A Glimpse of Delia Smiths 50 Years of Stardom
by Jeremy Pang
2019 was a glorious year of starry nights in Asia with the crew and hanging out with true stars like Delia Smith with a chance to learn from the best. Not necessarily learn about what to do on camera, or what not to do in life, more so, to just hear her endless stories about her incredible media journey, her thoughts about the world today and more importantly which takeaways she liked to order from, and sharing a pleasing, knowing nod to our shared love of a certain sausage and egg muffin.
This was one of our first ever Curious Crab Productions jobs and we didn’t even know that our production company existed yet or even had a name. This extraordinary job was for Eye-to-Eye Media, best known for their immaculate editorial, Delicious Magazine where we were commissioned to capture the natural wonder that is Delia Smith, for their cover shoot celebrating Delia’s 50 years of cookery book writing and celebrity chef status. And what an honour it was to be a fly on the wall for such a momentous occasion.
As shoots do, especially when you’re working with mega-stars like Delia, this one took a good few hours, and was shot at a wonderful venue called Cherry Duck Studios in Wapping, in and around the cobbled streets of the London docks. There was fifties jazz in my head all the way through, whilst listening to Delia chatting away in the dressing room, getting ready for her very own golden jubilee. Delicious Magazine had a few selections of golden eggs ready for the shoot, with a pile of very well used Delia cookbooks, collected from the whole crew and Magazine editors’ homes, as we all know those are the types of books that get bought over the years, used and used, and past down from generation to generation.
From a filming perspective, it was a nerve-racking experience for both Lee and I to be filming and directing such an iconic member of the food world as one of our first ever ‘outside jobs’ and wanted to get the best out of every shot, but when filming with such a pro, everything seemed so chilled out and smooth, just like Delia herself. Delia is an expert at making you feel at ease and solidifies in person why her books and TV shows have always been so well received by the world. She’s kind, funny, and generous with her time and couldn’t have given us more of a boost to just know that as experts in our own right, “we’ve got Delia covered”.
So, here’s a personal thanks to a personal food hero, and here’s a big cheers to being so welcoming and letting us celebrate your 50 years of stardom so intimately and more to come, Delia Smith.
