This biography, written by Paula Wrightson, is shared with permission from Brighton & Hove Museums.
Born: 4 November 1915, United Kingdom
Died: 4 June 2015
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Hilda Elsie Marguerite Brown
During the war in that role, via practical demonstrations, pamphlets and a BBC radio broadcast called Kitchen Front, she advised the nation on how to eat well and stay healthy using the rationed, limited and sometimes unpalatable foodstuffs available.
The privations of the wartime diet are well-known but Marguerite’s description of whale meat is worth repeating, “it looked like a cross between liver and beef and because the raw meat had a strong and very unpleasant smell of fish and stale oil, I loathed handling whale meat to create recipes and in my demonstrations to the public.”
Marguerite deplored the use of these “magnificent animals” for food, however the perilous state of food supply by 1946 and throughout the infamously harsh winter of 1947 meant all sources of nourishment were considered.
After the war, Marguerite Patten went on to become one of the most famous and influential cookery writers of the 20th century and the first ‘celebrity chef’, a term she disliked. Mrs Patten termed herself a Home Economist. From the 1940s and into the 2000s she appeared regularly on radio and television and published over 170 cookery books with sales in the multi-millions. My 1968 copy of her Entertaining at Home is a delightful dip into the era of fondue parties, vol-au-vents, make-your-own sundaes and mock béarnaise sauce.