he played his cards right and secured similar deals to previous winners Jo Wheatley and Edd Kimber. John, who had taken up a job on a bank’s graduate training scheme, told the Sun: ‘I’m very lucky to have my job but I definitely want to focus on baking. It would be nice to earn money from the one thing I love doing. So if I can make a career out of baking I will. It just depends how much interest I get now that everyone who watches knows I won. I’m already working on a book and I’d love to do a TV show. I’d be a fool to turn down offers like that, and I don’t plan on turning anything down.’

  He was the ‘surprise’ winner because he’d made a series of blunders. As well as dicing his finger, he had put salt into his rum babas instead of sugar and made a torte that looked like a breeze block. But it was his final recipe that seemed to win the competition for him. During the filming process, he had been in the midst of doing his final exams for his law degree at Manchester University. That meant that filming the Great British Bake Off, John said, contributed to what he called his ‘heaven and hell’ of a year, which included the high of the birth of his new nephew. To represent this, he made two different types of chiffon cake, the recipe for which was so elaborate that it ran on to three pages of A4 and included 27 steps. The dark chocolate ‘hell’ element of the cake was chocolate icing so smooth it appeared like a mirror. Mary couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and gasped: ‘It is stunning.’ Speaking to the Sun after being announced as the winner, John said: ‘It is a surreal feeling. I wasn’t the favourite and had some real disasters. I had a few strong bakes at the beginning but let myself go a bit. When Mel said I’d won, my sister Jane – who normally takes the mickey out of me – was so shocked she almost dropped the baby in her arms. She was crying and the rest of my family were all jumping up and down.’

  And it took John some getting used to being the new flag-bearer for men getting involved in baking … not least because he had been hailed as a heart-throb during the course of the series. ‘You’d be amazed how many butch blokes come up to me in the pub and say they can knock up a mean batch of fairy cakes,’ he told the Sun. ‘It did surprise me, because I expected it to be mainly women and kids. But it’s good to see that Britain’s blokes are baking again. People tend to think that it is only girls that make cakes, so the all-male final was a shock. I hope it does inspire more men to get involved. I’ve had loads of female and male attention since making the final, which is nice – but I wouldn’t say I’m a heart-throb. Most people just want to know why their cakes haven’t risen, or ask for tips. I don’t mind, though – if it involves food and cakes, I’m listening. It’s overwhelming to have so many people saying nice things.’

  The final was also considered a triumph because of its record viewing figures. It recorded a peak audience of 6.7 million and an average of 6.1 million – above and beyond anyone’s expectations. It even beat shows on all the other main channels, including Holby City on BBC1, which peaked at 5.1 million. And as a result there has been speculation that the Great British Bake Off could move to BBC1, to accommodate the fact that it is becoming such a big show – something that would send Mary’s star rising even further. This was a path well trodden by other shows that had debuted on BBC2 before finding success. The Apprentice, fronted by Amstrad tycoon Lord Alan Sugar, was one such example. And speaking at the Bake Off, a BBC source was quoted in the Daily Mirror in 2012 saying: ‘Viewing figures of 6 and 7 million mean a move to the flagship channel has to be looked at. The figures for the final are higher than for the recent series of Doctor Who – even Karen Gillan’s exit only pulled in 5.9 million.’

  Only time will tell if that will happen. But like all shows that have proven a ratings hit in the UK, the people behind GBBO saw the potential for taking the show overseas. This has happened to scores of other successful British shows, including Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Weakest Link, The X Factor, Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!. All of those shows have proved to be popular with viewers on our shores before going abroad. And so the same has happened with Mary’s show. Bake Off is now being shown in Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and Poland, the Guardian reported in October 2012, while series of the show were also in the pipeline in Ireland, Norway, France and Australia.

  In Sweden the show was called Hela Sverige Bakar, which means ‘All Sweden is Baking’, and it garnered similarly successful ratings. In Mary’s place was Sweden’s own ‘motherly’ Birgitta Rasmussen, who had penned her own baking bible, Sju Sorters Kako (Seven Kinds of Cake). But while Mary railed against the soggy bottoms, Birgitta’s bugbear was the dödbakade bottnar (‘dead-baked bottoms’). The format remains the same wherever the show is seen, but the menu of bakes that have to be cooked up by the participants is tailored to each country’s taste. Cinnamon buns, for example, which are so popular in Sweden that there’s a national day dedicated to them, are the show’s signature dish there.

  Meanwhile, across the border in Denmark, viewers lapped up Den Store Bagedyst – or, in English, ‘The Great Bake Fight’. The show has smashed all records for factual shows on Danish TV channel DR1. ‘This is the closest version to the UK original: if you turned down the sound, you’d never know the difference, though there are subtle pointers, such as more Scandi wood, and no Smeg fridges,’ noted Mark Cook in the Guardian. The tone of the Danish version is decidedly gothic, too. Mary’s equivalent is Neel Rønholt, an excitable blonde woman, while her Paul Hollywood is a slightly older man called Peter Ingemann. Both, however, wear black – perhaps in an attempt to add an element of drama to the proceedings in the same vein as shows like The X Factor.

  In Belgium the show is called De Meesterbakker – or ‘The Master Baker’ – and it got a withering review from Mark Cook, who said that the set ‘really needs a visit from 60 Minute Makeover. It lacks the jolly aesthetic of the UK version; much of the action seems to happen in a garishly lit warehouse, which means no tent, no flags, and no squirrels with giant testicles.’ While with the UK’s Bake Off the action takes place in marquees, some of the Flemish version is filmed in the would-be bakers’ kitchens, leading to ‘an awful lot of clutter and mucky sponges you really don’t need to see’. Naturally, being filmed in Belgium, the world’s chocolate and waffle capital, both make regular appearances – and it follows that the judge is one of the country’s best chocolatier-pâtissiers, Bernard Proot.

  Down under, in Australia, the Great Australian Bake Off has taken off with gusto. The country’s own version of MasterChef is as big as The X Factor is in Britain after being given a dramatic makeover, so it’s no surprise that their Bake Off secured a primetime Saturday evening slot. Regular bakes that feature on the menu include national favourites such as lamingtons, a sponge cake covered in chocolate, dipped in coconut and cut into squares.

  While with hindsight it is no surprise that the show took off both here and across the globe, head of Love Productions, Richard McKerrow, says it took ages to get it commissioned. ‘It took me four years to get it accepted – it was turned down by everyone,’ he has said. Unsurprisingly, the next target that McKerrow and his team are eyeing up is the lucrative US market, where they hope they can take the show. ‘Now we want to do an American version,’ he has said. And after the success of the third series, that looks set to happen. A US network snapped up the rights afte
r seeing the huge cultural impact that the Great British Bake Off had in the UK. The network CBS – home to huge TV shows such as Big Brother, Good Morning America and CSI: New York – bought the rights from Love Productions, hoping to replicate its success stateside. McKerrow is expected to oversee the US version of the show, with suggestions indicating that it could simply be called Bake Off. But, vitally, this could prove to be a huge moment in Mary’s career. It remains to be seen whether, like The X Factor’s star judge Simon Cowell, Mary will cross the pond with the show. But there was speculation that CBS did, in fact, want both her and Paul to remain as a duo and front the US version, while continuing to film the UK version. The Daily Mirror quoted a US source in 2012 saying: ‘They [Mary and Paul] bring that lightness of touch that Americans would love. We are desperate for them to do it – and they’re certainly top of the list.’ But another insider told the paper that Mary and Paul’s busy schedule – which included filming more spin-off shows and an inevitable fourth series – could prove to be a ‘stumbling block’ for the negotiations. Nevertheless, it appeared that Mary was, understandably, in high demand by TV execs in the US. And if she were signed up, her celebrity would be taken to a whole new level. As all her fans would agree, it would mean even more well-deserved success.

  CHAPTER 10

  THE QUEEN OF BRITISH BAKING

  By 2012, Mary had well and truly established herself as the Queen of British Baking. She had long been a prolific cookery writer, with her books selling millions of copies worldwide. Her journalism on all things baking and home-cooking was widely read by her long-standing fans, as well as people new to cooking for themselves, and Mary had commissions coming out of her ears. She had spread the word about her love of baking with her trusty Aga to thousands through her Aga Workshops at her home in Buckinghamshire and via her popular demonstrations up and down the country. And on top of all that, she had become one of Britain’s best-loved TV cooks. At first that had been thanks to her own cookery shows and appearances on daytime TV from Lorraine to The Alan Titchmarsh Show, which had been lapped up by generations of viewers. But by the summer of 2012, she had transitioned into being a successful reality TV show judge with a third series of the Great British Bake Off under her belt and more in the pipeline. And despite being in her late seventies, Mary shows no signs of retiring any time soon. Her career is at the peak of its success, some 50 years after it first started. While most people would be winding down their working life, Mary looks like she is happy to keep going and going.

  After becoming such a force to be reckoned with in the world of British cookery, it seemed fitting that Mary would get the royal seal of approval too. And that is just what happened. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2012, Mary was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, otherwise known as a CBE. Announced on Saturday 16 June, it was, the Order said, in recognition of her ‘services to culinary arts’. Aside from being given a knighthood or made a dame, a CBE is the most senior of all the orders that the Queen can bestow on her subjects. It is more senior to being made an Officer or Member of the British Empire (OBE or MBE).

  Mary couldn’t believe that she had been honoured in such a prestigious manner, speaking of her delight at being appointed a CBE soon after the news became public. She conducted a TV interview with her local ITV News network soon after it was announced. The interview was carried out in her kitchen at Watercroft, her beloved family home in Buckinghamshire where so much of her good work had been accomplished. Fittingly, Mary sat in front of her trusty light blue Aga as she spoke about how proud both she and her family were that she had been given the honour. She said: ‘It’s very exciting … I’m very, very honoured. I’ve been cooking and writing books and doing a little bit of television for 50 years and recently I’ve been doing the Bake Off which I’ve really enjoyed because it’s got Great Britain baking in schools, in bake-offs, in raising money for the jubilee … so I feel very honoured.’

  Other high-profile figures to be awarded CBEs at the same time as Mary included the Hollywood actress Kate Winslet, star of critically acclaimed films such as Titanic, Revolutionary Road and The Reader, for services to drama. Also awarded were the high-end designer label Mulberry’s fashion director Emma Hill, for her services to the British fashion industry, as well as the chief executive and artistic director of the central London performing arts theatre Sadler’s Wells, Alistair Spalding, for services to dance. Also decorated on the same day as Mary was the actress and campaigner April Ashley, who received an MBE for services to transgender equality. Born a boy, April became the first Briton to undergo a sex change operation, in Casablanca in 1960. In the media, former Spectator editor Alexander Chancellor was awarded a CBE for services to journalism, while alongside Mary in the world of food and drink, Paul Gayler, executive chef at London’s prestigious Lanesborough Hotel, was handed an MBE for services to hospitality and charity. Meanwhile, the less well-known but equally deserving people who were awarded honours included Kent farmer Tony Redsell, the UK’s largest hop grower, who was awarded an OBE for services to the hops industry.

  With such a high pedigree of others being decorated alongside her, Mary couldn’t quite believe that she had been chosen. In her typically modest fashion, Mary even questioned whether the CBE was actually meant for her and not another Mary Berry. ‘You don’t quite know what to say … Have they made a mistake?’ she laughed.

  At one point during the course of the interview, Mary read from the letter that had been sent to inform her that she’d been awarded a CBE. Although she had received it some while before it was publicly announced, protocol meant she had to keep it a secret, even from her closest friends and family, until Buckingham Palace revealed the news. The letter was from the clerk to the privy council, Richard Tilbrook. His role as the most senior civil servant in the Privy Council Office, which presents business for the Queen’s approval, was to let people know that they had been honoured. While for years Mary had been used to receiving a steady stream of fan mail from her thousands of followers and devotees, she couldn’t quite believe that she had been written to by someone so senior in the British establishment, and on such an important matter. Reading from the letter, Mary said: ‘And then it all goes on very formally and at the end it says: “I am, madam, your obedient servant Richard Tilbrook”, and nobody ever writes to me as an obedient servant, so it’s very, very exciting.’

  Even for Mary, who has achieved so much in her life and career, receiving a CBE was a pivotal moment. Mary took a moment to reflect on what her parents, Margaret and Alleyne, would have thought of it. Understandably, she sounded emotional as she spoke of how proud they would have been to see their daughter come from her cookery classes at Bath High School, where by her own admission she had struggled to get even the most basic qualifications, to receiving one of the highest honours the Queen can bestow on her subjects. Her parents were inevitably at the forefront of Mary’s mind as she and her close family, including Paul and her two children Tom and Annabel, raised their glasses to toast the day she received her gong.

  Mary said: ‘My parents are no longer in this world but it’s the sort of thing you immediately want to ring your parents [about]. But you’re not allowed to – it’s in strict confidence. Looking back on all the years that I’ve been cooking, this sort of thing would never have entered into my head … I’m really chuffed. I’ve been waiting for the 16th for a long time, and I can tell you there will be a few bottles opened and the children will be very thrilled – my children. It’ll be a very, very happy day.’

  On the day itself Mary was invited to attend Buckingham Palace with her family, receiving the medal representing her CBE from Prince Charles, to whom it usually falls to present all honours other than knighthoods and damehoods, which are presented in formal ceremonies by the Queen. Following that, there was a photo call in the grounds of the palace followed by a drinks reception. In short, it was a spectacular day, and a fitting way to mark all the successes of Mary’s brilliant
career.

  It is during the course of that spectacular career that Mary has often been called a trailblazer, a pioneer and the first of a kind when it comes to her cookery. The awarding of the CBE seems to confirm this. Long before Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay et al, Mary set the standard very high for other celebrity cooks. While Jamie has been honoured with an MBE for his contribution to changing the way school dinners are served across the UK, no other celebrity cook in the UK has been honoured with a CBE, apart from Mary’s contemporary Delia Smith.

  But it appeared that 2012 really was the year when Mary was to be formally recognised as the true doyenne of her craft. Soon after receiving her CBE, in July 2012, she was given an honorary degree for her lifelong achievements in her field back where it all began – in Bath. Some 50 years after she left the spa town for the bright lights of London to try to break into the world of cookery, she was welcomed back there as the ultimate successful cook and was given an honorary degree by Bath Spa University. Fittingly, the university incorporates the former Bath College of Domestic Science where Mary had studied as a teenager after leaving Bath High School. Although Mary had never got a degree as a youngster herself, it seemed she had come full circle, receiving the ultimate honour from the place where she had first discovered her love of cooking. While for years her fans had given Mary all the recognition she needed, it was undeniably nice for her to receive such formal recognition in the form of her CBE and honorary degree. After receiving the degree, Mary told a reporter from the Bath Chronicle: ‘I am immensely honoured to be here. When I got the letter saying I was being given an honorary degree I couldn’t believe it. It is lovely that I am able to be a part of the students’ big day.’ Mary also referred to the special place Bath held in her heart and how she would always love the city, not least because it was the place she grew up and where her parents had played such an integral part in civic life. Mary said: ‘It has changed since I was a child; the buildings are cleaner and there is so much to offer both tourists and residents. The university is set in beautiful surroundings and it must be lovely to study here.’ Alongside Mary were other notable figures receiving honorary degrees at the Newton Park campus, including shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, Golden-Oldies charity founder Grenville Jones, journalism professor Ian Hargreaves and technology author Miller Puckette. They received their degrees alongside hundreds of normal undergraduate students. The part that Mary and the others had played in developing their fields was acknowledged at the event by the university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Christina Slade, who presented the degrees. She said: ‘At Bath Spa University we foster an ethos of creativity, culture and enterprise, and we want our students to become global citizens, ready to make a difference. There can be no better inspiration for them than these internationally respected figures.’