Two Fat Ladies
This weekend I was too tired & sick to do much of anything, but luckily it was raining and it all worked out to a cozy Sunday on the couch with the puglet and husband and the heater all working in harmony with the Cooking Channel to give me nearly all the comforts I could ever ask for. I do love the Cooking Channel! I just discovered it a couple of month ago, but it was love at first sight, honestly.
Sunday morning after a bite to eat and some fabulous espresso drinks, we headed home and I literally curled up with the pup on the couch. We snuggled in for a full day of cooking shows. The first few, I believe, were three episodes of “Two Fat Ladies” and oh how I had forgotten how much fun their show was to watch. I remember my grandma watching them and talking about it. I remember watching a couple of episodes with her long ago and generally enjoying myself (cooking & baking is a new found love for me).
The title alone is so radical and just smacks of you got a problem with it? To put the word FAT in the title of a show? WOW! And the ladies themselves were such a hoot to watch working together in the kitchen. Not only that, no, they also ride a motorcycle (one in the sidecar) and one episode ended with them doing a bit of a spin-out…Fabulous!
At one point Jennifer Paterson burst into song as she was cleaning up a counter. I turned to my husband and said, “Well, at least you now know, when you die, this will be my future without you!” because y’all! I totally burst into song all of the damn time at home, especially while cooking! Too funny!
While they were hardly afraid of calories, they were often seen as a bad influence on the Brittish diet for their use of butter and lard in their dishes. Paterson often ended an episode by smoking a cigarette and having a nip of something alcoholic. Glorious!
It did make me a bit sad though, as I knew one had died. In fact it was Jennifer Paterson, of lung cancer. On her death bed, she called Clarissa Dickson Wright asking for a tin of caviar. When she arrived though, Paterson had already passed away. “Dickson Wright said that after Paterson’s funeral, she ate the caviar as a tribute.” (Quoted from wikipedia.)
I just fell head over heels all over again for these “Two Fat Ladies” and cannot imagine what it would be like had they debuted now. *sigh* I have come to see them as radical revolutionaries in the Fat Acceptance movement. Intentional or not, they are among my fat heroines, for sure.
I missed the Two Fat Ladies the first time around, but recently discovered them on the Cooking Channel. I am in love.
It doesn’t hurt that I love traditional British foods (I grew up on the fabulous Great British Cooking: a Well Kept Secret by Jane Garmey), but the Two Fat Ladies would have my love no matter what sort of food they made or where they were from.
I love the Fat Ladies too. I need to see about getting the new channel. And, yes, Jennifer died, but of lung cancer from many years of heavy smoking, as did my sister, not from being fat & not from eating fatty food. She was also 71, so, while not ancient, she wasn’t cut down in her youth either. I find myself wondering if Jennifer had the experience, as she was dying, of FINALLY having a doctor tell her that her fat was a good thing &U keeping her alive longer. That is what my sister’s oncologist told her, & Judy was amused but also angry that she had to wait until she was dying to be told by anyone in the medical establishment that being fat can be positive & protective to health.
I really want to watch Jennifer & Clarissa again. The new cooking channel sounds like fun. For the most part, over the past few years, the Food Network has become more & more about mollifying the healthists & food nannies & yapping about cooking ‘healthy’ & cooking ‘light’, being, as Rachael Ray constantly maunders on about, ‘figure friendly’, ‘waistband friendly’, as if the size of your body actually has a damn thing to do with how ‘healthy’ or ‘well-nourished’ you are. I like to watch cooking shows & read cookbooks for FUN, not to be nannied & lectured.
I couldn’t agree more about the food network. You can imagine my delight then, when I happened upon the cooking channel and fell in love all over again with the Two Fat Ladies, Nigella Lawson and discovered Roger Mooking!!! Incredible! Thank you for reading & commenting.
I recorded the series INSTANTLY when I saw it come on. They are so tongue in cheek, sweet and generous in many ways. RIP savory sister <3
I love “Savory Sister!”