YP Letters: Bettys' greed over historic Fat Rascal recipe

Freshly baked 'Whitby Fatties' which were known as Fat Rascals until Betty's claimed they owned the trademark. Picture: Ceri Oakes.

From: Susan Pownall, Ashover Road, Central Grange, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

AS a native of North Yorkshire, having been brought up in a small village outside Whitby, I was absolutely furious to see the Northern news reporting recently on Bettys’s arrogant stance on Fat Rascals. As is being widely commented on the internet, this scone is a traditional Yorkshire recipe going back centuries and  which also emanated from Whitby.

I have been baking Fat Rascals since my teens and have at least three traditional recipe books all carrying fully titled Fat Rascal recipes, including one from  1962 – the Encyclopaedia of European Cookery, which carries the Fat Rascals recipe in their British regional section.

Are Bettys going to ban all reference to this product so named in cookery books as well, as a breach of copyright? An interesting thought. Get a life, Bettys!

In the meantime, I was sorry to hear that the Whitby coffee shop has had to bow to Bettys’s demands.

However, in my book, the show is not over until the Fat Rascal sings!