How Celebrity Best Home Cook has gone the distance - literally - to keep Mary Berry safe in Covid era

As Celebrity Best Home Cook hits our screens, judge Dame Mary Berry and host Claudia Winkleman tell Georgia Humphreys about their innovative Covid filming arrangements.
Mary Berry, uses vintage opera glasses to cast her eye on the detail of the celebrities’ ingredients, techniques and culinary skills from the mezzanine, a vantage point shared with judges Angela Hartnett and Chris Bavin. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films.Mary Berry, uses vintage opera glasses to cast her eye on the detail of the celebrities’ ingredients, techniques and culinary skills from the mezzanine, a vantage point shared with judges Angela Hartnett and Chris Bavin. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films.
Mary Berry, uses vintage opera glasses to cast her eye on the detail of the celebrities’ ingredients, techniques and culinary skills from the mezzanine, a vantage point shared with judges Angela Hartnett and Chris Bavin. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films.

Dame Mary Berry is one of the nation’s most-loved cookery writers and TV personalities. She also turns 86 in March, putting her in one of the categories deemed most vulnerable to coronavirus.

And so, on the set of her latest TV series, BBC One’s Celebrity Best Home Cook, as well as the usual social distancing guidelines and regular testing, extra precautions were taken to keep Dame Mary safe.

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Firstly, a 15ft-high special viewing platform was built as a mezzanine floor for her and the other judges, so she could look down on everyone.

Pictured: (L-R) Shobna Gulati, Desiree Burch, Gareth Thomas, Rachel Johnson, Ed Byrne, Tom Read Wilson, Karim Zeroual, Ed Balls, Ferne McCann, Ruth Madeley. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films/Nicky Johnston.Pictured: (L-R) Shobna Gulati, Desiree Burch, Gareth Thomas, Rachel Johnson, Ed Byrne, Tom Read Wilson, Karim Zeroual, Ed Balls, Ferne McCann, Ruth Madeley. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films/Nicky Johnston.
Pictured: (L-R) Shobna Gulati, Desiree Burch, Gareth Thomas, Rachel Johnson, Ed Byrne, Tom Read Wilson, Karim Zeroual, Ed Balls, Ferne McCann, Ruth Madeley. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films/Nicky Johnston.

“It was a bit royal!” she says, when I suggest she must have felt like the Queen.

She was also given special opera glasses to make sure she could see everything the cooks were doing down below as they prepared their various dishes, hoping to impress Dame Mary and her fellow judges Angela Hartnett and Chris Bavin.

“I could see exactly what was going on,” Dame Mary says.

“Then suddenly, I would want to talk to people, so I could blow a whistle or shout, and they’d immediately stand to attention and tell me what they were up to,” recalls the former Great British Bake Off presenter, who recently told the Radio Times that she and her husband Paul, 88, have now had the Covid-19 vaccine.

Claudia Winkleman, Mary Berry, Chris Bavin, Angela Hartnett. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films/Nicky Johnston.Claudia Winkleman, Mary Berry, Chris Bavin, Angela Hartnett. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films/Nicky Johnston.
Claudia Winkleman, Mary Berry, Chris Bavin, Angela Hartnett. Picture: PA Photo/BBC/Keo Films/Nicky Johnston.

“It was different, but it certainly worked.”

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Meanwhile, host Claudia Winkleman says her dressing room was “taken over by the Covid medical staff, who were absolutely amazing”.

“So, I literally got changed in the corridor,” quips the London-born star, 49. She adds with a chuckle: “That was fine – Mary’s seen worse.”

Winkleman’s self-deprecating humour puts you at ease and you can tell she’d be a reassuring presence for the Celebrity Best Home Cook contestants, who include former Yorkshire MP Ed Balls.

But if something went wrong with any of their recipes, she “couldn’t get in there and give them a squeeze, or help them stir something”, as she did on 
the previous two series of Best Home Cook.

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“I can’t cook but I would do whatever I could to help them – but this time I couldn’t get away with anything. A) I wasn’t allowed to go close to them and B) Mary, Angela and Chris didn’t miss a thing because they were up there [on the mezzanine].”

There were lots of scenes where she and the judges would talk like they normally would, she recalls, but they had to be three metres apart, “so it looked like we were creating sort of ’80s album covers”. So, we named ourselves Mary and the Social Distancers because we were so far away from each other,” continues the Strictly Come Dancing host.

“But there was still the same camaraderie, the same laughs, the same sparks. It was brilliant.”

She adds lovingly: “I was worried because I’m so used to standing right next to Mary; I mean, we held hands through most of series 1 and series 2! But it really worked!”

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Ten stars from the worlds of sport, TV, and comedy will be cooking their hearts out in Celebrity Best Home Cook in a bid to be crowned winner at the end of the eight-part series.

Each episode consists of three rounds – The Ultimate, set by Dame Mary; The Rustle Up, set by Bavin; and The Eliminator, set by Hartnett.

And amiable, chatty Dame Mary admits she was nervous about it being celebrities in the kitchen this time.

“I thought, ‘It’s not going to be the same, they won’t take it seriously, and they won’t have skills’. And I was so surprised!

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“It was far, far better than I had thought – in fact, I loved it.”

What does she think is the most common mistake people make with their home cooking?

“Well, I think definitely not sitting down and doing a bit of planning. I mean, I’m making a fish pie today, and I shall make two.

“One I will put in the freezer for perhaps early next week, and one we’ll have tonight.”

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This leads on to a discussion about the pair’s favourite comfort food, something we can all agree we need as the Covid-19 lockdown continues.

“I like anything with mashed potato on the top,” enthuses Winkleman.

“Like when Mary said fish pie… I mean, if we weren’t in lockdown, I’d get in the car over to Mary’s right now and say, ‘Hello Paul, just me! Budge up’.

“I’m going to try, for the first time ever in my life, to make a chickpea curry today.

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“I’ve discussed it for about seven days – the kids can’t bear me. But I like one-pot cooking.”

The public loves watching TV shows about cooking, and Berry suggests one reason is the fact that “people can relate to it”.

“I mean, gone are the days when it was just mum who’s doing the cooking; everybody’s taking part.

“All through lockdown children have been baking like mad, cooking perhaps one course. The chaps are cooking as well.

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“I think it’s something that everybody has a go at and really finds that it’s very rewarding, particularly for children who aren’t so clever, perhaps haven’t done well at school and are finding all this home schooling really difficult.”

On the topic of home schooling, mother-of-three Winkleman confides she’s “not very good at it”.

“The main two words that I use are ‘Ask Dad’ because there are whole sections of maths I have absolutely no idea about.

“But I’m lucky, two of mine are quite big.

“I think it’s much harder if you have really little ones, or six-year-olds or seven-year-olds but my youngest is nine and the schools are being 
brilliant.

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“I mean we’ve always known that teachers are extraordinary but this has shown us just how amazing they are.”

Next month sees Winkleman start a new job – she’s replacing Graham Norton as the host of the Saturday morning show on BBC Radio Two.

Asked how her nerves are, she exclaims: “High! I’m trying not to think about it yet. I’m just having a little bit of a post-Strictly, home schooling situation.

“But if I start thinking about it, yes, I start to feel a bit dizzy.”

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She continues candidly: “I mean, I thought it was a joke. The boss of Radio 2 phoned me and asked me and I went, ‘That’s so funny’ and put the phone down.

“And then she called back, and I went ‘Right, OK. I see’.

Winkleman adds: “It’s a huge honour, and I hope I don’t mess it up!”

Balls recalls meal for PM

Ed Balls says Gordon Brown is the most famous person he has cooked for.

The former Shadow Chancellor and Morley and Outwood MP said: “I cooked lasagne for Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister. For a man who only ever ate steak and chips, lamb bhuna or spaghetti bolognaise, this was a bit of a departure but he really liked it.”

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He said that if the judges were coming to his house for dinner, he would cook them roast beef and Yorkshire puddings followed by an apple and blackberry crumble.

“I wouldn’t have the courage to make pastry for Mary because the last time I was on a cooking show with Mary for Sport Relief, she accused me of having a soggy bottom. So a crumble feels much safer.”

Celebrity Best Home Cook will air every Tuesday and Wednesday on BBC One for eight episodes from today, January 26, and will also be online via the BBC iPlayer.

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