Top 55 Mary Berry Quotes

I think my father couldn’t wait to get home to his wife, but I don’t know if he was so keen on us children.

When I was paralysed by polio at 13, I went into an isolation hospital and couldn’t sit up, so I only took liquid food from spouted cups which the masked nurses would bring in and feed to me. I saw my parents only through glass; we couldn’t touch.

I know people think I invented the Victoria sandwich, but I’m really not that old.

I don’t like tattoos because tattoos are forever.

I’m immensely proud to have been made a CBE, but I don’t ever use the letters after my name unless someone has included them in correspondence.

Many people think children must have chips. I don’t think any household should have a deep fat fryer.

I love a good madeira cake. Nice and simple. The most important thing is that a cake is moist. Most people overcook cakes, which dries them out.

As parents are usually working, they haven’t time to teach children about cooking, and it’s a wilderness. They should be given healthy recipes – some standbys so that when they leave home, they don’t live on junk.

To be able to walk out the door when you come home from a job and wander into the garden to do a bit of watering gives you time to be creative in your mind.

While we’re filming ‘Bake Off,’ I can get really cold, so I’m often holding a hot-water bottle or layered up under an anorak and a warm hat.

My parents were very strict about manners and being polite to others. I brought my own children up that way, too.

Wherever possible, I like to use home-grown or locally produced ingredients.

Life is all about sharing. If we are good at something, pass it on. That is the pleasure I get from teaching – whether it is television or books. We should all share.

I never leave anything until the morning. I put my jumpers, scarves, and shoes out the night before. You never know what is going to happen. You don’t want to get stressed.

I won’t cook in deep fat. Years ago, I met a fireman who said most kitchen fires were caused by deep fat, and I don’t think that’s changed. Oven chips are good enough for my grandchildren, and they’re chuffed with that.

Freak diets I don’t think work. It’s control.

I usually wear only a bit of pink lippy, but for TV, they add a few extra lashes to brighten my eyes and some colour to my face, as without it, I look pale and uninteresting.

I do like going out and finding free food. I’ve done it since I was a child. Fishing prawns and shrimps from the sea is wonderful, as is picking blackberries, sloes and mushrooms. Having a guide while out looking for mushrooms is really important, though, as picking the wrong type can be quite dangerous.

I wasn’t the brightest button in the class at school, but I enjoyed cooking and baking. I wasn’t clever enough at Maths O-level to get onto the cookery teaching course I really wanted to do, so I did a catering course instead.

So often, when somebody dies in the family, whether a child or a parent, there is no one to lean on. When something like that happens, you go into a shell, but on the other hand, it’s a really good thing to talk it over and say how you feel.

I love Michel Roux, Jr., and James Martin – the chefs who are experts in their own right, like Rick Stein on fish. But I don’t watch them very much because I don’t think it’s fair for my husband to be in a total food environment all the time! So we watch programmes about gardening more.

Making your Christmas cake in September is perfect, as too fresh a cake crumbles when cut.

I don’t want food all over the place, down the sides of the sofa… When I shared a flat before I got married, we would always eat around the telly, but not now!

The only time I’ll use a microwave is to warm up a cup of coffee I’ve left too long before drinking.

I don’t go to fancy Michelin-starred restaurants often.

I’m really boring. I think about cooking all the time. I have a little book, so when I go out or see something, I jot it down and try to include it in a recipe or do a variation of it. I even have a notepad by my bed, which is usually saying we’re running out of mango chutney.

It is something you can’t predict, and it is the huge sadness in your life, losing a child.

I can’t bear the thought of retirement, and I haven’t prepared myself for it. I don’t play bridge, and I don’t play golf. I do play tennis, but you can’t do that every day of the week.

My favourite TV show is… ‘Downton Abbey.’ The characters are wonderful, and the style is created so beautifully on screen. Everything from the table settings to the linen seem perfect to me. While I’m watching it, I’m in a totally different world.

‘The Great British Bake Off’ is family entertainment. There aren’t many programmes where all ages can sit and watch from beginning to end. Everything else is violent, cruel, and noisy. We’re educational without viewers realising it.

I hate Gordon Ramsay’s programmes: I don’t know if he’s been told it makes good television.

Dad thought something very fishy was going on when, at 22, I was offered a job for £1,000 a year – more than Dad paid his own staff – for inventing cheese recipes and writing leaflets at the Dutch Dairy Bureau in London.

I think baking is very rewarding, and if you follow a good recipe, you will get success.

It’s so comforting to have a small piece of cake. Just one slice.

I was always nervous before a television show, and I still am now. But ‘The Great British Bake Off’ is a happy show; there is no bad language, and although we do have drama, we deal with it calmly.

I’m very keen on the family getting together around the table because you learn so much of what’s going on. With a full tummy, they begin to talk to you. People now have busy lives, but once or twice a week, it’s lovely to sit all around together.

Our aim is to get people to enjoy ‘Bake Off’ at home and for our bakers to enjoy what they are doing. We don’t want to catch them out. It’s a very happy occasion, and it’s about encouraging people to bake at home.

I’ve always had a strong interest in how food is produced and in knowing where it comes from.

I grow herbs near the back door, and you can grow a wonderful selection of herbs and window boxes… My idea is that you should grow what you eat. There’s no point in growing something like celeriac – which is very difficult to grow – if you hate it.

I can’t pass a plant stall without feeling I must have one. But my greatest extravagance, I suppose, is roses. We’ve got masses.

The very best hotel I’ve stayed in is the Intercontinental on Park Lane. We went there for the Chelsea Flower Show a few years ago, and it was sheer luxury. Everybody had a smile on their face. I came home and changed all my pillows because the hotel ones were so beautiful.

I’ve always collected vintage kitchenalia because it’s beautifully made, and I love to see things that have been used down the ages.

A lot of other reality shows on television can be bullying and aggressive, but we wanted ‘The Bake Off’ to be an antidote to that.

Having children is the greatest thing that can happen to you as a husband and wife. They are infuriating at times when they’re little, but on the whole, they’re such a joy. I don’t think I was the most brilliant mother when they were young. I had quite a bit of help because I was working and I enjoyed my work.

I eat carefully because people don’t want to see a large person judging cakes. They’ll think to themselves, ‘That’s what happens when you eat cake.’

At my dinner parties, I like to serve cheese after the main course because you still have red wine in the glass, and it goes very well with the cheese. And that is what they do in France, and I think they set a good example.

I never fry a doughnut! If you want a doughnut, go and buy one once in a blue moon. It’s about everything in moderation.

The biscuit tin shouldn’t be handy – move it about a bit. Try to keep it out of the way.

I have no desire to be a centenarian. I think 90 is a great time. You’ve had a good innings. You have to deal with the cards that have been dealt, of course, but I don’t think very old age, if you haven’t got your marbles, can be very nice.

When our William was killed, there wasn’t a child bereavement charity. I was extremely blessed with a very close family, wonderful friends, a supportive husband, and two further children.

I hope that I dress for my age. Because there’s no need to be dowdy, is there? But I don’t go with all the colours that everybody is wearing. I’m not very fond of lime green or orange, so I don’t do that. I read all the fashion magazines, but most things are totally unsuitable for somebody of 79.

When I started, you had cochineal food colouring that would turn things pink, but you could never make it red. Now, red is no problem – and if you look at supermarket bakery sections since ‘Bake Off’ began, you can get everything.

You’ve got to pay an awful lot for your hotel before you get fresh orange juice. If a hotel has got proper orange juice – and you do expect it if you’re abroad – I rank the hotel highly.

At 17, I went away to Pau in the south of France for a few months to study domestic science – including cleaning windows with newspaper and water – while living with a Catholic family with 10 children.

My best holidays were in Devon and Cornwall when the children were growing up. We always used to stay on farms because our children were pretty wild, and it was great going to the beach every day. We used to go to Launceston and Salcombe and all over those two counties.