The Most Famous Cooks You’ve Never Heard Of

Chepina Peralta?  Tarla Dalal? Alison Holst?  You’ve heard of them, right?  Probably not unless you live in Mexico, India, or New Zealand.

They are just three of many women who became national celebrities as early television cookery stars, as well as authors with cookbook sales that often went into the millions.

I need your help.  I’m compiling a list of these women.  Elatia Harris has already helped by allowing me to ask on her Facebook group, Writing the Kitchen. Thanks Elatia and everyone who contributed there. But that resource has been exhausted. So please, let me know who I am missing for there are surely many.

I’m trying to keep it to women (or men) who were television pioneers and had national visibility. Often television stations experimented with several candidates. Or they had cooks to explain foreign foods.  I love to hear about those but they are not my main focus.

Here’s the list (the neat little table I had did not view well on WordPress). No particular order except the way the answers came in on Elatia’s page, roughly organized by Europe, the Americas, and Asia.  I am updating this as I get new names. Thank you all.

Apart from mentions in individual entries, there’s a bibliography of books and articles about cooking shows at the end of the list.

• Australia

Graham Kerr

1964- late 1960s. Entertaining with Kerr.

(Thanks Alison Vincent)

• United Kingdom

Marcel Boulestin

1937-39. Twice monthyly quarter hour cooking demonstration.

Philip Harben.  Learned at home.

Compered a BBC wireless cooking programme from 1942

Then a BBC TV programme, Cookery, from 1946 to 1951. HOw to make the most of rations and basics of cooking.

Then  Cookery Lesson (with co-presenter Marguerite Patten) and What’s Cooking from 1956. Emphasized method and principles, not  recipes

Anglo-French cuisine

22 cookbooks.

Fannie Cradock

1955-mid 70s

Urban middle class (trade!)

Economical, Escoffier-style food!

Ball gown/celebrity cook

Prolific author

1974 Scottish fishermanblame Cradock of the collapse of the scampi market when she shows how to make fake scampi with monkfish.

Cookoff with Raymond Oliver at the London Café Royal in 1956.

Wikipedia

Cooking through the Cradock corpus

Delia Smith

1973 to 2013

Middle class background

Self taught with restaurant experience

Anglo French cuisine

Football club owner

Best-selling cookbook author in Britain, 21 million copies sold

Wikipedia

• Belgium

• Sofie Dumont who came on television rather recently. She was a restaurant chef of her family’s ‘hotel des eleveurs’ in Halle (near Brussels). But left the family business for a career on television. (Thanks Nick Trachet)

• Denmark

• Earliest cooking shows in 1960s were by women.
• 
• Conrad and Aksel  (restaurant critic Conrad Bjerre.Christensen and his sidekick Aksel Larsen)

Elaborate Mediterranean-inspired gourmet cooking as opposed to previous housewifely concerns with health and nutrition.

“Lots of Butter” key phrase. Eventually fired by Danish Radio Broadcasting for advertising Danish butter.

Jonatan Leer, ed., Food and Media (2016), discusses distinction between men and women in Danish cooking shows.

See also the very helpful chapter in the same volume on postwar Danish cookbooks by Caroline Nyvang.

• Estonia

Lilian Kosenkranius on left, Moidela Tönisson on right.

Salme Masso

Estonian television began broadcasting in 1955 and from 1957, Salme Masso and the two women in the photograph offered a cooking show.

Salme Masso (1909-1990) taught at the Tallinn Institute of Home Economics from 1935.

Author of many books

Introduced pizza to Estonian housewives, helped during time of food shortages

Cooking shows limited by lack of ingredients in stores (no cinnamon, for example)

• France

1955. Raymond Olivier. Art et magie de la cuisine. Chef at Gran Véfour

 Maïté Ordonez assisted by Micheline Banzet.

1983-1999.

La Cuisine des Mousquetaires on  FR3 et France 3,

Many books.

Famous for her love of cream and fat (to hell with diets) and made everyone drool over French television,

Wikipedia

(Thanks Trish Deseine and Nick Trachet)

•  Babette de Rozières is a black prize winning restaurateur with programs on French television, also for the overseas territories. She hails from Guadeloupe and is famous for refusing the ‘légion d’honneur’ for lack of French recognition for the kitchen and products of the DOM-TOM territories.
• Since the inception of television, cooking formats consisted of a professional male chef, next to a ‘housewife’ who commented and asked for advice. This changed in the very late 1970’s with Michel Oliver (son of Raymond)on French television. With him, cooking programs became male only (boys having fun in the kitchen). Female chefs still are rarities. (Nick Trachet)

• Germany

• Clemens Wilmenrod (pseudonym for Karl Clemens Hahn)February 20, 1953, to May 16, 1964.  Bitte in zehn Minuten zu Tisch on the WDR, assisted by his wife Erika.Wilmenrod, also known as “Don Clemente”, wore a trademark apron with a caricature by Mirko Szewczuk.Scarcity of the post-war period meant canned vegetables, instant sauces, and even ketchup. While this may not measure up to the current state of the culinary art, he had a great influence on the post-war generation in Germany: his programmes and cookbooks were blockbusters, and when he presented a cod recipe, for instance, cod would be sold out for weeks.Toast Hawaii, “Arabian riders’ meat” and “stuffed strawberry”. Made Rumtopf popular in Southern and Western Germany. Introduced turkey as a typical Christmas dinner.

After being accused by a viewer of not having invented the “filled strawberry” himself, Wilmenrod put a long cook’s knife against his chest and swore to kill himself if a single viewer who had previously eaten filled strawberry were to call.

Wikipedia

• Greece

Vefa Alexiadou

1980s on

Self taught

Greek cuisine

Prolific author

(Thanks Linda Makris)

• Ireland

First of many cookbooks, 1963

Monica Sheridan

1960s on the new Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ

http://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/922-christmas-tv-past/487434-stuffing-turkeys-with-siobhn-cleary-and-monica-sheridan/

Later Brenda Costigan (1980s).

(Thanks Mel Healy)

• Israel

Ruth Sirkis (רות סירקיס)

Graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. the way as a culinary writer, a columnist and later a talk show guest. “The Julia Child of Israel”.

From The Kitchen with Love (1975) introduced techniques and combined simple French cuisine with Israeli ingredients, thus creating a “national cuisine” where there was only a collection of different country’s cuisines. Sold nearly 1 million copies, only second to the Bible as the Hebrew-language best seller.

When Ruth Sirkis resided in the U.S., she was the Food Editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) of New York. Her syndicated weekly column was published for three years in the Anglo-Jewish Press from coast to coast, the UK and South Africa. In Israel, Sirkis was Food Editor at At, the foremost Israeli woman’s magazine, for 12 years. She had a popular weekly radio cookery program for 7 years and appeared many times on Israeli TV. Ruth Sirkis wrote 11 Cookbooks in Hebrew, all of them best sellers. Currently she pioneers the field of Cooking Magazines on the Internet, with weekly video segments and many more innovations. opened a publishing house that published more then 200 books on cooking and baking.
https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/רות_סירקיס  (Thanks Nir Adin, supplemented with material from Amazon).

• Netherlands

Ria van Eijndhoven

• Norway

• 

  NRK

Ingrid Espelid Hovig b. 1924

Educated at the Norwegian State College for Domestic Science Teachers

1970-96 Cooking show on Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation

ed. Den rutete kokeboken, considered the national cookbook

Ingrid Espelid ber til bords (1967) recognized by the newspaper Dagbladet as one of the 25 most important post WWII prose books in Norway

Many other books

With Julia Child on her program

Wikipedia article

(Thanks Svein Fossa, who comments “She has influenced the food and cooking habits of several generations in Norway, and is in many ways a “mother” to everyone who is interested in food. Besides the countless television appearances that made her famous, she also authored cooking books that became best sellers.There are no other Norwegian women (or men for that matter) who have a similar status as television show cooking personalities. Everyone is still measured after her”).  Introduced pizza and pasta to Norwegian housewives, invited cooks from ethnic restaurants to her show.

• Spain

  

  El Pais

  Elena Santonja (1932-2016)

• http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2016/10/17/actualidad/1476693342_300959.html). The 70’s generation grew up watching her cooking. She 1984-1991. The first cookery tv show on Spanish television “Con las manos en la masa” (it’s an untranslatable pun: means caught red handed + “masa” means dough)  http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/con-las-manos-en-la-masa/Traditional Spanish food made with the help of celebrities of that time (theatre and cinema directors, actors, singers…).Four books Paso a paso por la cocina de Elena (1987); Veinticuatro setas de Madrid(1988); Diccionario de cocina (1997);  Las recetas de mis amigos. (1998): Not a bestseller author. (Thanks Marta Vird)
  

• Turkey

Surprisingly none. (Thanks Aylin Öney)

• Argentina

 Doña Petrona

1955—

Self taught, worked for gas Company, radio, before TV

Argentinian/international cuisine

El libro de Doña Petrona (1933), still available, sales surpassed only by the Bible.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrona_Carrizo_de_Gandulfo

Rebekah Pite Creating a Common Table in Twentieth- Century Argentina.

• Brazil  

Ofélia Anunciato

1958—

Brazilian cuisine (and I suspect international)

14 cookbooks,widely translated

Ofelia, The taste of Brazil, declared one of the 13 most read books in the world at a Frankfurt Book Fair, according to Brazilian Wikipedia.

(Thanks Sandra Mian)

• Cuba

Nitza Vallapol

1951-1997

Born in NY, elite background, supports the revolution.

Educated in nutrition at the University of London, 1940s.

Cuban/International?

Cocina criolla (1954), Cocina al minuto (1958).

•  [Panama          

Cuquita (Arias de Calvo)

1990s

Panamanian/International Cuisine

Modelled on Martha Stewart. Magazine, books, etc.]

• Puerto Rico

Carmen Aboy Valldejuli

Elite background

Cocina Criollo (1954) 1/4 million copies, Probably better known for books than television.

Puerto Rican cuisine

Fuster, M. (2015) “Writing Cuisines in the Spanish Caribbean: A comparative analysis of iconic Puerto Rican and Cuban cookbooks” Food, Culture and Society 18(4)

• Mexico           

Chepina with the Haitian Ambassador’s wife.http://www.sermayor.com.mx/historias-sm/chepina-peralta-la-historia-extraordinaria-detras-de-su-exito-en-la-cocina-19.html

Chepina Peralta

1967—

Self taught

Mexican/International Cuisine

Down to earth, concerned with nutrition, diets for the sick, and ingredients such as textured vegetable protein accessible to poor

• United States

http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p15195coll38&CISOPTR=262

Julia Child

1963–

Elite background, trained at Cordon Bleu in Paris

French-American cuisine

“You can do it, just follow the instructions.”

Many books

Preceded by Dione Lucas in NY, Alma Lach in Chicago.

While she wasn’t a TV celebrity outside San Francisco, cookbook author Elena Zelayeta had a cooking show called “It’s Fun to Eat” on KPIX in the late 50s/early 60s. Apparently only one program still exists and it’s undated: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/189406

(Thanks MMPack).

• New Zealand 

Alison Holst

1965-

Home economics background

Anglo cuisine

Prolific author

Economical, nutritious, for home cook

Wikipedia

Also Tui Flower

• Canada

Graham Kerr

1969-72

The Galloping Gourmet–wide impact outside Canada.

(thanks Alison Vincent)

Mme Jehane Benoit

Appeared on CBC television at least as early as 1964. Others (Bea Miller, Monica Brun) even earlier, but latter probably not celebrity category (still the shows are of interest I think). The 20 Hungry Men broadcast Benoit did in 1964 is well-executed, she knew her way around the kitchen and the French accent just seemed to add to it. Details here: http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/modern-homemakers-madame-benoits-buffet

She may have worked in French earlier and this should be preserved in Radio-Canada archives, the name for French CBC and 80s. (Thanks Gary Gillman)

Food science Sorbonne and Cordon Bleu

Cooking school, restaurant, prolific author

French Canadian cuisine

• India   

Tarla Dalal

?

Prolific author, cooking school

Indian and international

Wikipedia

Also Mrs. K. M. Matthews in Kerala, founder of Vanitha, India’s largest women’s magazine. No mention of television show.

• Taiwan  (Republic of China)         

Fu pei-mei

1962 on

From Japanese-occupied northern China to Taiwan

Hired Chinese chefs to teach her at home

Cooking school, prolific author

Cheongsam and apron

Chinese cuisine

Cooking through the Pei Mei corpus

• People’s Republic of China

  1999. The first cooking show on @CCTV was A Delicious Dish a Day 天天饮食  (Thanks Evan Randall.)

• Philippines

Nora Daza

Elite background

60s and 70s

Home Ec from U. Philippines and Cornell, Gas Company, Gas Cooking School

Filipino and international?

Prolific author

(Thanks Betsy Ann Besa-Quirino)

• Vietnam

 Ms Van (Ms Nguyen Dzoan Cam Van)

1993 on “Skilful Hands with Diligence, Ho chi Minh City Television.

Vietnamese cuisine

40 books

http%3A%2F%2Fenglish.vietnamnet.vn%2Ffms%2Fart-entertainment%2F91884%2Fculinary-artisan-nguyen-dzoan-cam-van.html&h=FAQHfSa-c

___________________

Here are some brief discussions of television cooks.

Kathleen Collins. Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of TV Cooking Shows (2009).

Stephanie Butler talks about England and the United States on Hungry History

Kathleen Collins in Gourmet on early television cooks in the United States

Kathleen Collins with a longer discussion, almost entirely of the United States.

From the comments on the above discussion, Toby Miller. (2007). Cultural citizenship: cosmopolitanism, consumerism, and television in a neoliberal age. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Toby Miller suggests these articles.

Chan, Andrew. (2003). “‘La grande bouffe’: Cooking Shows as Pornography.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 3, no. 4: 46-53.

Foster, Nicola. “Jaffrey, Madhur (1933- ): British Actor, Television Personality, Cookery Host.” Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television, 2nd ed. Ed. Horace Newcomb. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. 1204-206.

Kackman, Michael. (2004). “Cooking Shows.” Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television, 2nd ed. Ed. Horace Newcomb. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. 584-85.

Ketchum, Cheri. (2005). “The Essence of Cooking Shows: How the Food Network Constructs Consumer Fantasies.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 29, no. 3: 217-34.

Mannur, Anita. (2005). “Model Minorities Can Cook: Fusion Cuisine in Asian America.” East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture. Ed. Shilpa Davé, LeiLani Nishime, and Tasha G. Oren. New York: New York University Press. 72-94.

Strange, Niki. (1998). “Perform, Educate, Entertain: Ingredients of the Cookery Programme Genre.” The Television Studies Book. Ed. Christine Geraghty and David Lusted. London: Arnold. 301-12.

Negra, Diane. (2002). “Ethnic Food Fetishism, Whiteness, and Nostalgia in Film and Television.” Velvet Light Trap 50: 62-76.

In addition, see:

Jaine, H. Television and Food.  In Alan Davidson, Oxford Companion to Food. Second Revised Edition.

Caraher, Martin and Lang, Tim et al (2000). The Influence of TBV and Celebrity Chefs on Public Attitudes and Behavior among the British Public. Journal for the Study of Food and Society. 4/1.

Dana Polan, professor of cinema at NYU, On Elena Zaleyta in How to Watch Television, Thompson and Mittell.
http://cookbooks.about.com/od/5-Questions-For/fl/Great-Academic-Food-Writing-about-a-Blind-Mexican-Chef.htmCooking through the Julia corpus.

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