Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
A very BERRY Christmas with Mary
Treat yourself to a double helping of Mary Berry as she hosts two mouthwatering shows
Mary Berry fans are in for a treat this Christmas as the former Bake Off judge hosts two delicious festive shows. In the first, Mary Berry’s Christmas Party, she welcomes a quartet of celebrities to her own kitchen in Henley-on-Thames. Newsreader Huw ‘I never cook’ Edwards, champion sprinter Dina AsherSmith, Poldark actress Eleanor Tomlinson and comedian Joe Lycett are all hoping to fine-tune their Christmas culinary skills under Mary’s watchful eye.
She shows them how to make pan-fried halloumi with fresh tomato chutney, and peppered fillet of beef with brandy sauce. ‘All the celebrities were nervous about cooking, but just needed to gain that bit of extra confidence,’ says Mary. ‘They certainly didn’t lack enthusiasm. Eleanor even brought her own stuffing recipe.’
The veteran cook, who’s been tickling our taste buds on TV since 1971, has more treats in store when she travels north for Mary Berry’s Country House At Christmas, visiting Harewood House in Yorkshire to help prepare a party for the festive season.
Mary joins forces with Josh Whitehead, who often cooks at Harewood, to produce a mouthwatering Yorkshire Christmas pie, filled with game from the Harewood Estate. ‘And as they have lots of parsnips in the garden, I invented a canapé of parsnip blinis with Yorkshire blue cheese and pears and walnuts, which seemed to go down well at the party we had at the end of filming,’ says Mary.
Enjoying the food were the army of volunteers who work at the grand house near Leeds. ‘The Earl of Harewood is so grateful for all they do, and that’s what inspired us to have the party,’ says Mary. ‘We did all the cooking in the Victorian kitchen, including my canapés, and catered for 70! The guests had a ball.’ Although there’s plenty of festive merriment at Harewood, Mary admits to a moment of sober reflection when she discovered a slice of the house’s history. ‘Harewood was home to Princess Mary, who was married to the Earl of Harewood. She was the daughter of Queen Mary and King George V, and worked as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital before she married. After the outbreak of war in 1914 she became concerned about the servicemen and had an idea to send a gift to every soldier serving at Christmas in 1914. She led a fundraising campaign to send out thousands of presents – brass boxes with tobacco inside for the men, and chocolates for the women. I thought it was such a sweet story.’
Mary’s own Christmas will involve lots of family time and plenty of cooking, of course, much of it done in advance of the big day. ‘The trifle can be made the day before, all the vegetables can be prepared, you can preroast your potatoes and make your stuffing ahead too.’ But should she over-indulge, she has the perfect way to shed those extra pounds – a bracing outdoor ball game. ‘We play hockey or rounders on Boxing Day, it’s a family tradition,’ says Mary. ‘I used to live in Bath with my family and there was always a hockey match on. It was enormous fun.’
Mary Berry’s Christmas
Party, Monday, 8.30pm, BBC1. Mary Berry’s Country House At Christmas, Christmas Day, 6.35pm, BBC2.