Style speaks
To T V Chef
Rosemary Shrager
Fresh from her very amusing talk with Amber Beard at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, we sat down with TV chef — and now crime writer — Rosemary Shrager to talk books, confidence, and Christmas cooking.
With Christmas around the corner, any advice on cooking that turkey to perfection? Well to start with, never buy too big a turkey. Always allow 20 minutes per kilogram of meat plus 70 minutes extra on top. I always advise people to get a thermometer to make sure the bird is cooked through. And when carving cut the breast off whole first, it goes further like that.
For those of us who don’t know yet, can you tell us a bit about your ‘tantalisingly delicious’ debut novel The Last Supper? Well, Prudence Bulstrode is basically me: retired, loves cooking, enjoys a bit of sleuthing as a hobby, and goes round the country in her campervan to cook. Together with her granddaughter, she solves a murder mystery in a country house where her rival Deirdre Shaw has been found dead in the rhubarb patch, and from then on it’s a whirlwind!
In your opinion, are Yorkshire puddings ever an acceptable feature of the Christmas dinner plate? No, categorically no. Absolutely not! Why would anyone think they belong with a Christmas dinner? Finally, have you got any more books on the horizon?
Apart from the similarities between you and Prudence, are any other parts of the book based on real life? Yes, there are definitely parallels, like catering for shooting weekends at a country manor, it’s something I used to do at Amhuinnsuidhe Castle on the Isle of Harris. After publishing eight cookbooks during your career, what made you turn to fiction? It was actually my agent who asked if I’d like to write a murder mystery and of course, the answer was yes. I’ve always loved Agatha Christie, I know it’s a cliché but Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot are amazing characters. Losing yourself in an episode of Death in Paradise or getting into a good crime novel is real escapism for me. Have you ever been to the Isle of Wight before? Never! It’s wonderful, I’m thrilled to be here. I came over yesterday and stayed at the Villa Rothesay in Cowes. The breakfast there was superb! I’ll definitely be coming back again. This literary festival is fascinating too, it has such a lovely atmosphere and it’s wonderful that it’s all run by volunteers.
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As you may know, we’re famous here for our locally grown tomatoes and garlic. If you were in the kitchen and these Isle of Wight products were in your mystery bag of ingredients, what would you do with them? I’d make the most wonderful pesto, or no, a tomato jam with garlic! I’d call it “garlic and tomato jam” and make it extra garlicky. Your career really took off after you wrote to Michelin-starred chef Pierre Koffman from Chelsea’s Tante Claire asking for a job — even though you were entirely self-taught and he didn’t employ women in his kitchens. What advice would you give to those of us to whom courage and assertiveness don’t come naturally? Just have the courage, it doesn’t matter if you’re nervous or not, it’s important to put yourself forward. When I was younger I was a nervous person but putting yourself out there helps you to grow up and build in courage and confidence.
Yes, there’s another Prudence Bulstrode mystery on the way! It’ll be called Proof is in the Pudding, set in Yorkshire, and it’s about 110 figgy puddings!