Her father was the architect, jeweller and designer Henry Wilson, and her sister was the violinist Orrea Pernel (1906–1993).
[5] In 1931 she and Rosemary Hume (with whom she has trained in Paris), set up a cookery school in Sloane Street, London, the interior of which was designed by Colin Lucas.
[5] They had a flat in Chelsea and they would reputedly serve their students' creations to passing trade at chairs and tables on the pavement.
[6] Lucas worked as a hotel chef in Hamburg before World War II, and later claimed that Adolf Hitler often dined there and had a taste for stuffed squab.
One of the earliest television cook-show hosts, Lucas's To The Queen's Taste was broadcast on CBS in 1948-1949 from the restaurant.