Mar 26

Mar 26 Carrier Moves

So there I was …..

On my knees in the lounge, sorting through my cookery books, and listening to the Archers when one of the characters - who was doing exactly the same thing, came across a recipe book by Robert Carrier .. and lo and behold I was holding the exact same book in my hand. Now what are the chances of that.

Nil.

So of course I took this as a sign and spent the next hour reading through the book, reminiscing about the dreadfully plain food I ate as a child, and the explosion of possibilities that came along with Seventies and Eighties cooking shows - Out went Fanny - In came Graham Kerr, Delia Smith and Madhur Jaffrey. You can find a page of TV Cooks through the ages HERE.

Plus Robert Carrier of course.

It’s an interesting book. I note I must have paid £5.95 back in the Eighties, so I must have really wanted it. Full of overly coloured photos and dishes that, to be honest, I would be a little disappointed to have set before me in a restaurant today - overcooked pasta, over boiled veg. Things have clearly moved on. Admittedly too far in some instances (Slither of bean curd, on a bed of sawdust, covered in indeterminate foam).

However, It’s a book for people clearly learning to be adventurous. And that, at the time, was me.

Carrier himself had a fascinating life. Born in New York. Lawyer father of Irish descent. Mother a Franco- German daughter of a millionaire. Parents went bankrupt in the Great Depression. Became an actor. An intelligence Officer (not unlike Julia Child curiously). Served as a cryptographer in General De Gaulle’s office. Got depressed. Worked in a friend’s restaurant in St. Tropez. Relocated to UK in time for the Queen’s coronation in 1953. Marketed vegetarian dog food. Started writing food articles for Harper’s Bazaar. Wrote a cook book which sold 11 million copies. Opened a restaurant in Islington. Created a range of wipe-clean recipe cards. Bought a run down manor in Suffolk, and created a hotel/restaurant. Set up a cooking school. Hit the small screen just as colour TV was taking off. Got an OBE for championing a relaxation of the licensing laws in the UK. Made a comeback championing vegetarianism. Ended his days painting pictures in Provence.

Now … that’s a life.

I can but aspire.