Thanks to her candidness on The Great British Bake Off, viewers got an insight into Mary
Berry's life, likes, dislikes and sartorial preferences.
But there's still so much more you can learn about the talented baker.
Here's everything you didn't know about Mary Berry.
If you've noticed that Mary Berry's left arm seems weak, don't assume it's because she
suffers from arthritis as she says many viewers do.
It's actually the result of her battle with poliomyelitis, a life-threatening disease
caused by the poliovirus.
It affects the spinal cord, and can even cause permanent paralysis.
When Berry was 13, it was 1948 and there was no vaccine, so the risk of contracting polio
was high.
Temporarily paralyzed with the virus, she was put in an isolation hospital, where, as
she told The Guardian, she ate nothing but liquid food and could see her parents only
from behind glass.
In Mary Berry: The Queen of British Baking The Biography, she said:
"When I came home I just had this weak left side and I had my arm in a brace that held
it above the head.
But I recovered remarkably [though] my left hand is a bit smaller and misshapen."
While that affects her to this day, it's wonderful that she made a full recovery otherwise.
It's strange to think of Mary Berry struggling to make ends meet, but she wasn't always a
well-to-do celebrity.
She was trained in home economics, but when she moved to London at 21 years old to work
at the Dutch Dairy Bureau, she was bitten by the professional cooking bug.
Not affluent enough to afford it herself, Berry managed to persuade her boss to sponsor
a month-long course at the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris when she was 25.
Here, the first hurdle she had to overcome was language-related.
While talking to students there in 2012, when she accepted an honorary diploma, she said
they were lucky courses were now conducted in English.
During her time in 1960, she had to speak French well enough to give an oral examination
in the language.
She was also struggling financially.
Even though her boss was sponsoring her tuition, she had other expenses to worry about.
Paying for her own bed and board was beyond her means, but the resourceful celebrity-in-the-making
survived by living in a youth hostel and eating nothing but baguettes for every meal.
Her ability to stick it out paid off of course, as she's more than comfortable today.
Since having polio in her teens, Berry is no stranger to suffering, but in 1989 she
was struck by an even worse tragedy.
Her son, 19 years old at the time, died in a car accident.
While she has not gone into too much detail about the event, she opened up about it in
a BBC documentary in 2017.
In The Mary Berry Story, she talks about the night before the accident, when she had a
family meal with William, who was visiting from Bristol where he was at University at
the time.
"In a way I thought, well, we're just so lucky to have the other two."
In BBC's 2019 Christmas special, A Berry Royal Christmas, which featured the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge, she spoke about how Prince William lost his mother at a very vulnerable age,
and she lost her son in a car accident as well.
"So we know what it is to be without someone very special."
Can you imagine the intimidating judge, Mary Berry, being camera-shy?
She is so confident in interviews, gives great acceptance speeches, commands attention when
she's hosting shows, and doesn't bat an eye when in the presence of the royal family.
But, just like a lot of people, Berry learned on the job.
Starting her career as a writer, it's no surprise that being a presenter did not come naturally.
When she first began a career on television in the 1970s, she appeared on Afternoon Plus
alongside acclaimed television presenter Judith Chalmers.
In an interview with Metro in 2019, Chalmers said Berry was, in fact, quite nervous to
begin with.
She explained:
"Mary was a little nervous to begin with but she says I taught her to smile.
I said, 'If you could just look up occasionally into the camera you'll invite the viewers
in.'"
"I said, 'The trouble is, if you you know don't smile, they might switch to another
channel.'"
Just because they're in the same business, doesn't mean they get along.
Mary Berry may have had great camaraderie with her Bake Off co-judge, Paul Hollywood,
but she doesn't get along with all TV chefs.
Berry and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver now seem to be on good terms.
She's gone so far as to say he makes cooking fun.
However, there was a time when she found him, quote, "irritating, bumptious and over-the-top."
The celebrity chef she really doesn't get along with, however, is Gordon Ramsay, who
is most famous for his crude language.
"Hey bozo."
"Yes chef."
"Tell me how pink that duck is."
"Not pink at all, chef."
"Nowhere near it, donkey."
On shows like Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, he's become especially famous for his quick-temper
and use of expletives.
All of this doesn't seem to sit well with Mary, who is picky about what she watches.
Not only does she call most television, quote, "ghastly," she says many shows on television
are too, quote, "violent, cruel and noisy" for her taste.
As for Gordon Ramsay's, she says:
"I hate Gordon Ramsay's programs: I don't know if he's been told it makes good television."
It's no wonder that she signed up for The Great British Bake Off, which according to
her, is great family entertainment.
Mary Berry is slim and stylish well into her '80s, even though she doesn't believe in going
to the gym.
"I absolutely loathe going to the gym, and I would much rather play tennis."
"Do you go to the gym?"
"No!"
She does believe it's important to stay in shape, so her enviable figure is not that
much of a surprise.
With her celebrity status added to the mix, it's not shocking that what she wears is a
hot topic.
What is surprising is what a fashion icon she has become especially since she told Lumity
in 2019 that she doesn't believe in fashion, and instead, simply dresses to suit her figure.
Nevertheless, her style on The Great British Bake Off became the subject of much discussion,
with viewers raving about her floral jackets.
People were soon mimicking her signature style to such an extent that in 2012, Zara was all
sold-out of the silk floral bomber jacket that began the craze.
Since then, she's worn a number of statement jackets from Oasis, Damart and Ted Baker that
have all become incredibly popular, cementing her status as a trendsetter.
Most people make the bulk of their food safety decisions by reading expiration dates.
Not Mary Berry, though.
In 2017, she told the Cheltenham Literature Festival that she had picked up several tips
from her mother when she was growing up, and since there were no freezers at the time,
this was one of them.
She doesn't bother checking whether her food has gone off by looking at the dates.
Instead, she does what most people are more familiar with doing with flowers she smells
them.
She's said:
"I don't do sell-by dates but I have to confess if there is a pot of cream I just lift the
lid and smell it.
If it's all right, I have it."
She does emphasize, however, that you have to be extra careful with meat, which is one
thing she does consider keeping within the dates.
Viewers were crushed when in 2016, news outlets announced that Berry would not return to The
Great British Bake Off.
Many saw it as a betrayal and wondered how the show could go on without her.
Of course, it did, switching her out for another celebrity chef, Prue Leith.
However, few people know that the real reason Berry decided to leave had to do with loyalty,
not betrayal.
The Great British Bake Off began on the BBC, which Berry told RadioTimes she has been watching
since she was a child.
When it decided to move to Channel 4, she stayed loyal to the BBC and along with co-hosts
Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, decided not to move with the show.
They replaced Sue and Mel with comedian Noel Fielding and quiz show host Sandi Toksvig,
though Paul Hollywood stayed with the show.
Fans could still see Berry on the US adaptation, The Great American Baking Show, although she
left the series after 2019 to focus on other projects.
From struggling to make ends meet to becoming a renaissance woman, Berry has come a long
way since culinary school.
While her stints on television are well-known and her cookbooks are bestsellers, did you
know she also has her own brand of food products?
As a food entrepreneur, she introduced her own line of salad dressings and sauces.
This was initially an idea suggested by her husband, Paul Hunnings, and encouraged by
her daughter, Annabelle who loved the sauces Berry made at home for the family.
"The sauce has got to be the right consistency, and for me, it's got to have some texture
to it."
In 1994, she and Annabelle launched a few dressings under the brand Mary Berry & Daughter.
The range has since expanded and become incredibly popular, although, in 2018, it had a slight
setback.
The Telegraph reported one of the batches was being recalled, and The Food Standards
Agency said it was because of undeclared egg, an allergy-causing food for some, in the ingredients.
Now called Mary Berry's Recipes to Inspire, the range has since been revamped.
It's been repackaged and presumably re-labeled to include everything that goes into the products.
Mary Berry is quite a formidable lady and it's easy to imagine the British chef in a
garden somewhere, sipping tea and nibbling on a scone.
Imagining her at a cricket match, or cheering on her favorite players at Wimbledon is pretty
easy too.
But you'll never guess what sport she is actually a big fan of.
It's not soccer, although she does have quite an affection for English football, telling
her co-host Paul Hollywood on The Great British Bake Off in 2016 that she's a fan of the Liverpool-based
Premier League team, Everton.
However, more surprising than that is her real love of rugby.
That's right, she's a fan of the English contact-sport, even going so far as to attend the games in
person to support England during the World Cup in 2015.
She's such a big fan, she also supports local teams, even hosting an Afternoon Tea event
in 2015 for her home team Bath Rugby.
She's beloved the world over, but Mary Berry has not been without fault.
She's made some pretty controversial statements over the years that have sparked ire from
several of her viewers.
In 2018, she was accused of fat-shaming a Michelin-starred chef who appeared on her
show, Classic Mary Berry.
She made the remarks after chef Nathan Outlaw revealed he loved wind-surfing.
"You, surfing."
"Can you believe it?"
"Well, you must go very fast, a bit of weight on that board."
Apart from talking about how much weight there would be on the board, she also suggested
his large size meant he would be good at crushing garlic, comments that some of her viewers
were not in the least bit amused by.
"I think you're cruel, Mary.
I really do."
One viewer tweeted:
"Mary Berry has gone down in my estimations.
Just casually fat shamed a chef twice, like just because you're Mary Berry you don't get
to be rude?!"
It's not the only time she has been accused of being somewhat insensitive, as she has
been quoted by the Sunday Times food magazine saying she watched what she ate because she
didn't want to be a large person on a food show.
Berry went on to say that large people shouldn't be judging cakes on food shows because it's
not what people want.
She explained:
"Or else people will say, 'Look what happens when you eat cake.'"
Berry is an almost unrivaled doyenne of the baking world.
In fact, she's called the queen of baking and is known for her delicious Victoria Sponge
recipe.
However, that's not all Mary Berry can do.
She's written more than 75 cook books over the course of her career, not all baking related.
One of her longest-standing passions is using an AGA, a heavy-duty stove and cooker made
of cast iron, which was invented by Swedish physicist, Dr. Gustaf Dalén.
In fact, she is such a big fan, she has held workshops and written The Complete AGA Cookbook
to help people use the kitchen appliance better.
Her versatility doesn't end there.
While Mary Berry's Baking Bible is undoubtedly one of her most popular books, she has expertise
in several other schools, culinary and beyond.
From fresh, light food in a jiffy in Real Food Fast and classic family recipes in At
Home, to prepare ahead meals in Cook Now Eat Later and even one on running the household
called Mary's Household Tips and Tricks, she's got a book for almost everything.
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