Robert Carrier (chef)
1544618
226026384
2008-07-16T14:27:47Z
84.203.123.72
/* Retirement */ parred down -> pared-down
{{Infobox Chef <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Chef/doc]] -->
| name = Robert Carrier
| image = Replace this image male.svg <!-- only free-content images are allowed for depicting living people. Non-free and "fair use" images, e.g. promo photos, CD/DVD covers, posters, screen captures, etc., will be deleted - see [[WP:NONFREE]] -->
| caption =
| birthname= Robert Carrier McMahon
| birthdate = {{birth date|1923|11|10|mf=y}}
| birthplace = [[Tarrytown, New York]]
| deathdate = {{death date and age|2006|6|27|1923|11|10|mf=y}}
| deathplace = [[Provence]]
| style = [[French cuisine|French]]<br>[[Italian cuisine|Italian]]<br>[[Cuisine of Morocco|Moroccan]]
| education = Grandmother, Chez Fifine's
| ratings = [[Michelin star]]s {{Rating|3|3}}
| restaurants =
| television = ''Carrier's Kitchen''<br>''Food, Wine and Friends''<br>''The Gourmet Vegetarian''<br>''Carrier's Caribbean.''
| prevrests = Camden Passage, [[Islington]] {{Rating|2|3}}<br>[[Hintlesham Hall]] {{Rating|2|3}}
| awards = [[Order of the British Empire]]
| website =
}}
'''Robert Carrier OBE''' (born '''Robert Carrier McMahon''' in [[November 10]], [[1923]] in [[Tarrytown, New York]] – died [[June 27]], [[2006]] in [[France]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[chef]], [[restaurant|restaurateur]] and [[cookery]] [[writer]].
==Biography==
Born '''Robert Carrier McMahon''' in [[Tarrytown, New York]],<ref name="IndObit">{{citeweb|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/robert-carrier-406180.html|title=Robert Carrier|publisher=The Telegraph|date=2006-06-28|accessdate=2008-05-20}}</ref> the third son of an [[Ireland|Irish]] descended wealthy [[property]] [[lawyer]] father,<ref name="TelgObit">{{citeweb|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1522477/Robert-Carrier.html|title=Robert Carrier|publisher=The Telegraph|date=2006-06-28|accessdate=2008-05-20}}</ref> while his mother was the [[France|Franco]]-[[Germany|German]] daughter of a millionaire. After his parents went [[bankrupt|broke]] in the 1930s [[Great Depression]], they maintained their own lifestyle through removing the servants and preparing their own elaborate [[dinner]] [[Party#Dinner_party|parties]].<ref name="GuardObit">{{citeweb|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1807417,00.html|title=Robert Carrier|publisher=guardian.co.uk|date=2006-06-28|accessdate=2008-05-20}}</ref>
Educated in [[New York City]], Robert took part-time art courses, and trained to become an [[actor]]. He eventually took a place in the [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] [[revue]] of ''[[New Faces]],''<ref name="GuardObit"/> before touring [[Europe]] with a rep company, singing the juvenile lead in American musicals.<ref name="TelgObit"/> After returning to America, Robert often stayed at weekends with his beloved French [[grandmother]] in upstate [[New York state|New York]], and she taught him to cook, making biscuits and butter-frying fish caught in a nearby stream.<ref name="TimesObit">{{citeweb|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article680172.ece|title=Robert Carrier|publisher=The Times|date=2006-06-28|accessdate=2008-05-20}}</ref>
===Post WW2===
Carrier volunteered to serve in the [[United States Army]] during [[World War Two]], as an intelligence officer in the [[Office of Strategic Services]], a wartime forerunner of the [[CIA]]. Speaking fluent [[French (language)|French]] and understanding [[German (language)|German]] thanks to his parentage, Carrier arrived in [[England]] in 1943, and served in [[Paris]] post [[D-Day]] as a [[cryptographer]] in [[General de Gaulle]]'s headquarters.<ref name="TelgObit"/>
Thanks to his Gaullist connections, Carrier choose to remain in Paris as a civilian after the cessation of hostilities, dropping the [[patronymic]] [[surname]] McMahon: ''"It (Robert Carrier) sounds good in French and it looks well visually."''<ref name="GuardObit"/> Carrier initially working for a US forces radio station and a [[Gaullist]] newspaper/magazine ''Spectacle,'' set up to support de Gaulle's RTF party in its failed bid for post-war power.<ref name="TelgObit"/>
After a theatrical magazine he was editing and part owned was shut down in 1949,<ref name="GuardObit"/> he moved to [[St. Tropez]] to work in a friends restaurant called Chez Fifine's,<ref name="TelgObit"/> where he found relief from a bout of [[Depression (mood)|depression]].<ref name="TimesObit"/> Starting to write about food as ration-restricted Europe got used to flavour again,<ref name="TelgObit"/> Carrier moved to [[Rome]], [[Italy]] to improve his cookery repertoire,<ref name="TimesObit"/> and undertake work as a cowboy in an Italian musical revue.<ref name="TelgObit"/>
After a friend invited him to [[Great Britain]] for the 1953 [[Coronation of the British monarch|coronation]] of [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom]],<ref name="GuardObit"/> he decided to relocate to [[London]] working in the developing industry of [[public relations]] marketing various food products, including: [[stock cube]]s, [[cornflour]], [[New Zealand]] apples - a vegetarian dog food.<ref name="TelgObit"/> With [[Oliver Lawson-Dick]], Carrier wrote ''The Vanishing City,'' an historical perspective of London illustrated with reproductions of old engravings.<ref name="TimesObit"/>
===Cookery career===
In 1957 Carrier wrote his first article on food, which he sold to ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'' editor [[Eileen Dickson]].<ref name="TimesObit"/> He was soon writing regularly for the magazine before becoming a contributor to ''[[Vogue magazine|Vogue]]'' and then writing a weekly column for the colour supplement of the ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|Sunday Times]]''. This column brought him celebrity, which he used to promote his first and lavishly illustrated cookery book ''Great Dishes of the World'' in 1963, which although priced at the present day equivalent of around £100, sold 11 million copies.<ref name="TelgObit"/>
Assured of publicity, Carrier opened the eponymous restaurant ''Carriers''' in 1959 in Camden Passage, [[Islington]];<ref name="GuardObit"/> and then developed an international chain of cookshops, with the first in [[Harrods]] in 1967.<ref name="IndObit"/> His development of wipe-clean recipe cards were bought by [[housewives]], and being more specific and easier to follow than the recipes of [[Elizabeth David]], and made it easily possible to prepare food that would fully satisfy the eye and pallet of any dinner guests.<ref name="IndObit"/>
In 1971, he saw a full-page advertisement in ''[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life]]'' for [[Hintlesham Hall]] near [[Ipswich]], [[Suffolk]] and bought it, unsurveyed, for £32,000. He planned to renovate it slowly as a country retreat but, realising its vulnerability and near dereliction with rotten floors and ceilings, he decided to save it all immediately. He employed 60 people to restore the house and opened it as a hotel and restaurant in August 1972. He also revived the [[Hintlesham]] Festival.
A few years later, Carrier met a woman who lived near his [[Paris]] apartment. He thought her a remarkable cook but a poor business woman; so, when she got into financial difficulties over non-payment of tax, he offered to set her up as a cookery teacher at Hintlesham if she would learn to speak English. He invested about £300,000 converting the 16th century outbuildings into a modern school. The school had a double auditorium and two classrooms each with 12 cooking stations. The woman never learned English so he ran the school himself. He presented beginners' and intermediate courses. The mornings were devoted to generic cooking skills and, in the afternoons, students cooked recipes from the Hintlesham Hall restaurant menu. The school attracted people from throughout the anglophone world, but Carrier was disappointed to find that many were attracted more by his celebrity than by an interest in cookery. He found the repetitive work onerous and dull.<ref name="GuardObit"/><ref name="TimesObit"/>
In the late 1970s, Carrier began presenting a television series ''Carrier's Kitchen'' based on the cooking cards from his ''Sunday Times'' articles. After the plain British fair of [[Fanny Cradock]] presented in [[black and white television|black and white]], Carrier in [[Colour_television#European_color_television|colour television format]] introduced luxurious Continental cooking to a nation in which ingredients such as [[garlic]] and [[spaghetti]] were treated with deep suspicion. With a highly theatrical and camp style, and a penchant for [[superlatives]] ("Gooorgeous… Adooorable… Faaabulous!"), he attracted viewers as much for his drawling American vowels and shameless self-promotion, and resultantly became the first celebrity chef on British television.<ref name="TelgObit"/> His later followed this with three other series, titled ''Food, Wine and Friends, The Gourmet Vegetarian'' and ''Carrier's Caribbean.''<ref>{{citeweb|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/world/02carrier.html?fta=y|title=Robert Carrier|publisher=New York Times|date=2006-07-02|accessdate=2008-05-20}}</ref> From this greater publicity, flowed a substantial magazine partwork published weekly by [[Marshall Cavendish]] between 1981 and 1983.<ref name="IndObit"/>
===Retirement===
By the early 1980s, Carrier's television style was considered kitch and too old-fashioned, and his food too complex. Ejected from his television show and bored of the celebrity culture, Carrier closed the [[Michelin Guide|Michelin two starred]] Hintlesham Hall in 1982, and sold it the following year to English hotelier [[Ruth Watson]] and her husband.<ref name="hattowen">{{citeweb|url=http://www.hattowendesign.com/inspector/ruthwatson.html|title=Ruth Watson|publisher=hattowendesign.com|accessdate=2008-05-20}}</ref> After closing the also Michelin two starred Camden Passage restaurant, Carrier took a short stay in New York, and from 1984 went to live in [[France]] and at his restored villa in [[Morocco]], regularly accompanied by his friend Oliver Lawson-Dick.<ref name="TelgObit"/>
On [[January 19]], [[1983]], Carrier was the subject of the [[United Kingdom]] television show ''[[This Is Your Life]].'' He became popular in the United States in the 1980s, writing a weekly European food column for a popular US magazine. In 1984 he became the face of the British restaurant industry, arguing vigorously and vocally for changes to the licensing laws. His efforts were rewarded by appointment as honorary [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]].<ref name="IndObit"/>
Having lived in [[Marrakesh]] for several months of each year since the 1970s, Carrier used his [[Morocco|Moroccan]] experiences as the basis for another cookbook in 1987, which further funded his retirement. His 1999 rewrite of ''Great Dishes of the World'' didn't sell, because he replaced rich and calorific Carrier classics with modern pared-down [[Nouvelle Cuisine]].<ref name="IndObit"/>
By 1994 Carrier had returned to [[London]],<ref name="GuardObit"/> realising that most of his friends were in Great Britain from looking at where the [[postage stamp]]s on the [[Christmas card]]s had originated.<ref name="GuardObit"/> He also returned to television with [[GMTV]], proclaiming the virtues of economical and [[vegetarian]] eating.<ref name="TelgObit"/> Having sold his villa in Morocco, he owned a property in [[Provence]] where he spent his time painting pictures, tended by good friend Liz Glaze after the death of Oliver Lawson-Dick.<ref name="IndObit"/><ref name="GuardObit"/><ref name="TimesObit"/> Having been admitted to [[hospital]] that morning in the South of France, Carrier's death was announced by Liz Glaze on the afternoon of the [[June 27]], [[2006]] to the [[Press Association]].<ref>{{citeweb|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5121658.stm|title=US TV Chef Carrier dies aged 82|publisher=BBC News|date=2007-06-27|accessdate=2008-05-20}}</ref>
==Television==
* c1975 ''Carrier's Kitchen''
* 1980 ''Food, Wine & Friends''
* 1994 ''The Gourmet Vegetarian''
* 1996 ''Carrier's Caribbean'', [[BBC2]] 12-part series
==Bibliography==
<small>
* Robert Carrier, ''The Robert Carrier Cookbook'', (London: Nelson, 1965)
* Robert Carrier, ''The Connoisseur's Cookbook'', (London: Random House, c 1965)
* Robert Carrier, ''Great Dishes of the World'', (London: Sphere, 1967) ISBN 0-7221-2357-4
* Robert Carrier, ''Cooking for you'', (London: Hamlyn, 1973) ISBN 0-600-37541-2
* Robert Carrier, ''The Robert Carrier Cookery Course'', (London: W. H. Allen & Co, 1974) ISBN 0-491-01192-X
* Robert Carrier, ''Great Desserts and Pastries'', (London: Hamlyn, 1978) ISBN 0-600-32014-6
* Robert Carrier, ''Food, Wine & Friends'', (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1980) ISBN 0-283-98555-0
* Robert Carrier (ed.), ''Robert Carrier's Kitchen'', (London: Marshall Cavendish, 1981-1983) magazine partwork
* Robert Carrier, ''Robert Carrier's Entertaining'', (1982)
* Robert Carrier, ''Robert Carrier's Quick Cook'', (London: Hamlyn, 1984) ISBN 0-600-32232-7
* Robert Carrier, ''Cooking With Carrier '', (London: Galahd Books, 1984) ISBN 0-89479-059-5
* Robert Carrier, ''Robert Carrier's Kitchen – Making the most of Lamb & Pork'', (London: Marshall Cavendish, 1985) ISBN 0-86307-264-X
* Robert Carrier, ''A Taste of Morocco'', (London: Crown Publishing, 1987) ISBN 0-517-56559-5
* Robert Carrier, ''Robert Carrier's Menu Planner'', (London: Little Brown, 1988) ISBN 0-316-12977-1
* Robert Carrier, ''Feasts of Provence'', (London: Rizzoli International Publications, 1993) ISBN 0-8478-1661-3
* Robert Carrier, ''The Best of Robert Carrier'', (London: Bloomsbury, 1994) ISBN 0-7475-1980-3
* Robert Carrier, ''The Gourmet Vegetarian'', (London: Boxtree, 1994) ISBN 1-85283-952-X
* Robert Carrier, ''Carrier's Kitchen'', (London: Boxtree, 1995) ISBN 0-7522-1032-7
* Robert Carrier, ''Robert Carrier's Cookery Cards: Classic Carrier'', (London: Boxtree, 1995) ISBN 0-7522-1002-5
* Robert Carrier, ''Robert Carrier's Cookery Cards: Carrier Entertains'', (London: Boxtree, 1995) ISBN 0-7522-1076-9
* Robert Carrier, ''A Million Family Menus'', (London: World Publications, 1996) ISBN 1-57215-194-3
* Robert Carrier, ''Great Dishes of Spain'', (London: Boxtree, 1999) ISBN 0-7522-2492-1
</small>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{imdb|id=1889128|name=Robert Carrier}}
*[http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1730/robert-carriers-moroccan-harira Carrier's recipe for Moroccan] [[harira]] at the [[BBC]]'s Good Food Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrier, Robert}}
[[Category:People from Tarrytown, New York]]
[[Category:American child actors]]
[[Category:American military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Office of Strategic Services]]
[[Category:American journalists]]
[[Category:American chefs]]
[[Category:Public relations people]]
[[Category:American food writers]]
[[Category:Michelin Guide starred restaurants and chefs]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[es:Robert Carrier (chef)]]