Dame Mary Rosa Alleyne Hunnings is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter.
46 Facts About Mary Berry
2.
Mary Berry then moved to France at the age of 22 to study at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, before working in a number of cooking-related jobs.
3.
Mary Berry has published more than 75 cookery books, including her best-selling Baking Bible in 2009.
4.
Mary Berry hosted several television series for the BBC and Thames Television.
5.
Mary Berry was a judge on the television programme The Great British Bake Off until 2016.
6.
Mary Berry was born on 24 March 1935, the second of three children, to Margaret and Alleyne William Steward Mary Berry.
7.
Mary Berry's great-great-grandfather on her father's side, Robert Houghton, was a master baker in the 1860s who provided bread for a local workhouse in Norwich.
8.
At the age of 13, Mary Berry contracted polio and had to spend three months in hospital.
9.
Mary Berry has said that the period of forced separation from her family while in the hospital "toughened [her] up" and taught her to make the most of every opportunity she would have.
10.
Mary Berry attended Bath High School, where she described her academic abilities as "hopeless" until she attended domestic science classes with a teacher called Miss Date, who was particularly encouraging of her cooking abilities.
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Mary Berry's first creation in the class was a treacle sponge pudding which she took home, and her father told her that it was as good as her mother's.
12.
Mary Berry then studied catering at Bath College of Domestic Science.
13.
Mary Berry's ambition was to move out of the family home to London, which her parents would not allow until she was 21.
14.
Mary Berry then persuaded her manager to pay for her to undertake the professional qualification from the French Le Cordon Bleu school.
15.
Mary Berry left the Dutch Dairy Bureau to become a recipe tester for PR firm Benson's, where she began to write her first book.
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Mary Berry has since cooked for a range of food-related bodies, including the Egg Council and the Flour Advisory Board.
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Mary Berry was food editor of Ideal Home magazine from 1970 to 1973.
18.
Mary Berry launched her own product range in 1994 with her daughter Annabel.
19.
Mary Berry has appeared on a BBC Two series called The Great British Food Revival, and her solo show, Mary Berry Cooks, began airing on 3 March 2014.
20.
In December 2012, Mary Berry became the first president of the new Bath Spa University Alumni Association.
21.
Mary Berry has always had an AGA cooker, and used to run cooking courses for AGA users.
22.
Mary Berry describes Raymond Blanc's restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons as one of her favourites as well as the Old Queen's Head, local to where she lives in Penn, High Wycombe.
23.
In February 2015 Mary Berry featured in a programme in aid of the Third World charity Comic Relief.
24.
Mary Berry became President of the National Garden Scheme in 2016 having opened her garden for charity for over 20 years.
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The cakes contain emulsifiers and preservatives that Mary Berry has previously described as "unwanted extras".
26.
In 2018, Mary Berry was a judge on Britain's Best Home Cook alongside chef Dan Doherty and Chris Bavin.
27.
Mary Berry Saves Christmas, a BBC1 special in which Berry helps a group of amateur cooks make a Christmas feast for their families, was shown on Christmas Day 2020.
28.
In 2021, Mary Berry was a celebrity judge on the BBC series Celebrity Best Home Cook alongside Angela Hartnett and Chris Bavin; while Claudia Winkleman was the show's presenter.
29.
In 2022, Mary Berry was named as one of the judges for the Platinum Pudding, a competition to create a British pudding to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
30.
In May 2022, Mary Berry was a judge on the BBC One programme The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking, where she helped chose a brand new pudding to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
31.
In June 2022, the BBC commissioned the BBC Two series Mary Berry Cook And Share; which premiered on 7 September 2022.
32.
Mary Berry says that since working together, she has learned from him.
33.
Mary Berry announced she was leaving Bake Off on the same day that fellow judge Paul Hollywood announced he would be staying with the show.
34.
Mary Berry worked for Harvey's of Bristol and sold antique books and is retired.
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Mary Berry previously lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire for more than 40 years, in 2018, Berry and her husband decided to downsize and moved to Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
36.
In March 2013, Mary Berry was placed second in a list of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by The Guardian.
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Mary Berry is a member of the Church of England and has worshipped at Holy Trinity Church in Penn since 1989.
38.
Mary Berry has written more than seventy cookery books since her first book was published in 1970, and has sold over five million cookery books.
39.
Mary Berry's best-selling Baking Bible was rated one of the ten best baking books by The Independent.
40.
In June 2009, Mary Berry was awarded the Guild of Food Writers Lifetime Achievement Award.
41.
Mary Berry was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to culinary arts.
42.
On 7 June 2014, Mary Berry was awarded the Freedom of the City of Bath; and, having already received the Freedom of the City of London, on 19 November 2014, she was made a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Bakers.
43.
Mary Berry was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards "Outstanding Achievement" prize in December 2014.
44.
On 25 January 2017, Mary Berry won the award for Best TV Judge at the National Television Awards for Great British Bake Off.
45.
Mary Berry was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting, the culinary arts and charity.
46.
Mary Berry received the honour on 20 October 2021 at Windsor Castle.