We take four Medway teenagers who haven't a clue about cooking to see what Marguerite can do with them. Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter (this is my favourite bit – I LOVE the smell and the feel of the flour in your hands). Cut each large apple into quarters - this makes it easier to peel and core than dealing with the whole fruit. When all is prepared, put half into the 450 ml/ ¾ pint pie dish or ovenproof dish.

a b c d e Durrant, Sabine (5 June 2011). " 'Let's get this straight': interview with Marguerite Patten". The Telegraph . Retrieved 15 June 2015.Place the garlic-flavoured bread on the grill pan and sprinkle with a generous amount of olive oil. I had invited Mrs Patten to speak about her wartime work at The Ministry of Food. 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. Bake in the centre of an oven preheated to 160C (140-150C in a fan oven) for 1...#8747; hours, then lower the heat to 140-150C (120-130C in a fan oven) and cook for approximately 2 hours. Baking times for rich fruit cakes like this vary considerably according to your particular oven, so test it carefully.

Food gurus Marguerite Patten and Prue Leith honoured". BBC News. 12 June 2010 . Retrieved 16 June 2014. Anyway, I digress. Onto the scones. This recipe is classic, timeless, and without a doubt the best English scone recipe ever: To make the pastry, sift the flour with the salt, pepper and mustard, rub in the margarine, add the cheese and parsley and enough water to make a pastry with a firm rolling consistency.In a web exclusive Marguerite recreates some healthy but easy recipes which young people and anyone who dislikes cooking can try over a two day period. Marguerite Patten's recipes Day One Bruschetta - for one person Remove skin from the tomatoes - to do this lower into boiling water for 30 seconds; remove with a slotted spoon into cold water then pull away the skin. Place the tomatoes on the chopping board and chop roughly, add the basil or chosen herb and a little salt and pepper. a b Wilkins, Sasha (11 June 2015). "What Marguerite Patten meant to generations of British home cooks". The Pool . Retrieved 15 June 2015.

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.”OBE 1991; CBE 2010; Lifetime Achievement Award from BBC, 1998; Lifetime Achievement Award from Waterford Wedgewood, 1999; Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award 2007 Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten, CBE (née Brown; 4 November 1915 – 4 June 2015), was a British home economist, food writer and broadcaster. She was one of the earliest celebrity chefs (a term that she disliked at first) who became known during World War II thanks to her programme on BBC Radio, where she shared recipes that could work within the limits imposed by war rationing. After the war, she was responsible for popularising the use of pressure cookers and her 170 published books have sold over 17 million copies. When Granny first gave me this recipe I had to clarify the use of self-raising flour in a crumble. It seems a little counter-intuitive to use a flour with a raising agent, in a part of a bake you don’t necessarily want to rise. Granny assured me self-raising flour is indeed what she uses! She received many lifetime achievement awards, including Woman of the Year in 2007, and was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2000 and Desert Island Discs in 2001. She was appointed OBE in 1991 and CBE in 2010.