Two Fat Ladies

Clarissa and Jennifer on their Triumph.

Two Fat Ladies is a BBC2 television cooking programme starring Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson for four series, from 1996 to 1999. The show was produced in syndication by the BBC and has also appeared on the Food Network and Cooking Channel in the U.S. and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Joyce and Annemarie  aka Clarissa and Jennifer

The show centred on the ladies traveling the United Kingdom, on a Triumph Thunderbird motorbike driven by Paterson. It sported the registration N88 TFL (the British bingo call for number 88 is "Two Fat Ladies") and had a Watsonian GP-700 "doublewide" sidecar where Dickson Wright rode. They traveled to various destinations, such as an army garrison or an all-girls school, where they prepared large meals, often with unusual ingredients. And now they are residing at Mt House Station. I kid you not! They are resurrected and cooking delicious meals here.

Our cook house is run by two Kiwis who produce really yummy meals for us. Brekkis at 05.00 – I do not turn out for that! Morning smoko (equivalent of morning recess at school) at 08.30 which I attend on the weekend and regard as my breakfast. Lunch at 12.30 then what I call supper but they call tea is at 7.30. A lot of beef is served up but then we are on a cattle station.

As I do not get paid on weekends (and holidays) and these two days of the week have now become very long and tedious I have decided I shall learn about catering and cooking for stockmen. The result is that on weekends I do get up at 4.00 am and cook breakfast. I now am becoming quite the hand at making bread. The great thing about this “voluntary” work is that I have to learn cookery at a really basic level. Trifle is now a desert which I realise takes almost the whole day to make and it is wolfed down in less than 5 minutes! I made the smoko today and it was delicious, my choice was banana cake, paella and toasted sandwiches, my instructions were, “ Helen, use these left overs and make a meal from them!” Last nights' left over veg became the paella, the overripe bananas became a yummy cake and breakfast left overs became toasted baked beans and cheese sandwiches.

Smoko at 8.30 is home-made banana cake, paella and toasted sandwiches