Kitchens are a major selling point for any house these days and while the one at Close House in Stillington may not be Smallbone, it comes with the most impressive pedigree.

It belongs to Yorkshire cookery queen Annie Stirk, former TV chef, now broadcaster, food stylist, writer and publicist, and it's been the powerhouse of her epicurean empire for the past 20 years.
Large and light-filled, the kitchen has been the scene for everything from filming to frantic preparation of food for TV cookery slots to testing recipes and cooking family meals.

"I love it. It's light and airy and it's very practical. We bought it from Magnet," says Annie.

She and her husband Ken, who is technical director of a pet food company, remodelled the kitchen as part of a gradual makeover of their village house near Easingwold.

"When we first moved to the area 25 years ago, we lived in a cottage nearby that we'd bought in a rush. We outgrew it after a few years, but it never felt right.

"I'm a great believer in the feel of a house. We loved this as soon as we walked in. It's like a Tardis and it's quite quirky," says Annie. The Victorian house has a large entrance hall, cloakroom with shower, drawing room, dining room, garden room, kitchen, laundry and preparation area, while upstairs there are four bedrooms and a family bathroom.

Outside there is a separate holiday cottage, a walled garden, double garage and enormous parking area.
Annie and Ken did it up slowly over the years putting back the character, including a new staircase and period style fireplace.

They created the formal dining room – once the pie-making hub for what used to be a butcher's next door.
They replaced the draughty lean-to with a proper garden room and bought pine furniture from Pond Cottage Pine, just down the road in the village. They also put it to work by turning the attached outbuildings into two rooms for B&B, later combining them to create a holiday cottage.

The house has the sort of warm and friendly atmosphere that emanates from a happy family and it has brought luck for former home economics lecturer Annie. Shortly after buying it, she was catapulted from teaching into the TV spotlight.

She says: "I was working for Askham Bryan College, organising part-time courses for them and we did an open day at the satellite college in Easingwold. Chris Clay from Radio York came and asked if I fancied contributing to a food shopping slot they were starting. We called it Nosebag News and that's how

it all began.
"It all happened by chance, like the day I went into the Post Office and the post mistress, who was in the WI, said that they'd been asked to test cook-in sauces for a TV programme. She asked if I'd help."

When Annie told the programme producer that she was teaching men to cook at another of her classes, they filmed that too.

"That was 18 years ago and they were retired business and professional men who had never cooked because their wives had always done it for them. One of them was a headteacher whose wife had never allowed him in the kitchen.

"I came up with the idea thinking I wouldn't get a lot of interest, but I ended up with 15 men, which was great fun. I remember them chopping everything very precisely."

She soon found herself doing taste tests on the Food and Drink programme and finally gave up teaching to take a full time job with This Morning where she was the power behind the throne of the cooking slot.

"I'd always taken the safe option before, and giving up teaching for TV was so scary, but I'm so glad I did it.
"The home economics lecturing helped because you have to be very organised when you're teaching 20-odd kids how to cook. Your timing has to be on the ball.

"For TV I wanted to make the food sing and make the set look interesting so I'd use props and colourful bowls instead of Pyrex ones. I got a buzz out of making the food look good."

While Susan Brooks, Brian Turner and Sophie Grigson were up front, she thought up the topics, wrote the recipes, chopped the ingredients, styled the set and choreographed everything.

"It was very full-on. I'd get up at 4.15am and leave the house at 5am to get to Liverpool for ten to seven. I used to spend the night before prepping everything and Ken would come in and help chopping onions and de-seeding peppers and putting everything in labelled boxes. "I'd get back from Liverpool, shop for the next day's slot and get home in time to get the children's tea ready," says Annie, who has a son Ed, and daughter Sarah.

"I only stopped when they moved the show to London. I loved all the five years I was there. I'd stand at the back and watch all the celebrities come on like Cilla and Joan Collins."

She is the oldest of seven children and was brought up in Castleford, where her grandfather had a bakery and her mother eked out a small housekeeping budget with home cooking. She trained at Leeds Polytechnic and became a lecturer in home economics. She and Ken made their home in Stillington soon after marrying and have been there ever since, even though it has meant some long commutes to work.

"I worked on a programme called Open House with Gloria Hunniford, who was absolutely wonderful and so much fun. We spent a lot of time giggling. But I'd have to get the train to London and I had to take my own pots and pans and props, so I'd be staggering about with armfuls of stuff," says Annie, a youthful and very televisual 58 year-old.

She has worked with everyone from Robert Carrier to Ken Hom and Gary Rhodes and has styled, produced and presented numerous programmes with very little trickery – except the time she made lard and icing sugar ice creams as props that wouldn't melt. She witnessed the rise of today's celebrity chefs, and although her old favourite is Delia, she likes Jamie Oliver and loves Gordon Ramsay. "I'm a big fan and I love his food. I ate at his restaurant once and it was perfection. His technical ability shone through."

Although she enjoys Nigella's writing, she's not keen on the TV show. "There's too much focus on her luscious lips and not enough on the food. I think it's one for the boys," says Annie, a self-confessed foodie who is passionate about fresh, local and seasonal produce.

She confesses to an addiction to cookery books, which dominate bookcases all over the house. She loves to cook – preferring simple dishes such as salads, casseroles and risotto, but Ken likes to cook the evening meal with help and hints from her. "I've sometimes had enough after a day working with food, so it's nice to have a break and be cooked for."

Annie's work continues to be eclectic. She has a regular slot in Yorkshire Life, still does some radio and runs Sugar and Spice, a food PR and marketing company, which works with local producers and is based at her home although set to move with her shortly. She is selling-up now that her children have left the family home and gone on to have broadcast careers of their own. Ed is breakfast show presenter on Heart FM and Sarah is a golf presenter for Setanta. "Ken is retiring in the next couple of years and we want a project, something with more potential for holiday lets," says Annie.

"It's taken a very long time to take the final plunge and put this house on the market. It's been such a lovely family home and such a happy house, but it's time to move on."

Close House, Stillington, is for sale through Blenkin and Co with a guide price of £550,000 Tel: 01904 671672 www.blenkinandco.com.

Annie's Food Favourites

Chefs: "Andrew Pern at The Star at Harome; Stephanie Moon at Clock Tower Restaurant at Rudding Park and Rob Green at Greens in Whitby for his passion for promoting sustainable fish and for helping put Whitby on the food map.

Food: "A good risotto."

Places to Eat: "Greens of Whitby; the Durham Ox in Crayke; Rose and Crown at Sutton on the Forest and Dawnay Arms at Newton-on-Ouse."

Food Shops: "I love shopping in farm shops because they are full of local produce and you can get seasonal, freshly dug ingredients. I like Farmers Cart at Strensall, near York; Cedar Barn, near Pickering, because they do fantastic Aberdeen Angus beef pies. There are three fabulous delis in Easingwold. They're Deli No. 1 on Tylers Walk, Fine Foods of Yorkshire on Long Street and Dooleys on Chapel Street."

Food writers: "I really like Sophie Grigson, Nigella Lawson and Nigel Slater."

TV chef: "Gordon Ramsay. I think he's doing us all a favour showing failing restaurants how to raise their game. Who wants to eat in places with dirty kitchens and poor food?"