Delia Smith
Encyclopedia
Delia Smith CBE  is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 cook
Cook (profession)
A cook is a person who prepares food for consumption. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada this profession requires government approval ....

 and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills. She is the UK's best-selling cookery author, with more than 21 million copies sold.

Smith is also famous for her role as joint majority shareholder at Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...

 Her partner in the shareholding is her partner, Michael Wynn-Jones
Michael Wynn-Jones
Michael Wynn-Jones is a Welsh-born writer, editor and publisher.He is a joint majority shareholder of Norwich City Football Club. His partner in the shareholding is his wife, Delia Smith. Wynn-Jones is a writer, editor – formerly editor of the Daily Mirror magazine – and publisher...

. Her role at the club has attracted varying media attention, from positive when she "saved" the club from bankruptcy, to negative, when making a controversial on-pitch announcement in 2005.

Already an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Smith was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours
Birthday Honours 2009
The Birthday Honours 2009 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 1 June 2009 in New Zealand and 13 June 2009 in the United Kingdom to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2009.-Knights Bachelor:*Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran. For services to medicine....

, "in recognition of ... [her] contribution to television cookery and recipe writing".

Chef, author and TV personality

Born to a Welsh mother in Woking, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, Smith attended Bexleyheath School
Bexleyheath School
Bexleyheath Academy, is a mixed comprehensive school in Bexleyheath, in the London Borough of Bexley. Students typically join the School in Year 7 or enter the sixth form....

, leaving at the age of 16 without a single O-level. Her first job was as a hairdresser
Hairdresser
Hairdresser is a term referring to anyone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques...

, and she also worked as a shop assistant and in a travel agency before starting her career in cookery.When Delia was 16, her boyfriend often complimented her, saying how good her food was. This was the nudge forward that made Delia take that step into cookery. At 21, she started work in a tiny restaurant in Paddington
Paddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...

 called The Singing Chef. She started as a washer-upper, then moved on to waitressing, and then was allowed to help with the cooking. She started reading English cookery books in the Reading Room at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

, trying out the recipes on a Harley Street
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...

 family with whom she was living at the time.

In 1969 Smith was taken on as the cookery writer for the Daily Mirror's new magazine. Their Deputy Editor was Michael Wynn-Jones
Michael Wynn-Jones
Michael Wynn-Jones is a Welsh-born writer, editor and publisher.He is a joint majority shareholder of Norwich City Football Club. His partner in the shareholding is his wife, Delia Smith. Wynn-Jones is a writer, editor – formerly editor of the Daily Mirror magazine – and publisher...

, whom she later married. Her first piece featured kipper
Kipper
A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.In the United Kingdom, in Japan, and in some North American regions they are often eaten for breakfast...

 pâté
Pâté
Pâté is a mixture of ground meat and fat minced into a spreadable paste. Common additions include vegetables, herbs, spices, and either wine or cognac, armagnac or brandy...

, beef in beer, and cheesecake
Cheesecake
Cheesecake is a dessert consisting of a topping made of soft, fresh cheese, usually on a crust or base made from biscuit , pastry or sponge cake. They may be baked or unbaked...

. In 1972 she started a column in the Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...

which she was to write for 12 years. Later she wrote a column for the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...

until 1986.

Smith became famous by hosting a cookery television show Family Fare which ran between 1973-1975. Her first television appearances came in the early 1970s, as resident cook on BBC East
BBC East
BBC East is the BBC English Region serving Norfolk, Suffolk, north Essex, Cambridgeshire, northern and central Hertfordshire, most of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and parts of Buckinghamshire.-Television:...

's regional magazine programme Look East, shown on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 across East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

.

Smith approached BBC Further Education with an idea for their first televised cookery course. Her aim was to teach people how to cook: to take them back to basics and cover all the classic techniques. Accompanying books were needed to explain not only how, but why, things happen. This led to her three Cookery Course books.

Smith became a recognisable figure amongst young people in the 1970s and early 1980s when she was an occasional guest on the BBC Saturday morning children's programme Multicoloured Swap Shop and did basic cooking demonstrations; she and host Noel Edmonds
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...

 had a flirtatious way of interacting with each other back then. She purportedly phoned in during the reunion programme It Started with Swap Shop, though that particular "appearance" is debatable.

Her television series, Delia's How to Cook (1998), reportedly led to a 10% rise in egg
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

 sales in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and her use of ingredients (such as frozen mash, tinned minced beef and onions as used in her 2008 TV series), or utensils (such as an omelette
Omelette
In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...

 pan), could cause sell-outs overnight. This phenomenon – the "Delia Effect" – was most recently seen in 2008 after her new book How to Cheat at Cooking was published. Her fame has meant that her first name has become sufficient to identify her to the public, and the "Delia Effect" has become a commonly used phrase to describe a run on a previously poor-selling product as a result of a high-profile recommendation.

She created a stir in 1998 when she taught viewers how to boil an egg.

In 2003 Smith announced her retirement from television. However, she returned for an eponymously-titled six-part series airing on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in Spring 2008. The accompanying book, an update of her original best-selling 1971 book How to Cheat at Cooking, was published by Ebury Press in February 2008, immediately becoming a number one best-seller. Items to have benefitted from the "Delia Effect" include the Kenwood
Kenwood
- Places :England* Kenwood , a part of Hampstead Heath, London, the location of** Kenwood House* Kenwood, in the parish of Kenton, Devon* Kenwood, St. George's Hill, John Lennon's home in Weybridge, SurreyUnited States* Kenwood, California...

 mini-chopper, Martelli
Martelli
Martelli may refer to:People* Alex Martelli , Italian computer scientist* Carlo Martelli , English composer* Claudio Martelli , Italian politician* Esmond Martelli , Irish rugby union player...

 pasta and Aunt Bessie
Aunt Bessie
Aunt Bessie’s Limited is a UK producer of processed frozen food products. Its brand portfolio includes Yorkshire puddings, a wide range of potato products, meal accompaniments, ready meals, vegetables and desserts....

's mashed potato.

In 2005, Smith announced that she was supporting the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 in the forthcoming election.

In 2009, Smith announced that in order to help Norwich City's finances, she has "been working extremely hard on another book and TV series." It is to be a retrospective of her 40 year career, "looking at how things have changed".

In 2010, Delia's latest television series, Delia through the Decades, was first broadcast on 11 January on BBC2 at 8.30pm. The show lasts for five weeks, with each episode exploring a new decade of her cooking.
Her biggest selling book Delia Smith's The Winter Collection (1995) sold 2 million copies in hardback.

In March 2010, Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal
Heston Blumenthal
Heston Marc Blumenthal OBE is an English chef and owner of The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire voted Best Restaurant in the UK by The Good Food Guide 2007 and 2009, and voted best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2005...

 were signed up to appear in a series of 40 commercials on British television for the supermarket chain Waitrose
Waitrose
Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...

.

Religion

Smith is also known for her spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

 books. She has had a varied church background. Having been baptised in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

, she attended a Methodist Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...

, a Congregationalist Brownie group and later a Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 youth group. At the age of 22 she converted to the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

. Her first two short religious books, A Feast for Lent (1983) and A Feast for Advent (1983), are readings and reflections for these seasons. In 1988 Delia took on the much larger challenge of writing a full-length book on prayer - A Journey into God.

Football

Smith has developed other business interests outside of her culinary ventures, notably a majority shareholding in the recently promoted Barclays Premier League team Norwich City Football Club
Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...

, with her Welsh-born husband, Michael Wynn-Jones
Michael Wynn-Jones
Michael Wynn-Jones is a Welsh-born writer, editor and publisher.He is a joint majority shareholder of Norwich City Football Club. His partner in the shareholding is his wife, Delia Smith. Wynn-Jones is a writer, editor – formerly editor of the Daily Mirror magazine – and publisher...

 with whom she lives near Stowmarket
Stowmarket
-See also:* Stowmarket Town F.C.* Stowmarket High School-External links:* * * * *...

 in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

. Both Smith and Wynn-Jones were season ticket holders at Norwich and were invited to invest in the club, which had fallen on hard times.

On 28 February 2005, Smith attracted attention during the half-time break of a home match against Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...

. At the time Norwich were fighting an ultimately unsuccessful battle against relegation from the Premier League
FA Premier League
The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...

, and in order to rally the crowd, Smith grabbed the microphone from the club announcer on the pitch and said: "A message for the best football supporters in the world: we need a 12th man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be 'avin' you! Come on!" Norwich lost the match 3–2. Smith denied suggestions in the media that she had been drunk while delivering the speech.

In 2008, Smith was reported to have rejected an offer from Norfolk-born billionaire Peter Cullum
Peter Cullum
Peter Geoffrey Cullum CBE is a Norfolk born businessman, the executive chairman of Towergate Partnership.Cullum began his insurance career in 1969 with the Royal Insurance Group and progressed to sales and marketing positions within Commercial Union and ITT London and Edinburgh where he became...

, who wished to invest £20 million in the club, but wished Smith and the other shareholders to relinquish their holdings. At a Norwich City AGM in November of that year, however, Smith said that:
she and her husband Michael Wynn Jones would 'be very happy to stand aside' as majority shareholders if someone came along with an offer to buy them out. Delia also stated that she was never made an offer for her majority shareholding by Peter Cullum.


Cullum confirmed Smith's version of events: "Peter Cullum subsequently confirmed that he did not offer to buy the shares of the majority shareholders. He explained the £20m he offered would have been in return for new shares and that money would have been used to buy players, but he had never offered to buy out the majority shareholders."

In August 2011, Smith announced that, anticipating her 70th birthday, she was stepping down from her catering role at Carrow Road: "It is now time for a fresh approach and a younger team who, I am confident, will take the business even further."

Business

From 1993 to 1998 Smith worked as a behind-the-scenes consultant for Sainsbury's. In May 1993 she and her husband launched New Crane Publishing, which produces the Sainsbury's Magazine and produced Smith's most recent books for BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...

. Smith was Consultant Director and contributed her own recipes. Although Delia and Michael sold New Crane Publishing in 2005, Smith continues to be a Consultant for Seven Publishing who now publish the magazine.

In March 2001 Smith launched her website, Delia Online. She uses the site to communicate directly with her fans, and offers a growing archive of her recipes. There is also a forum where contributors share recipes, offer advice about cookery skills and where to buy products. The website also contains information about Smith's latest ventures.

Awards

In the 2009 Birthday Honours
Birthday Honours 2009
The Birthday Honours 2009 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 1 June 2009 in New Zealand and 13 June 2009 in the United Kingdom to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2009.-Knights Bachelor:*Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran. For services to medicine....

, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), "in recognition of ... [her] contribution to television cookery and recipe writing".

In 1996, Smith was awarded an honorary degree by Nottingham University, a Fellowship from St Mary’s University College (a college of the University of Surrey
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey in the South East of England. It received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology...

) and a Fellowship from the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

. In 1999 she received an Honorary degree from the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...

 and in 2000, a Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...

.

Cookery books

  • How to Cheat at Cooking (1971)
  • Recipes from Country Inns and Restaurants (1973)
  • The Evening Standard Cookbook (1974)
  • Country Recipes from Look East (1975)
  • More Country Recipes: A Second Collection from Look East (1976)
  • Frugal Food (1976) (Re-issued in October 2008)
  • Cakes, Bakes & Steaks (1977)
  • Delia Smith's Book of Cakes (1977)
  • Delia Smith's Cookery Course
    Delia Smith's Cookery Course
    Delia Smith's Cookery Course is a book, first published in the early 1970s, by British chef Delia Smith. The book, reprinted many times, helped establish Smith's reputation as a leading cookery writer in the UK....

    (3 volumes: 1978, 1979 & 1980)
  • One is Fun (1986)
  • Complete Illustrated Cookery Course (1989) (ISBN 0-563-21454-6)
  • Delia Smith's Christmas (1990)
  • Delia Smith's Summer Collection (1993)
  • Delia Smith's Winter Collection (1995) (winner of the 1996 British Book of the Year award).
  • Delia's How to Cook—Book 1 (1998) (based on the television series)
  • Delia's How to Cook—Book 2 (1999)
  • Delia's How to Cook—Book 3 (2001)
  • The Delia Collection (2003) (several themed volumes)
  • Delia's Kitchen Garden: A Beginners' Guide to Growing and Cooking Fruit and Vegetables (2004)
  • The Delia Collection - Puddings (2006)
  • Delia's Kitchen Garden (February 2007) (BBC Books - ISBN 9780563493730)
  • How to Cheat at Cooking (February 2008) (Ebury Press - ISBN 9780091922290)
  • Delia's Happy Christmas (October 2009)

Religious works

  • A Feast for Advent (1983)
  • A Feast for Lent (1983)
  • A Journey into Prayer (1986)
  • A Journey into God (1988)

Television series guide

  • Family Fare
  • Series 1: 8 editions from 12 September 1973 - 7 November 1973
  • Series 2: 12 editions from 11 July 1974 - 2 October 1974
  • Series 3: 13editions from 18 April 1975 - 11 July 1975

  • Delia Smith's Cookery Course 1: 10 editions from 3 November 1978 - 26 January 1979
  • Delia Smith's Cookery Course 2: 10 editions from 11 January 1980 - 14 March 1980
  • Delia Smith's Cookery Course 3: 10 editions from 6 April 1981 - 18 June 1981

  • Delia Smith's One is Fun: 6 editions from 28 June 1985 - 9 August 1985

  • Delia Smith's Christmas: 6 editions from 15 November 1990 - 20 December 1990

  • Delia Smith's Summer Collection: 10 editions from 4 May 1993 - 6 July 1993

  • Delia Smith's Winter Collection: 12 editions from 11 October 1995 - 7 February 1996

  • Delia's Red Nose Collection: 5 editions from 9 February 1997 - 9 March 1997

  • Delia's How to Cook 1: 10 editions from 13 October 1998 - 15 December 1998
  • Delia's How to Cook 2: 10 editions from 10 January 2000 - 13 March 2000
  • Delia's How to Cook 3: 8 editions from 8 January 2002 - 26 February 2002

  • Delia's Chocolate C'Hunks: 5 editions from 9 February 2001 - 9 March 2001

  • Delia: 6 editions from 10 March 2008 - 14 April 2008
  • Delia through the Decades: 5 editions from 11 January 2010 - 8 February 2010

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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