UR TV CAST

Here it comes alive with anecdotes, although it did not tempt me into cooking Monday Jug (dumplings without suet cooked in brown sauce) and Poor Man’s Goose (stuffed vegetable marrow). The recipes have been chosen because they “hit the culinary headlines” or, remained “outstandingly good”.The book is at its best during the middle decades of this century. Elegantly presented with attractive photography, and sub-divided by decade, each chapter contains a brief synopsis of the major events, followed by notes on the kitchens, typical foods, drinks and meals. Worse still, she had to master new ingredients, like chillies, coriander and lemon grass, substances for which she felt little natural affinity.
Marguerite Patten has survived the culinary rough and tumble for well over 50 years. She has seen fashions come and go as she moved from working as a home economist for the fuel industry to broadcasting nutritious recipes from the mid-40s onwards. She introduced women, newly returned to being housewives after the Second World War, to the pleasures of Quiche Lorraine and Steak Diane.

Consequently, her latest book Marguerite Patten’s Century of British Cooking has been eagerly awaited by many. MARGUERITE PATTEN’S CENTURY OF BRITISH COOKING Grub Street, pounds 25.00, 336pp: RECENTLY A well-known food columnist – of a certain age – admitted that she constantly worried about keeping up with the latest culinary fashions. Where once she had used butter, now she had to use olive oil. Spoon a little creme fraiche into each bowl and scatter over a few chives.. MARGUERITE PATTEN’S CENTURY OF BRITISH COOKING Grub Street, pounds 25.00, 336pp: RECENTLY A well-known food columnist – of a certain age – admitted that she constantly worried about keeping up with the latest culinary fashions Where once she had used… Allow the soup to cool a little and then liquidise it in batches Return it to a clean pan. Add the orange juice and season to taste.Reheat the soup over a low heat Adjust the seasoning and ladle into warm soup bowls.

Cover the pot, turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the carrots are very tender. Add the carrots and saute for a further minute or two, then stir in the stock and bring to the boil. Add the onion and ginger and saute until the onion is soft but not brown. 40g/1 1/2oz unsalted
butter1 large onion, peeled,halved and sliced2tbs fresh ginger, peeledand finely chopped700g/1lb 8oz carrots,peeled and chopped1.2 litres/2pt chickenstock150ml/5fl oz freshlysqueezed orange juicesea salt, white peppercreme fraichesnipped chivesMelt the butter in a large saucepan. Try to use fat organic carrots with lots of flavour, and a good chicken stock. 3: GINGERED CARROT SOUP Serves four to six.

Total cooking time 45 minutes: TRYING TO conceive the most delicious carrot soup in the world, I remembered eating it at Kilgraney, a hotel just outside Dublin run by the flamboyant Bryan Leech and Martin Marley, who take it in turns to wear the apron It’s the orange juice that does it. Not that there is any compulsion to buy; you canwander at your leisure, soaking up new trends and ideas. And if, by the end, you are still in the mood for novelty, there is at least one (post-) graduate show still to come: the second part of the Royal College of Art exhibition including Architecture and Interiors, Industrial Design and Furniture, Textiles, and Graphics (3 & 4 July, 10-6, at the Royal College of Art, London SW7; 0171 590 4444).1999 New Designers is at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, London N1 0QH (0171 359 3535); ticket hotline 0121 767 4787; Part One 8-11 July, Part Two 15-18 July; Thursday 11am-8pm; Fri and Sat 11am-6pm; Sunday 11am-4pm Entrance pounds 8 (Visit their website at www newdesigners for further details.). A visitor who knows little of the various individual colleges will soon begin to gather which specialise in what discipline: Edinburgh, for example, has a sensational jewellery department; Parnham College is for furniture makers.One of the joys of individual designers (at least before they reach the megastar stage) is that they can be commissioned to make tailor-made items for you: unlike a shop you do not have to plump simply for what is available. All are impressively professional – demonstrating a far greater understanding of what is commercially viable than the as yet untested undergraduates.The discerning may also discover trends that emanate from particular art schools. There is also an impressive list of companies – Bombay Sapphire, Wedgwood, Reebok and Paperchase are just a few of them – who have put their money where their next great white hope may be and signed up to the New Designers Awards Scheme, which helps graduate designers set themselves up in business.In case there remains any doubt of the avenues open to the graduates thronging New Designers 1999, there is a special section entitled “One Year On” containing wares completed in the past year by 50 graduates who have set up on their own since last year’s show. While most furniture is tastefully wooden or metallic, designs for children are bold and funky, though one can’t help but wonder how comfortable Yukiko Saga’s hedgehog children’s stool – of wood and rubber “prickles” – really is.The commercial world is bent on showing support for and solidarity with the designers of tomorrow, so much so that some of its biggest hitters (BT, Dyson, Marks & Spencer and Hallmark, among others) have acted as sponsors for the occasion.

There is a pleasing level of inventiveness and experimentation, both in materials and the use to which they are put. Thus fanciful footwear sports carved wooden heels, while jewellery is frequently made from non- precious materials such as plastic – Chris Lockyer’s luminous rings – although theatrical interpretations of traditional precious materials also abound, and cutlery still tends to be metal-made. Students will be present to talk about and explain the rationale behind their work.One of the most exciting aspects of the exhibition is its diversity: everything from gorgeous, if impractical, porcelain garments by Dawn Wilding of Guildhall University, to the bright-hued Heath- Robinson-like medicine dispenser dreamed up by Samantha Hancox of De Montfort University. You will not have the field entirely to yourself: scouts from the big manufacturers around Europe will also be studying the form, eager to snap up potential best- sellers for themselves and offering plum jobs abroad; this therefore may be your last chance to encounter the graduates’ creations before they appear in (unaffordable) specialist shops or on the High Street.