Mary Berry

Early life

Mary Berry was born on 24 March 1935, the second of three children, to Margaret ('Marjorie', née Wilson; 1905–2011) and Alleyne William Steward Berry (1904–1989). Alleyne was a surveyor and planner who served as Mayor of Bath in 1952 and was closely involved in establishing the University of Bath at Claverton Down. Coincidentally, Mary's great-great-grandfather on her father's side, Robert Houghton, was a master baker in the 1860s who provided bread for a local workhouse in Norwich. Her mother Marjorie was a housewife who, on occasion, helped Berry's father with bookkeeping. Her mother died in 2011 aged 105.

At the age of 13, Mary Berry contracted polio and had to spend three months in hospital. This resulted in her having a twisted spine, a weaker left hand and thinner left arm. She has said that the period of forced separation from her family while in hospital "toughened [her] up" and taught her to make the most of every opportunity she would have.

Berry attended Bath High School, where she described her academic abilities as "hopeless" until she attended domestic science classes with a teacher called Miss Date, who was particularly encouraging of her cooking abilities. Her first creation in the class was a treacle sponge pudding which she took home, and her father told her that it was as good as her mother's.

She then studied catering and institutional management at Bath College of Domestic Science.

Career

Berry's first job was at the Bath electricity board showroom, and then conducting home visits to show new customers how to use their electric ovens. She would typically demonstrate the ovens by making a Victoria sponge, a technique she would later repeat when in television studios to test out an oven she had not used before. Her catchment area for demonstrations was limited to the greater Bath area, which she drove around in a Ford Popular supplied as a company car.

Her ambition was to move out of the family home to London, something which her parents would not allow until she was 21. At the age of 22, she applied to work at the Dutch Dairy Bureau, while taking City & Guilds courses in the evenings. She then persuaded her manager to pay for her to undertake the professional qualification from the French Le Cordon Bleu school. The temporary move to France came as a culture shock; she could not help but cry all the way through her first meal, consisting of horse meat, reminding her of the pony she had left behind at home in Bath.

She left the Dutch Dairy Bureau to become a recipe tester for PR firm Benson's, where she began to write her first book. She has since cooked for a range of food-related bodies, including the Egg Council and the Flour Advisory Board. In 1966 she became food editor of Housewife magazine, and when she had children, she only took five weeks' leave on each occasion, as there was no set maternity leave at the time and each time she risked her post being filled by someone else before she was scheduled to return. She was food editor of Ideal Home magazine from 1970 to 1973.

Her first cookbook, The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook, was published in 1970. She launched her own product range in 1994 with her daughter Annabel. The salad dressings and sauces were originally only sold at Mary's AGA cooking school, but have since been sold internationally around Britain, Germany and Ireland with retailers such as Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Tesco each stocking the product ranges.

From 2010 to 2016 she was one of the judges on BBC One's The Great British Bake Off alongside baker Paul Hollywood, who specialises in bread. Berry says that since working together, she has learned from him. However, some viewers were outraged during the first series when a decision was made to make the contestants use one of Hollywood's recipes for scones instead of one of Berry's. Her work on the show with Hollywood has led to The Guardian suggesting that it is the best reality TV judging partnership ever. In September 2016, Love Productions announced that a three-year deal to broadcast the show on Channel 4 instead of the BBC from 2017 had been agreed. Co-hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins announced that they would not be continuing with Bake Off on its new network. Berry announced she was also leaving Bake Off on the same day that fellow judge Paul Hollywood announced he would be staying with the show.

She has also appeared on a BBC Two series called The Great British Food Revival, and her solo show, Mary Berry Cooks, began airing on 3 March 2014.

In December 2012, Berry became the first president of the new Bath Spa University Alumni Association.

In her own kitchen, she uses a KitchenAid mixer which she describes as being the one gadget she could not live without. She has always had an AGA cooker, and used to run cooking courses for AGA users. She describes Raymond Blanc's restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons as one of her favourites as well as the Old Queen's Head, local to where she lives in Penn, High Wycombe.

In February 2015 Berry featured in a programme in aid of the Third World charity Comic Relief. In May 2015 she began presenting a new BBC Two series called Mary Berry's Absolute Favourites. In November 2015 she was the subject a two-part biographical documentary entitled The Mary Berry Story.

Starting on 30 November 2015, she was one of the two judges for a four-week American edition of the popular baking competition The Great Holiday Baking Show on ABC, which followed a similar format to the British competition.

In November 2016, it was announced that Berry will present a new six-part series, 'Mary Berry Everyday' in which she will share her cooking tips, family favourites and special occasion recipes. The show will be aired on BBC Two.

In April 2017 Berry launched a series of cakes that could be bought from supermarkets. The cakes contain emulsifiers and preservatives that Berry has previously described as "unwanted extras".

Awards

Berry was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to culinary arts. In July 2012, she was given an honorary degree for her lifelong achievements in her field by Bath Spa University which incorporates the former Bath College of Domestic Science.

On Saturday 7 June 2014, Berry was awarded the Freedom of the City of Bath, during the Mayor Making ceremony at Bath Abbey; and, having already received the Freedom of the City of London, on 19 November 2014, she was clothed with the livery of the Worshipful Company of Bakers.

She was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards "Outstanding Achievement" prize in December 2014.

On 25 January 2017, Berry won the award for Best TV Judge at the National Television Awards for Great British Bake Off.

Personal life

Berry married Paul John March Hunnings in 1966. He later worked for Harvey's of Bristol and sold antique books. He is now retired. The couple had three children: Thomas Alleyne March, a tree surgeon, a father of two, and Annabel Mary March (married to Charles William Dan Bosher, a master builder), a mother of three who went into business with her mother to market salad dressings. A second son, William John March, died in 1989, in a car accident aged 19 while a student at Bristol Polytechnic. Thomas and William both attended Gordonstoun School. Berry is a patron of Child Bereavement UK.

In March 2013, Berry was placed second in a list of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by The Guardian. In September 2014 Berry was the subject of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? and discovered among her ancestors illegitimacy, bankruptcy and a baker.

Berry is a member of the Church of England, and has been worshipping at Holy Trinity Church in Penn since 1989. She wrote about the church, and her membership, on the "UK's favourite churches" website. Her mother, who died in 2011, had also been an active church member. As part of the BBC2 programme "Mary Berry's Easter Feast" at Easter 2016, Berry visited Bishopthorpe Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of York who is the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, and filmed a special "Cooking with the Archbishop" segment.

In February 2016, Berry suggested that she supported English football team Everton F.C.

Publications

Berry has written more than seventy cook books since her first book was published in 1970, and has sold over five million cook books. She regularly works on her cook books with Lucy Young, who has been her assistant for over twenty years. Her bestselling Baking Bible was rated one of the ten best baking books by The Independent.

Since September 2014, Berry's recipes have also been packaged in an interactive mobile app called "Mary Berry: In Mary We Trust".

Her autobiography, Recipe for Life, was published in 2013 by Michael Joseph.