Marguerite Patten

Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten, CBE (née Brown; 4 November 1915 – 4 June 2015), was a British home economist, food writer and broadcaster.

[3] After leaving school, she worked as an actress in repertory theatre for nine months, and then as a senior home economist for Frigidaire, promoting the benefits of the refrigerator.

[4] When the war ended, she demonstrated kitchen appliances for Harrods, including the pressure cooker which her work popularised in the UK.

Her advice and books were instrumental in improving the quality of British cookery in the post-war years,[11] when rationing meant that more exotic dishes were impossible to prepare.

She has been an influence on other well-known cooks such as Nigel Slater[12][failed verification] and Gary Rhodes, who called her one of his two culinary heroes.

[13] Her 1972 part-work 'Perfect Cooking' was made into an art installation, a paper-weave, by British artist Martin Slidel, and exhibited at The Paper Factory, London (UK), in 2006.