Berry says dining room has passed its sell-by date
FOR decades, it was considered the heart of a home, as generations gathered daily to eat together, before falling out of fashion in the past few years.
But the fate of the dining room may now be sealed, as even Mary Berry rejoices in its demise.
Berry, the television cook and food writer, said she had finally given up her dining room after moving house, after realising it was only really used at Christmas.
Instead, she said, her family based their lives around the kitchen, making it as homely as possible for all occasions.
“Most of us, I think, live in the kitchen,” she told the Cheltenham Literature Festival. “I do. The homework of my children was done there, my husband would refit a picture in there, and so it’s worth thinking about making it a special room which really works for you.
“We’ve given up our dining room, finally. I don’t think my husband really agrees with me but I said we use it at Christmas time and occasionally for having people round. But it’s much easier in the kitchen, isn’t it?
“I’m quite good at dressing the kitchen up so it looks rather special. I turn the dimmer down and light candles, and then my husband turns it up again.” Berry and her husband of 51 years, Paul Hummings, are currently in the process of moving house. Asked for her secret of a happy marriage, Berry offered
‘I’m quite good at dressing the kitchen up so it looks rather special’
respect, never going to bed on an argument and realising early that it was not possible to change your husband’s habits.
“When you get married, you imagine you’re going to change your man,” she said, after describing how she had left a lunch of soup and smoked salmon for Mr Hummings while she made her festival appearance.
“I have totally failed. I love him dearly, but he could be doing his own lunch today, couldn’t he?”
Berry was speaking to publicise her new book, which is based on household tips she has gathered over the years, including her advice to “use your nose” for food except meat, rather than paying rigorous attention to sell-by dates. “I know we do sell-by dates but I have to confess if there is a pot of cream I just lift the lid and smell it,” she said. “If it’s all right, I have it.”
She also recommended freezing leftover stock and gravy, her husband’s favourite, to use again for an easy week-night meal.
Speaking on Friday at the same festival, Tom Kerridge, the chef, shared his different approach: not to bother making it at all. “I have never made chicken stock at home,” he said. “I may have stolen some from work but I have never made it at home.
“At home all chefs have store room essentials such as chicken Bisto and stock cubes. I bet there’s chicken Bisto in Michel Roux’s house.”