Mrs Bridges – a picture of plump domesticity; a matronly cook running an Edwardian kitchen with a rod of iron and a warm heart in equal measure.
Mrs Bridges … Cook … or Kate to a very select few, began her life ‘in service’ as an under cook to ‘respectable’ families in the countryside of Victorian England. From those early days, she began collecting recipes – or receipts as they were then called – and her repertoire spanned from simple country cooking, to dishes in the fine French fashion. Kate Bridges earned the honorary title of ‘Mrs’ Bridges when she became Cook to one of the leading Edwardian families, and London socialites, Lady and Richard Bellamy. Lady Marjorie Bellamy was the daughter of a Prime Minister and her husband Richard was a Tory MP. During her tenure in the Belgravia kitchen at 165 Eaton Place, London, SW1, Mrs Bridges devised elaborate menus and cooked for some of the leading figures in the capital including the Monarch King Edward.
Mrs Bridges was immortalised in the long running 1970’s series ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ where, along with the Butler Mr Hudson, she reigned ‘downstairs.’
With her versatility of touch in the kitchen, Mrs Bridges collected her receipts for dishes which would grace regal banquets – as well as ‘below the stairs’ suppers. Inspired by the works of Mrs Beeton – and encouraged by her employer Lady Marjorie – Mrs Bridges drew her receipts into a book which was published in 1905. Unlike her contemporary Mrs Beeton, whose social position meant she probably rarely set foot in the kitchen – Mrs Bridges wrote as one cook to another.
In the original foreword, she hoped that:
“The receipts will serve the needs of cooks and of hostesses for the many and varied occasions throughout the seasons.”
Few copies of Mrs Bridges’ “Practical Household Cookery” survive, but the spirit of Mrs Bridges lives on today and is preserved in the quality Mrs Bridges range of food gifts.
