Two Fat Ladies

I think I first discovered the Two Fat Ladies on BBC America.  Their TV cooking show intrigued me.  It features these two British women cooks, both overweight, who roam the English countryside on a motorcycle with a sidecar – visiting places like castles, boarding schools, hunting lodges, fishing villages, etc. and cooking for groups of people at those places.  They are always cooking in huge old-timey English kitchens, with wood-burning stoves and a lack of modern conveniences.  Their style of cooking is old-timey too.  They use lots of butter and even lard in their dishes.  And the dishes have such interesting names, like: Bubble and Squeak, Welsh Lamb Pie, Blini, Kedgeree, Barmbrack…  And the banter between them during the cooking is very entertaining.  One of my favorite phrases is Jennifer’s “easy-peasy.”

So anyway, Saturday I walked to town and found myself in the Oxfam bookstore on St. Giles. At  first  I was looking for Colin Dexter mysteries (Inspector Morse), but then something caught my eye:  the Two Fat Ladies on a bright yellow book jacket.  I had to have this book.  Much to my surprise when I got it home, I discovered it was autographed by both fat ladies.  A bargain for 3.99 GBP (around $7.00).

So who are these women?  Well the older one, in the big, black-framed glasses is Jennifer Paterson; the younger one, looking over Jennifer’s shoulder on the cover is Clarissa Dickson Wright.  The book was published in 1997.  Unfortunately, Jennifer died in 1999.

In real life, both women were characters (Clarissa still is).  Jennifer started out as matron at a girls’ school and went on to become a food writer for The Spectator.  At the end of each episode, she is sitting down smoking a cigarette and, sometimes, drinking.  Clarissa’s life was much more colorful.  She became an attorney while still in her 20s (but was later disbarred), inherited a fortune from her wealthy parents (which she apparently blew), became an alcoholic, was homeless for a while…  A very interesting woman. 

So google these gals on the web, and, if you ever get a chance, watch their TV show.  It was on the Cooking Channel at 10 on Saturday nights last fall.  Not sure if it still is.  So now which of the interesting recipes in this book will I try this week?  Bread and Butter Pudding? Warm Chicken Liver Salad? Rabbit and Beer Terrine?  They all sound delish to me – especially the chicken livers!