The Best of the Cooking Channel: Two Fat Ladies

The Cooking Channel, Food Network's little sister, is reviving one of the most successful imports to America in many years. The Two Fat Ladies was first introduced to the airways in 1996 on BBC2 and then to American audiences in 1997. Much to the pleasure of the shows fans, the program is being shown in its entirety on the new cable channel.

From October 1996 to September 1999, Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson spooned, swirled and slathered their way into the hearts of cooking show viewers. The pair collectively known as the Two Fat Ladies, which they most assuredly were, brought an interesting twist to meal preparation. In an age of low-fat, low-carb, low-sugar cooking, Dickson Wright and Paterson made no effort to follow the crowd and omit the extra pat of butter or cup of whipping cream from their recipes.

The 24 episodes of the popular program were filmed on location in sites as diverse as the East Fortune Airfield in Scotland and Westminster Cathedral in London. The ladies created dishes to reflect the location, often harkening back to earlier times. For the episode filmed at Grindley Brook, Shropshire, entitled "Lock Keepers" Clarissa prepared Burnett's Woodcock. The recipe calls for four woodcock, properly hung, and an equal number of pigeon livers, although she does note that barring pigeon livers it is safe to substitute pheasant or even chicken livers in a pinch. Not for everyone certainly but for those who are interested in preparing the dish, woodcock can occasionally be ordered from exotic meat shops online. Of course, one can also follow Ms. Dickson Wright's lead and simply shoot your own.

Jennifer Paterson's approach to food preparation was much the same. Frequently espousing the merits of lusciousness in food, Ms. Paterson was especially fond of rich ingredients like butter and cream. For her wonderfully delectable Stuffed Tomatoes, the instructions call for ½ pound of ground veal or pork to be first fried in butter before loading into the cored tomatoes. There is no doubt that the butter adds an extra level of flavor to the luncheon plate, but choices such as these resulted in a backlash of criticism. Opponents of the show accused The Two Fat Ladies of undermining the UK diet. Similar statements have been made about Food Network star Paula Deen who is also known for her love of butter.

In addition to their television series, Dickson Wright and Paterson published four cookbooks during their short run: Cooking With The Two Fat Ladies, The Two Fat Ladies Full Throttle, The Two Fat Ladies Ride Again, and Obsession.

Sources: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/two-fat-ladies/index.html; http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9802/16/two.fat.ladies/; http://articles.cnn.com/2000-04-03/health/fat.ladies_1_cooking-show-cookbook-dickson-wright?_s=PM:FOOD