Jo Yeates’ granny was humiliated by Fanny Cradock in a TV encounter that destroyed the cook’s career.
Gwen Troake, from Devon, was ‘advised’ by Cradock in 1976 as she cooked a meal for Lord Mountbatten and Sir Edward Heath in BBC show The Big Time, which made dreams come true.
Cradock scorned Mrs Troake’s choice of dishes and pretended she was on the verge of retching.
She told Mrs Troake: ‘You could kill pigs with that menu. Do you have any friends in Devon, dear? Living?’ She said that the coffee cream dessert was ‘too sickly’, adding: ‘Think of the poor stomach.’
Mrs Troake was upset and 500 viewers complained.
Cradock apologised but the BBC ended her contract two weeks later and she never hosted a cooking show again.Mrs Troake published a cook book in 1977 but died the next year, before Jo was born. Cradock died in 1994, at 85.
Source: Digital Spy
