Mary Berry is back with a new TV series and book – and she couldn’t have chosen a better time for it to be all about comfort food, writes Emma Higginbotham.
Back in the carefree days of January, when global pandemics were the stuff of disaster movies and ‘lockdown’ sounded like a wrestling move, Mary Berry was putting the finishing touches to her new BBC series and accompanying book.
With remarkable timing (or possibly spooky foresight), the title is Simple Comforts, and it’s all about the food you crave – from pies and puddings to hotpots and roasts – when you’re in need of a grizzly bear-sized hug.
“Simple Comforts is a perfect thing as a first programme after lockdown,” says Mary. “It’s proper family food: lots of old favourites that have been simplified, and that are wonderfully warming and nutritious. I’m thrilled to bits with it.
“I think people will be pleased because a lot of the recipes use one pot or one roasting tin, and that means less washing up,” she continues, adding that many of the fuss-free dishes can be prepared ahead of time and frozen, “then just sprinkle the top with grated cheese and pop it in the oven. Because I don’t think people should be a slave to the kitchen – they should really enjoy it when they’ve got time.”
With her twinkly blue eyes and halo of snowy hair, Mary is a comforting presence in herself. The 85-year-old spent lockdown at her home in Henley, Oxfordshire, and admits that she rather enjoyed it. “It was good! It was just my husband and myself, so I could plan my meals because you knew nobody was going to come. And we all had something called time, didn’t we? It gave me time to think.”
Comfort food is often linked to childhood, and for Mary, who grew up in Bath, that meant one thing: casseroles. “We had endless casseroles, and if there wasn’t much meat about, because it was wartime, Mum would add lots of home-grown vegetables to it to thin it out. I loved it.”
Her mum was a “good family cook” who inspired her daughter to do the same; she trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, then took a job with the Electricity Board, showing people how to bake sponge cakes in their new ovens. A move into food journalism was followed by radio and TV, most memorably in recent years as a judge; seven years on The Great British Bake Off, followed by BBC2’s Best Home Cook.
Is it hard to judge people’s cooking when you’re so, well, nice? “Not at all! I’m very honest, but I’ve no wish to criticise,” says Mary. “They know when they’ve made a mistake. Their hearts are pounding and they are upset, and I want to help them to do better next time. There’s no point in being nasty – I want to encourage them.”
The new series sees Mary is back in the kitchen, demonstrating cockle-warming recipes such as slow-roast leg of lamb, smoky firecracker drumsticks and Granny’s Sticky Ginger Cake. She’s out and about too, visiting the likes of Paris, Ireland and the Scottish Highlands to explore what comfort food means to different people.
En route, she tries her hand at husky riding, zipping along in a sidecar and coxing – for an octogenarian, she’s admirably active. “I am happier out and about, and coxing was great,” she says. “I was slightly nervous when I saw this little tiny sleek boat, but all I had to do was shout instructions.”
After 70-something books and umpteen TV series, Mary says she’s as excited as ever to both hold the new hardback, and watch the show go out. “I always do, and my husband falls asleep. There’s nothing like watching it on the night that it’s on, and hoping the viewing figures are good.
“Sometimes I say ‘Oh gosh, my hair’s awful’, or ‘I don’t really like that blouse now’. But it’s a team effort, and we’ve been through a journey to get there. We all work together and love what we do.”
Yet this time, adds Mary, it feels particularly special. “After lockdown we all need something that gives us confidence, don’t we? And when you cook something really warming and beautiful, everything will be all right.”
:: Mary Berry’s Simple Comforts, BBC Two, Wednesdays, 8pm. The accompanying book is out on 17 September, priced £26.
An edited version of this interview appeared in Waitrose Weekend in September 2020 (c) Waitrose