National Heroes: D is for Delia

So you want to become Britain’s best known food writer and TV presenter?

Build up a chain of restaurants (and possibly watch them crash spectacularly)? Go on TV and swear a lot? Or, in this modern age, get three million followers on social media?

In the 1970s and 80s, the answer was, none of the above. What about jobs as a hairdresser, then in a travel agency? Restaurant experience? Washing dishes - in The Singing Chef, since you ask - then helping out a bit in the kitchen seems to have been the portal. She famously bake a cake for The Rolling Stones and becomes owner and director of a Premier League football club, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

If an outsider were to get hold of demo tapes or auditions for modern cookery shows, one suspects that Delia would be the last one to be tipped for superstardom. Plain and fairly humourless: no gimmicks or side kicks: no endearing eccentricities.  But from what I’ve read about Delia Smith, underneath that unremarkable exterior there seems to lie quiet, steely determination.

From her late teens she developed a near obsession with cookery books, spending much time in the British Museum reading room. She would then experiment at home, redoing dishes  time and again until she got them right. Elizabeth David was a particular influence, as was French cookery, the prevalent cuisine of the time.

After The Singing Chef, she started writing down the results of her own experiments, gradually developing the precise, meticulous style which would become her hallmark. Some bits and pieces of freelance work led to a job at Housewife magazine, testing recipes for senior editors and, one suspects, improving the writing. The big break came in 1969 when she was employed for the new weekly magazine of the Daily Mirror, which then had a circulation of millions. The magazine editor was Michael Wynn-Jones, later to become Mr Delia Smith.

Her fame grew quickly. The articles turned into books. How to Cheat at Cookery was followed by the hugely influential Complete Cookery Course. Many of the food writers of the time were professional chefs. That style and scale of cookery is very different to what is practicable in our domestic kitchens. A feature of Smith’s writing is her clarity, and her determination to get timings and oven temperatures right.

If I may make an interjection wearing my Tom Cooks! hat, I can tell you that writing recipes is not easy. A legal training helped me, as it had given me an eye for ambiguity and data which was missing. Delia’s attention to detail was her strongest point. As her popularity grew, she attracted many detractors from what one may dub the Flash Brigade. Too sensible, they would say. Teaching people to boil an egg*! But her supporters had a simple and devastating response. Her recipes work. Every time.

Her TV career began with regional programmes, then moved to the BBC. Forget Tik Tok-ers and the like. Social media posts are incredibly widely spread. In Delia's day there were three channels on British television and she dominated them. She was the ultimate influencer. Recommendations from her could make suppliers run out of produce. Cranberries come to mind, as does liquid glucose which she recommended for a particular cake. She even had supermarkets scurrying around having to restock eggs and Brussels sprouts.

She has sold over 21 million books. To put that in perspective, that other national treasure, Mary Berry has sold about 5 million in a much longer career. In the UK, only Jamie Oliver has sold more. That unassuming front also hid a shrewd business acumen. Her endorsement of Aunt Bessie’s products saw sales soar, including, improbably, frozen mashed potato. She also built a kitchenware empire. Exact figures are unavailable, but at its peak the annual turnover ran into millions. What a woman.

And the Rolling Stones connection? One of the most iconic album covers is the Stones Let It Bleed, released in 1969. That cake? Yep, baked by herself when she was a complete unknown.

And the football? Until a few years ago she and her husband were owners of Norwich City FC. You will not be surprised to learn that the stadium catering improved greatly during her tenure. While the majority stake was sold in 2024, she and her husband remain as Honorary Life Presidents. Her most famous, if not her finest, hour came in February 2005 when she tried to stir up the crowd at half time to get behind the team. Here’s a link to the video. I wasn’t drunk, she claimed later.

Madam, if you say so. But if anyone has earned the right to have a few sherberts with friends on occasion, I would suggest it is our Delia. While she stepped down from television work at the height of her fame, she still has a really good website where you can find online cookery classes and recipes for anything and everything,

And they always work.

Boiling an egg - that's by no means the simplest culinary task. Read more here.