A battle with polio, multiple proposals from her husband, and a tragic loss - you didn’t really
think you knew everything about Mary Berry, did you? Keep watching to see her full transformation.
It didn't take long for Mary Berry to discover her love for baking, This fateful awakening
occurred as a schoolchild, and not because Berry was immediately drawn to cooking,
but instead was due to the fact that she wasn't a particularly good student in any other subject.
According to the biography Mary Berry: The Queen of British Baking,
young Berry struggled with traditional school subjects like math and Latin. But one teacher
noticed Berry's skill at cooking in her Domestic Scienc e course, as Mary recalled in the book -
"It was all, 'could try harder' until I gave up Latin and Maths and went to
the Domestic Science department. Miss Date was the teacher and she
was wonderful! Miss Date praised me, she helped me, she encouraged me."
Berry excelled in the course and has never looked back. Berry even remembers the first
thing she cooked in school. It was a dessert, of course, a treacle sponge pudding that, according
to The Telegraph, was so good that Berry's father compared it favorably to her own mother's recipe.
Not long after Mary Berry discovered what would become her lifelong passion,
she was dealt a nearly fatal blow. Shortly after her 13th birthday Mary was diagnosed with polio,
according to her biography. Polio is a life-threatening viral disease that
affects the spinal cord and can cause paralysis and, in severe cases, death.
Berry contracted the disease less than five years before the development of the polio vaccine.
Because there were very few treatment options at the time, she faced the very real possibility
of paralysis. Berry was kept in isolation at the hospital for a full month, and then at a separate
orthopedic hospital for another two months. Fortunately, she was able to make a full recovery.
The time did leave her with one physical reminder of her illness, however, in what she refers to as
her "funny left hand." Berry's weakened left hand is slightly misshapen and somewhat smaller than
her right. While she often leaves it out of view on camera, Berry claims her damaged hand
doesn't prevent her from much, telling Express - "Everybody thinks I've got arthritis. I look a
bit funny when I'm rolling pastry, but I have no other difficulties whatsoever."
Her childhood disease also led her to enthusiastically
support the Covid-19 vaccine, saying -
"If you're in a hospital like I was, with people in callipers, people in pain.
I think everyone should take the vaccine." As Metro reports, Mary Berry continued her
culinary training at the Bath College of Domestic Science, where she studied catering
and institutional management. After graduating, she got a job with the local electricity board,
which meant that she would travel to customers' homes to demonstrate how to use ovens.
It was during this time that Berry was able to convince her boss to sponsor her for a month-long
course at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris. As fortunate as Berry was to have
this opportunity, it wasn't an easy experience. Classes were taught in French and, although the
tuition was paid for, Berry still had to finance room and board, which was a challenge. According
to Express, she stayed at a hostel and ate only baguettes during her time in the City of Light.
She completed the course, however, and even went on to gain acclaim from her old school. In 2012,
Le Cordon Bleu reported that Berry had received an Honorary Diploma from the culinary school.
After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu, Mary Berry did not wind up where you would expect,
taking a different culinary path into food journalism.
In the 1960s, Berry became the cookery editor for Housewife magazine, according to her biography.
She didn't accept the position; rather, she was told to do it. The magazine called Berry's
workplace, while a PR firm called Bensons where she was employed as a recipe tester,
asking if they knew of a qualified replacement. Without checking with Berry, her boss told
them she would do it, as she recalled in an interview with BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs -
"My boss said, 'Housewife's cookery editor has gone to Spain on a press
trip and the pages aren't done. You will do it.'"
According to her biography,
Berry followed that first editorial job up with a stint at Ideal Home magazine.
Mary Berry and her husband Paul Hunnings have been happily married for more than sixty years,
as Hello! Magazine reports. It seems they were destined
for each other –- but that wasn't always the case.
Berry met Paul through her brother, who was Paul's friend. Soon after,
Mary and Paul began dating. But Paul was not the only man she was seeing, explaining -
"I had another boyfriend in Bath, and he was in London and I used
to go home at the weekend. Paul was the London one and I had a Bath one,
actually there were several in Bath. You keep your options open."
When Paul decided to propose, he was apparently a little too inebriated for Berry's liking,
with Mary saying to him during the interview -
"I do remember the first proposal and I think you were drunk. I think you had too
much and I can remember telling you, you were drunk and thinking
'I'm not going to have anything to do with this man.' But you came back."
It's not clear what went wrong with the second proposal,
but Berry rejected that offer as well. But the third time proved to be the charm,
with Paul saying to his future wife - "I'm getting on in age, so either it's yes or no."
It was a yes. And, of course, Mary Berry made her own wedding cake.
Mary Berry's television career began way back in the early 1970s, according to IMDb.
Her first regular series was Afternoon Plus, a collaboration with television presenter Judith
Chalmers, according to Berry's website. By the 1990s, she was hosting her own shows,
including 1994's Mary Berry's Ultimate Cakes and, in 1997, Mary Berry At Home,
which showcased the chef cooking her favorite everyday meals in the comfort of a home kitchen.
In 2014, Berry hosted one season of Mary Berry Cooks. The show was a follow-up to
Berry's cookbook of the same name, which was released in February of that year.
In between all this cooking, Berry has made plenty of appearances on other types of television shows.
She's often featured on The Graham Norton Show, Woman's Hour, and BBC Breakfast among many others.
"So Mary, what have you brought us?"
"I brought you nothing."
As fruitful as Mary Berry's life has been, she is no stranger to loss. In 1989, her son died
suddenly in a tragic car accident. William Berry and his sister Annabel were driving into town when
the accident happened. Annabel was unharmed but William died. He was just 19 years old.
In an interview with The Independent she said - "He went out with Annabel and it was a beautiful
sunny morning. The doorbell rang, I went,
and there was a policeman there [...] He said, I'm afraid to say your son has died.'"
Berry has since tried to use her loss to help others. She works closely with Child Bereavement
UK, a charity that helps families following the death of a child. Over the years she has helped
the organization raise money by participating in numerous fundraising events for the charity.
After decades in front of the camera, Mary Berry was a well-known entity by 2010. But that year,
her fame skyrocketed when she signed on to be a judge on a new BBC cooking competition called
The Great British Baking Show, also known as The Great British Bake Off to British viewers.
The premise of the show is straightforward enough. A group of amateur bakers face off in
a series of baking challenges aired every week. One by one, they are eliminated until a winner
is crowned and given a commemorative cake stand. The competition proved to be an immediate hit soon
after its debut, bringing in 2 million viewers and only growing in popularity in later seasons.
Viewers were particularly charmed by Berry, and especially by her famous distaste for
pastries with, quote, "soggy bottoms," as well as her chemistry with co-judge Paul Hollywood.
Not only was The Great British Baking Show a commercial success for Berry,
but it provided her with some noteworthy awards as well. In 2017,
the UK's National Television Awards named her the Most Popular TV Judge.
Mary Berry surprised many fans when, in 2016, she announced she would be leaving
The Great British Baking Show, proving that even supremely good things can't last forever.
Behind the scenes, the show was undergoing a bit of a transition. After seven seasons on BBC One,
the show moved to a new home on Channel 4. At the same time, hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins
left the program. In a move of solidarity, Berry chose to depart as well, saying -
"It was the BBC's program, it grew there. So I decided to stay with the BBC, with Mel and Sue."
"Sheer perfection… And I enjoyed every minute."
Thankfully, fans of Berry did not have to wait long to see her on television again. In 2017,
she debuted two new shows on the BBC, Mary Berry Everyday and Mary Berry's Country House Secrets.
Since then she has also hosted even more shows, along with multiple specials and guest spots.
In case Mary Berry wasn't perfect enough, she also knows how to put together an outfit. In fact,
she has demonstrated such good fashion sense that she's made herself into a style icon.
"I could even put it over the top of my head if I wanted to. Do you trust me?"
Berry's elegant acumen rose to prominence during her tenure on The Great British Baking Show.
What makes Berry's style of particular importance within the fashion world and beyond
is Berry's age. As The Guardian goes on to explain, we're simply not accustomed
to older women on television making such bold wardrobe choices, saying -
"Berry's defiance in wearing "historically" youthful looks, such as the Marks & Spencer
oversized stork print jacket and Preen's pink leather bomber jacket, suggested a turning point."
Or, as Berry herself told You magazine regarding her fashion choices -
"I don't do boring."
Nowadays, it's just about a requirement for a television chef to have a cookbook... or
a dozen cookbooks. But Mary Berry has put nearly everyone in the culinary world to
shame in this category, writing over 80 books during the course of her career.
It started with the aptly titled Mary Berry's Cookbook in 1970,
and other notable titles under Berry's name include Cook Now, Eat Later;
Baking Bible; and Mary Berry's Absolute Favorites. Simple Comforts was released in fall 2020.
It contains more than 120 easy-to-follow recipes that result in delicious comfort food.
It's always an honor to be recognized for your work,
and Mary Berry has certainly received her fair share of acknowledgements.
In fact, she has received the highest honors Britain can bestow on one of its citizens.
Per the BBC, in 2012, the chef was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. As
The Gazette explains, this is the second-highest Order of the British Empire award. The CBE is
given to an individual who has shown distinguished and innovative work in any one particular field,
so you know this is a pretty big deal for Berry and other CBE honorees.
If that wasn't enough, in 2020, the BBC reports that Berry received damehood,
thus giving her the official title
of Dame Mary Berry. As she told the BBC - "When I was first told that I was going to
be a dame, you don't really believe it. Then it's so exciting and you feel very proud."
Sticking to her humble nature, Berry said that the award, while a huge honor,
won't really change her, telling the BBC - "Being a dame is going to make no difference
at all. I suppose it will be on the envelopes,
won't it, when people write to me, but I'll still be the same person.”
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