WHAT DELIA
TAUGHT...
THE delicious. TEAMEDITOR KAREN “The magic
method of freezing butter,
wrapping the end in foil, then
grating it into flour to make the
lightest flaky pastry... So clever.”FOOD EDITOR JEN “A ll- in - one
white sauce – it tastes the same
and is a brilliant timesaver.”DEPUTY EDITOR SUSAN “How
to make mayonnaise in a mini
food processor – it’s foolproof.”PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
ADRIENNE “Don’t waste time
washing lettuce unless it’s really
muddy from your garden.”DEPUTY CHIEF SUB-EDITOR
HUGH “If things go wrong when
you’re making jam and it hasn’t
set, tip the whole lot back into
the pan and boil again with the
juice of a small lemon.”EDITORIAL DIRECTOR JO “I find
risottos a bit of a faff, but Delia’s
baked mushroom version works
its magic in the oven without
endless stirring. It’s wonderful.”ONLINE EDITOR REBECCA:
“When I make bread sauce, I
always follow her tip and infuse
the milk with a clove-studded
onion for at least two hours.”2001
Delia Online
was launched,
allowing Delia
to interact and
share recipes
with a new
generation
of fans2000
Launched
Delia’s Canary
Catering at
NCFC. Delia’s
restaurant,
and others,
serve 100,000
covers a year1999
Delia’s How
to Cook TV
series and
book caused
UK egg sales
to shoot up
by 1.3 million
per day*
2008
Presented and
published
How to Cheat at
Cooking, which
controversially
featured
recipes using
frozen mash2010
Waitrose
partnered
with ‘Britain’s
best loved
cook’ for
a series of
31 TV ads
and recipes2013
Retired
from TV to
focus on
her online
cookery
school.
Awarded
a Bafta2017
Made a
Companion
of Honour in
The Queen’s
Birthday
Honours for
services to
cookeryWHAT DELIA MEANS TO... PRUE LEITH
“Many telly cooks have entertained us over the last 50 years, but
Delia is the one we’ve trusted. She’s always combined sensible,
classic cooking techniques with on-the-button food fashion.
She’d use avocados, balsamic vinegar or crabmeat when these
ingredients were new and trendy, but not before they were
available in supermarkets. She thinks like a home cook, not like a starry chef,
and always has the ordinary reader in mind. The only negative thing about Delia
I can say is that my brother, a good cook himself, swears by her. Every time I visit
his house, he’s always cooking out of Delia – never, ever out of Prue.”
could deal with Debbie and me separately
but never both at the same time!
REACHING MILLIONS
After the wonderful, never-to-be-forgotten
Mirror Magazine, the next step in the
launching of my writing career was
the London Evening Standard – easily the
best newspaper at the time. I wrote a
recipe every day and an 800-word weekly
column. The paper had an awe-inspiring
editor, Charles Wintour, a brilliantly
talented team and a readership that
helped form me as a cookery writer. The
readers wrote to me, asking questions like, “You said
skinned tomatoes but you didn’t say how to skin them”;
“You forgot to say what to do with the glass of red
wine, so I drank it!” It was a warm, friendly readership
and, being a local paper, it was great to be able to
direct people to where to buy certain ingredients.
One hilarious mistake made by the sub-editors was
when an eighth of a pint of milk managed to become
8 pints in an 8-inch quiche! Thankfully, no one even
attempted to make it.
When the BBC wanted to find a new cookery
presenter they asked me to do a pilot programme, then
gave me a series of 25-minute programmes with no →
COMIC TURN
Delia showed a different
kind of talent with Lenny
Henry in 1997 and French
& Saunders in 2001deliciousmagazine.co.uk 69
exclusive.