Castle cook, celebrity chef

"I love teaching everything," says cooking-show hostess Rosemary
 Shrager. "But I love seeing people starting from scratch with the basics."

Shrager says passion makes her successful: "I get excited to get to work
 every day."

Her infectious enthusiasm and passion for food have made her an important influence for women from Britain to Australia and America. Pauline D. Loh catches up with celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager.

Halfway across the world from home, Rosemary Shrager is browsing the aisles of South Australia's Adelaide Central Market. An excited woman hovers behind her, finally plucking up enough courage to squeal: "You changed my life!"

Back in the United Kingdom, Shrager's face is a familiar one on television, where she hosts cooking reality shows, culinary adventure series and just plain cooking programs. Her lengthy list of television titles rivals the prolific Jamie Oliver's and is definitely more impressive than the elegantly coiffed, cashmere twin-set clad Nigella Lawson.

Women cozy up to Shrager, whose buxom figure and rosy cheeks almost caricature the motherly cooks so loved in the classic Enid Blyton children's books. Women trust her cooking and her teaching, and many of their lives were changed by her books and TV programs - which may start with the basics and gradually lead the novice right up to a complete haute cuisine meal.

Her professional pedigree includes a period working for Pierre Koffman - at the internationally famous Tante Claire restaurant in London - and working with Jean-Christophe Novelli, British television's favorite French chef.

Shrager calls herself a "castle cook", a title stemming from a spell as head chef of Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in Scotland from 1998 till 2002, where she started her cooking school, which in turn spawned her first cookbook and her first television series.

Countless small-screen appearances and hugely successful ratings later, her cooking school has been moved to Yorkshire, to Swinton Park, an aristocratic heritage property.

In a one-on-one interview with China Daily, Shrager takes time off from location shooting her latest television program on a food trail after Queen Victoria, and shares some little-known details of her passion for cooking.

You have taught a generation of women how to cook. How did you get started in the kitchen yourself?

I think probably I got started in the kitchen as a child and really, I have turned a hobby into a business. This is what I have always wanted to do.

I started seriously cooking 30 years ago for events and things like this, never having had any formal training. I realized I needed some training under my belt so I went into kitchens learning under some great chefs - Pierre Koffman and Jean Christoph Novelli. In fact I learned the hard way. I learned on the hoof.

I wish in a way I had more formal training as it would have helped me get on quicker. This is one of the reasons I love imparting my knowledge to people now because I know it will help them so much in the future.

In your classes at Swinton Park, what do you enjoy teaching the most?

I don't have a favorite. I love teaching everything, but I love seeing people starting from scratch with the basics, like boning and filleting.

I have a little story where a woman, who comes to my classes regularly, wrote me a letter to say when she sees an animal now, she is wondering in her mind how she would go about deboning it, and she thinks: "Rosemary what have you done to me!"

I love teaching, too, about seasonal vegetables, how they can be prepared, and also teaching people how to make bread - so many people swear they will make their own after learning from me. I love everything.

How would you describe the students who come to you?

We have young people who are just starting to cook, we get a whole generation of 30-plus who have never learned to cook, and older people too, some who are retired, so a whole mixture, both British and cosmopolitan - people from all over the world. I suppose it is more women than men, though it varies, and as time goes on, men are taking a keen interest.

What motivates you in the kitchen now? Do you ever get tired of food or cooking?

Never! What motivates me is just food. It's a passion for my subject. I get excited to get to work every day.

I get tired doing it, but never tired of it. I motivate myself with it. I write and I cook and to me it is exhilarating.

Also with the new season's produce coming in I get very excited; the new asparagus arriving, then the strawberries, and so on. How you can get so many different foods, flavors and techniques.

Speaking of food - what do you like to eat? What would your perfect meal be?

You are going to be quite surprised by this but I absolutely love roast lamb - succulent roast lamb with mint sauce and red-currant jelly. I find this quite a treat as long as it is cooked properly. One of my favorite puddings is honey ice cream.

English food has often been branded "bland and boiled" - how do you vindicate this reputation?

I would have agreed with this 30 years ago, but not now. Britain has had a revolution with its cooking.

I really do believe we have learned to cook the best food in the world. We have gone through all these stages, such as nouvelle cuisine, and we have learned about presentation and also how to cook the food properly.

We have taken on a lot of influences from other countries and we have developed into this extraordinarily diverse cuisine, ending up with a number of very celebrated chefs.

I honestly believe we have some of the best in the world in this country, for example, people like Andrew Fairlie from Gleneagles, Michael Caines from Gidleigh Park and of course, the legendary Pierrre Koffman, who has just opened his own restaurant. These are just but a few, and I think we can no longer be branded bland and boiled.

What does Swinton Park have to offer international students?

We have a combination of things. We have the opportunity to learn about British food in the locality, bearing in mind seasonality, also the chance to learn about techniques in preparation and the methods.

My teaching methods are enthusiastic and we have fun. We learn from the basics of making wonderful breads to how to present fine dining. There is the opportunity to learn about game or modern or classic, and also the opportunity to learn seafood and French in lovely surroundings here.