Biography
Susan Brookes is an English television chef, broadcaster and writer who during the 1980s and 1990s, she routinely featured on the ITV daytime magazine show This Morning, making recipes for viewers as the programme’s resident chef.
Age
She is 80 years olkd as of 28 November 2023. She was born in 1943 in Settle, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Her real name is Susan Walton.
Family – Education
Brookes was born in Settle, then part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1943 and grew up in adjacent Langcliffe (both now in North Yorkshire) as the middle child of eight siblings, seven of whom were brothers.
Her father, Manchester-born John (Jack) Ridgway Walton, was a non-woven fabric technical specialist. She attended Langcliffe School and Settle High School, where she was barred from cookery courses because she talked too much. Brookes learnt to cook at an early age, but had no professional instruction. She holds a degree in politics, philosophy, and English.
Husband – Children
She married Warwick Brookes, a retired schoolteacher, and they have two daughters. They reside in Long Preston, a village in North Yorkshire. Susan lived in nearby Giggleswick in the 1980s, where she met television personality Russell Harty, a family friend who served as best man at her wedding. She took part in ITV’s documentary The Unforgettable Russell Harty in 2012.
Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $4 million.
Height
She stands at a height of 5 feet 2 inches (1.57m).
This Morning
Brookes, a former amateur theatrical performer, auditioned to be a producer for ITV’s new daytime show This Morning, but was instead picked to be its resident chef, which surprised her. Brookes appeared on the popular show for the first time on October 3, 1988, and remained with it for ten years. During this period, as her profile developed, she penned columns for Dalesman and Inside Soap magazines. Brookes has also been on Yorkshire Television’s Tonight and for the Granada Good Life channel. Her renown was so widespread that she was mentioned in the 1999 sitcom Mrs Merton and Malcolm.
In 1995, she won the Best TV Chef in the World prize at the first International Festival of Gastronomy in Deauville, Normandy. According to reports, the judges were impressed by Brookes’ 10-minute taped item, which helped her beat over 40 other TV chefs from 32 countries.
Her prize-winning recipe was chicken supreme with cider and apples, which featured British ingredients. She commented on the award, saying, “Fancy an English chef winning a culinary medal in France! I believe the British have learned from the French via holidaying there, but while their cuisine has made us more innovative as a nation, the French have been locked in the belief that their gastronomy is set in stone and cannot be improved.”Brookes went on to serve as the contest’s jury president.
Books
Brookes has written a variety of cookbooks, beginning with Brookes Cooks This Morning in 1990.The follow-up, Truly Wonderful Puddings and Desserts (1995), made The Times/Dillons Bestsellers lists upon its debut.Her third book, Susan Brookes’ Yorkshire Kitchen (1996), has a foreword written by playwright Alan Bennett, a local inhabitant of the Yorkshire Dales, who stated, “Susan’s recipes are for simple, straightforward, tasty stuff with not a lot of time wasted on unusual garnishes or complex presentation. Fortunately, it is not nouvelle cuisine.”
In 1999, she and her daughter Gilly co-hosted Susan Brookes’ Family Recipes on Granada Breeze, where they tackled family cooking dilemmas. Brookes has since retired, however she did donate a recipe to a local school’s charity fundraising book in 2007.
Career
Brookes began her profession as an educator, and composed highlights for her nearby paper in her extra time. She had her kids early on, and it was only after she was 35 that Brookes set out on her TV profession, before which she had instructed English. In 1980, she went after a position as a scientist, and dealt with programs for Granada TV in Manchester, starting with Live From Two, trailed by The Krypton Variable. Brookes was convinced to do a screen test with Oenone Williams of Trade Banners, a noon current undertakings program for the North West of Britain. She then started to introduce, showing up on Late Night From Two with Shelley Rohde in 1982. The Liverpool Reverberation portrayed Brookes on this program as “Granada’s response to Gloria Hunniford.” Brookes likewise facilitated Trade Banners.
It was Brookes’ plan to have a cookery series “about rational food, not engaging or luxurious food”; she was informed she could introduce it in the event that she did a screen test, which she consented to. Her most memorable program, Available, ran for a very long time, from 1983 to 1987, and took her around the North of Britain. The series, which created from “Discussing work”, an opening Brookes had on Trade Banners, zeroed in on occasional food sources and cooking with deal purchases. “What bothers me about cookery programs is that they are not this present reality.
They don’t manage the sort of things that go through your brain while you’re going round the shops,” Brookes remarked, before the program beginning. “I’m not a specialist myself. I simply see myself as a typical generally common cook.” In 1986, she started introducing Nursery worker’s Schedule Roadshow, a Granada creation for Channel 4. During the 25th commemoration version of Today in October 2013, which highlighted appearances from previous cast individuals, it was noticed that Brookes was unwell, and she didn’t participate in the program. For Toward the beginning of today’s 30th commemoration in 2018, be that as it may, Brookes showed up on screen in the studio, joining the cast for lunch. During this appearance, she uncovered that she experienced coeliac sickness. In November 2022, Brookes showed up as an appointed authority at a Halloween party in her town.