Gwen Troake’s Banquet (1976) | The Big Time
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Esther Rantzen introduces a talented amateur to the big time. In 1976 Gwen Troake, a Devon housewife, takes charge of the catering for a Foyle’s literary luncheon in honour of Edward Heath, at the Dorchester. She gets advice and judgement from experts and notables including, notoriously, Fanny Craddock
Fanny Craddock blew it with her attitude to Gwen. It finished Fanny's career.
This is the first time I’ve seen the full program and it throws a different light. Although Fanny was critical and patronising, which everyone knew was part of her theatrical act, she wasn’t the only one who criticised Gwen Troakes menu. I suspect that the BBC were waiting for an excuse to sack her.
(30:50) The editor of the Good Food Guide, clearly doesn’t have a wife, mirrors, a barber or honest friends.
Why is she labelled “a farmers wife” when she clearly did farming herself? She’s also a farmer.
The sexist 70s. 😂
@@annoldham3018 They didn’t know they were sexist, you’ve got to understand, the word wasn’t even invented. There were farmers, and there were farmers’ wives, who may have helped with the heavy work, but they were still the ‘farmer’s wife’. That’s just the way it was, nobody threw their hands up in horror.
@arriesone1 the word 'sexist' most definitely existed in the 70s🙄
That would be like asking the late, great Hannah Hauxwell, "Do you think you should get a man in to do all the work you do?"
Only thing is, I don't think they would've like her response! 🤭🤣👍
“Of course it’s delicious but, sweetie, it’s too sickly after the duck,”
The blessed reporter wouldn't have a teaspoon on that blessed pudding. 😅 as if she would have blown up after one little teaspoon of it.😅😅😅😅😅
I tried Gwen’s original recipe. It wasn’t delicious, it’s was disgusting. Rum flavored diabetes.
I bet Fanny's head would explode seeing our American thanksgiving dinner, with Raost Turkey and stuffing, and then pecan pie for dessert.
Fanny Craddock signs off as a TV presenter for good.
I think the gist of the advice given by Fanny Craddock was probably right. It was the way she gave it that did for her. Had this been 20 years eatlier in her career I think she would have delivered her advice differently. Also the BBC I think were gunning for her and this gave them the ammunition.
Gosh, brings back memories. Mum was incensed with the way Fanny spoke to Gwen. Excellent piece of telly history.
Fanny Craddock lost her career over this.
American here, who has only recently discovered Fanny Cradock and yesterday watched Fear of Fanny, which greatly exaggerated her "rudeness" to Gwen and even showed poor Gwen reduced to tears.
Apart from the face-pulling, which *was* rude, it seemed to me that Fanny was simply giving her opinion that three very rich dishes with nothing to refresh the palate was not wise. What was she supposed to do, coo over the menu and hug the brave little housewife?
It seems to me that Gwen was being thin-skinned and defensive, with her rejoinders of "but all my friends love it!" She should have been willing to learn from a little constructive criticism.
I'm convinced that the BBC execs were just tired of dealing with Fanny, her ratings were likely down, so they considered this a great excuse to fire her. Because especially compared to the Gordon Ramsays of today, she's actually quite restrained.
Those desserts sucked
I have been searching for this for years. Thank you for posting. Have only ever seen a snippet of the Fanny Craddock part.
The thing I like about this video is that Gwen is so involved, so interested, so passionate. She clearly had a ball throughout. She was never timid or overwhelmed. RIP Gwen Troake.
When did she die?
@@Mark-rd1itabout halfway through the interview
@@jakecavendish3470 🤣👌
Absolutely spot on🙏👍I admire Gwen Troake's resilience in not becoming withdrawn or put off by Fanny's blunt, honest and goodwilled advice and I am a all-time Fanny Cradock fan!!😀
Now we know what heath and mountbatten got up to...
The food was more than good enough for them!
Nice to see the entire episode that single handedly took down the career of Fanny Cradock. She never presented a cookery show on TV ever again after this. She was quite rude to Gwen with the face pulling and pretending to be on the verge of retching. Also she knew damn well what a bramble sauce was and I think a blackberry sauce would be a lovely pairing with duck, even though I'm not a fan of duck. Still I think Fanny's reaction was tame compared to people on reality series today. Look at Gordon Ramsay. But the 1970s were a different time and the public felt that Fanny's behaviour was inexcusable. Gwen probably should've served her coffee pudding, it looked delicious! Fanny did have a point, seafood cocktail, duck, and a creamy dessert were a bit rich for the palette...
I totally agree
It's interesting that Fanny became a hated figure and it ended her career... because the food critic who is interviewed in a voice over also criticized the duck and didn't like it. More importantly, it was the pastry chef at the Dorchester who came up with the final dessert and it was different from what Fanny suggested. He was the one who failed with the spun sugar 'cloud', not Gwen Troake and not Fanny Cradock. If this happened now, she'd be an even bigger TV star!
@@JKMMOC oh for sure they would probably make a whole series out of Fanny criticizing other people's food simply for entertainment purposes.
I agree with Fanny’s comments on the arrangements of the meal she was serving, far to rich, im a catering student and I wouldn’t serve that much richness to anyone!
@b.p4958 I've worked as a professional caterer,and I don't see anything wrong with Gwen's basic menu as long as the portions served are reasonable,and one point I did agree with Fanny was to cut some of the heavy with salad,cheese,and fruit.
As a child, I simply LOVED Dr Magnus Pike....Eccentric to the enth degree, yet supremely intelligent and years ahead of his time
I love the fact he keeps calling her Cornish 😂
@@jakecavendish3470 🤣🤣
perhaps Fanny’s advice might have been taken, had she not delivered it in such an awful, condescending, face-pulling manner
Robert Morley’s compliments to Gwen and his quips about Yachtsmen is brilliant!
So sad that this appearance ended Fanny's TV career. She was the only one honest and naive enough to tell the cook the truth about her menu
She was rude and insensitive and was a bit of a cu*t.
Yes her menu was far too rich
Two n9nces together.....hearh and Mountbatten
Seafood cocktail? And then straight into the duck? 😂
given what we now know about the tv manipulators/abusers, you have to wonder how much fanny craddock was led/encouraged by Rancid and co to be outrageous. craddock was an easy target as she was eccentric and as a lot of people have stated, troake produced some vile food.
Cradock!
I agree, and I'm totally stealing Rancid to refer to that vile woman. Honestly, a direct telephone line to vulnerable children, talk about hiding in plain sight.
Well said!@@nonnobis2232
Fanny offered years of advice to a Novice. She was heavily criticised for offering her well meaning experience in possibly a heavy handed way. The chef agreed with her small boats and they were apparently cooked. She was a flamboyant woman but did know her subject and the B.B.C made her out to be a harridan: I rather suspect that if Gwen Troake was a competitor on today's Masterchef that she woudln't have got past the 1st round and viewers would be gagging every week to see Fanny perform as an adjudicator !!
Nothing well meaning about that. Pure exhibitionism.
Yes it was pure exhibitionism : But no more than we see from all the other so called culinary experts on T.V several times a day.
Whatever you think of Fanny Craddock she knew ''her stuff'' and her sugar boats were used so the senior chefs at the time ,so they must have been in agreement with her.@@harrynewiss4630
I finally located Gwen Troake’s coffee pudding recipe and tried it out. Absolutely vile. Instant vanilla pudding mix, whipped topping, instant coffee, and rum soaked ladyfinger biscuits. Fanny was actually being tactful.
@@marcN19 several years before tiramisu became a thing!
Many people, including her husband, told Gwen that it was too sweet and heavy. She would not be told. Sad that the public piled on Fanny Craddock for giving sound advice, perhaps not as diplomatically but factually correct. 😊
Vanilla, coffee and rhum?! It's like the battle of the flavours.There's a lot to be said about simplicity.
@@andreiiliepopescu6393it’s rum. Not “rhum”. Where did you get the H from? And no, vanilla, coffee and rum all go together. Rum goes in coffee and vanilla is a big flavour in iced coffees and other drinks, it’s a plain flavour, you make zero sense
That’s not her recipe. Don’t know where you got that but the original recipe has no pudding or cool whip.
Given that Fanny's recipes are some of the most unpleasant and unsavoury mush you'll have the misfortune to come across, she could have been a little more circumspect with her "advice".
The 70s really were a different time because people eat rich food after rich food these days especially at christmas
Well I was hoping to hear the head chef shouting "Where's the SAUCE?!, WHERE'S THE BRAMBLE SAUUUUUUCE!! 🤭🤣
This was the moment Fanny's TV career went over a cliff and never recovered. And it was entirely her own fault...
They did love a good themed menu in the 70s. "Given the book is about boats we could do a _seafood_ cocktail?!" "Mr. Heath is heavily allergic to seafood." "But he loves boats!"
Not as much as he loved himself.
@@wuffothewonderdog they should have made a Heath themed banquet, done him lifesize in jelly
This has been sent from the algorithm after watching the BBC drama Fear Of Fanny fro 2006. Its a dramatisation but knew she was a haradon and way after her time, very patronising and rude.
Gwen seemed like a sweet lady and good on her for not getting flustered in an intimidating situation.
The fanny Cradock clip isn’t as bad as I remember but she was definitely being patronising and snooty.
I’m surprised it ended her career though, it’s not like she had a warm and friendly image to begin with!
I like sorbet, and yes it is a refresher between courses.
Heath acts like a member of the royal family rather than a public servant.
He seemed friendly enough to me.
@@CanadianMonarchistlook him up. Notorious satanist and paedophile.
Fanny Throws Herself Under The Bus....
This was the excuse TV bosses needed to get rid of Fanny Cradock. Looking at it today it is absolutely tame.
And she was right. The bill of fare *was* too rich, with no contrasts.
Apart from the theatrics that got so many pearl clutchers riled up, she was friendly to Gwen Toake e.g asking her not to call her Mrs Cradock, preferring first name terms.
She was absolutely condescending.
@@RichieRich1234RICHBut that’s literally her default setting.
sounds like Fanny got as good as she gave, then.
Yeah they were desperate to get rid of her by that point and she gave them all the ammunition they needed
She said one nice thing, then roasted her. If you can't see what she did wrong then clearly you have a lot of Fanny in you.
She's actually right. As a professional chef you don't cook and serve up only what you like. She was making this point.
Celebrity chef death match....Fanny vs. Julia Child.
Julia like Fanny… She even mentioned her in a program.
Fanny reminds me of John Galliano...... the manufactured posh accent and the pretentious use of French.
Fanny was right in trying to explain to someone who ‘liked her coffee pudding’ right after a heavy duck dish, and a seafood starter with jam, that this was heavy on the stomach and taste palate. The woman was rude throughout, saying she didnt like it and preferred her thick pudding, and then was unable to shut up about ‘its a pity we cant stuff Fanny’s dessert full of my rum and pears’. She then showed herself to be nasty when she HAD to mention at the end to the guest of honour that she had a coffee pudding that was better than Fanny’s. That is why she never made it like Fanny did, she was a nasty woman. Nowadays, Gordon Ramsay would have said ‘well f-off then with your thick coffee pudding!’ Fanny was polite in comparison 😂
sounds like Fanny got a taste of her own medicine
@@sarahlouise7163 Not at all. When Fanny was young and clueless, she listened to professionals so she could get better and become fantastic. The housewife just thought she knew it all and was rude.
Tbf it was Britain in the 70s, whatever food anyone made was going to be vile
Scalop prawn in cream cheese sauce 🤮
Robert Morley? Now he was a gentleman, unlike that gargoyle Ms Craddock. Her dessert was very like Tiramisu.
What a shame Fanny got her Craddock's in a twist and influencing the outcome, i thought she would 🙄
Well done Gwen, an amazing young lady 💐👍💖👏
Mrs Troake just didn't want to give up on her coffee dessert . It was actually quite clever the way she asked Edward Heath whether he would have liked it at the end and managed to let him know who had said it was too rich to be served.😂
There is something sad about all this though. Fanny had always supported the ladies struggling on a reduced budget on her show. She would use alternate cheaper ingredients to help them and when she spoke directly to thousands of housewives through that camera lens she tried to make them feel visible, cared about.
She knew poverty as a young person , selling cleaning products from door to door as her father had ruined the family finances by gambling. She was not an angel ( bigamous marriages? Difficult relationships with her children. )
Her physical transformation over the years with the caked on makeup surely underlined mental struggles and perhaps it was this difficult , unpredictable side of her character that took over in that interview.
What she said to Mrs Troake was basically right , but the way that she said it , the attitude helped to finish her off . I suspect the BBC , who could have helped her weather the press and public storm or even just edited the programme differently , might have been wanting to replace her with a more up to date show format.
I think that old slapper Fanny was jealous
I think she was ok. A bit outspoken but I like that.
Of what?
Gwen Troke is aged 92 in 2023, living in a Nursing/Care home in the UK 🇬🇧
@@gaggymott9159 Thats amazing good on her, you can tell she's a lovely lady that loves feeding folk
@@gaggymott9159 that is basically hell.
Fascinating to see a young Anton Mossiman!
Also very interesting to see how food has changed over the years. This was before the British food revolution pioneered by the likes of the Roux Brothers, Anton Mossiman and their like.
Mosimann!
And had the pleasure and the luck of dinner at Mosimann a number of years ago! Brilliant
I love that the kitchen staff treated her with kindness and respect, as did Ted Heath.
I love that she mentioned the coffee pudding to Mr Heath and he seemed to want it now and then you get the snarky comment from the voice over lady. They could have easily adapted her recipe, use the same boat shape but add the coffee pudding or maybe turn it into a rum & coffee ice-cream instead of sorbet. Now, those chefs that work with spun sugar should have known by the temperature of the kitchen what was going to happen and i'm including fanny in that, she was too busy pretending to be french than being practical. I also think the Duck could have done well with being pan fried instead of being re-heated to give it some crispiness.
Fanny Craddock professional BS. Never worked in tv after this lol.
Thanks for sharing this. Do you have any more Big Time episodes?
I had a look and I could not see any. Sorry. Will keep my eyes peeled!
Fanny was right but Rantzen edited this and brought her down, just like she did with Bernard Braden to create That's Life. And then went on to create Childline which protected her husband and loads of BBC stars for decades. Strip her of her Dameship, say I.
Exactly, Rantzen is typical of the ruthless, underhand TV diva who was operating long before anyone heard of Ellen DeGeneres.
If shes a patron of a big school ( and is of many ) something going to go very wrong. But the local establishment will use all its might to prevent whistleblowing.
fabulous to see this again. I remember tj like yesterday -its like a slice of your childhood given back to me! Fanny was a nasty old cow to Gwen. Esther looks so young!
Fanny was right. The 3 course menu was sickly. I wouldnt want to eat that combination of courses. Its way too rich with no acidity.
Ha ha, her ‘Cornish food’, says Magnus, (when she’s from Devon), then ‘ee ba gum!’ to describe the Cornish folk, when that’s a northern saying! He was so entertaining and eccentric! And Gwen’s suggestion of ‘Teddy Pear’ for her dessert - brilliant!!
Putting their bare hands over the ducks no gloves, no hand washing, how things have changed since the 70's.
Things certainly have changed since the 70's. For the worse. We did not have comedians making jokes about the Holocaust and child abuse. No smug gits moaning about an era they never experienced.
They did wash their hands and use gloves. I worked in restaurants at that time so I know what went on.
@@ysthafellgynghori8423 that's as maybe 🤔🤔 but if you watch you will see Gwen and one of the chef's put their bare hands all over the 🦆🦆🦆, the chef even asked her what she was doing to which she replied I like to feel for tail's. Btw wyt ti'n dallt cymraeg? Jest sylwi guda enw you tube fel ystafell gynghori mae'n eirtha amlwg fod gymro wyt ti? Jest yn goffyn lly Allan o ddiddordeb, dim offence na dim byd....
@@ysthafellgynghori8423No but there were plenty of nonces free to abuse without fear of being caught, especially at the BBC.
@@lisab4207 to bloody true unfortunately!
This was the end of Fanny on tv.
Delia Smith essentially took over 😊
tbh though a seafood cocktail and coffee pudding would be too much 😬
Science! Making chemical “food” since the 70s. Yippee!
The Doctor is mad😮
He keeps calling her Cornish 😂
He put the nut into nutritionist
She was very funny and entertaining.
Yes. I find her comical. She was kind sometimes with her terms of endearments but strict as well.
I must say I love the nutritionist.
Good prog
Traditional British cooking is very rich & stodgy compared to the French etc. & was even worse back when this was made
Does anyone know what happened to Gwen Troake?
She died the following year from what I’ve read.
@@markr002 Too much rich food, I presume. (Ask Dr Fanny!)
She became Gregg Wallace
According to Wikipedia, she published a successful cookbook ("A Country Cookbook") the year after the broadcast, but I couldn't find any other info on her!
She drowned in a blancmange c.1978
Omg feel sick all those ducks discusting 🤮
11:13- Thatcher might not have objected.
waitaminute. that’s her DAD? 🤣 not her husband??
Yeah she was 16 but on 280 Rothman's a day
Coffee breath heath
g o l d m i n e ! t.y!
Horrible times i worked in London 70tys not good
Gwens food looks great. ❤
And Fanny! Whom I love! They tried for years to get rid of her ! She did not have the softness , needed to criticize. Sadly , I love her ! But again the fat man , is absolutely gross!
I absolutely adore and always will love Fanny Cradock🧁🦃👏 but I really felt for Gwen Troake in how she didn't lose the plot or disrespect her most fiercest critics. After seeing this video several times I do agree with the gist of fanny's advice but Gwen certainly didn't do badly from it and carved out a successful though small career as a modern style chef.🙏👏