{"id":10482,"date":"2024-09-08T03:05:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T03:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/chefs-50-years-of-feeding-mps\/"},"modified":"2024-09-08T03:05:10","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T03:05:10","slug":"chefs-50-years-of-feeding-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/chefs-50-years-of-feeding-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef’s 50 years of feeding MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Terry Wiggins, a chef who leads the catering team at Westminster’s Portcullis House, is retiring this month after 50 years. He reckons he has served 13 prime ministers in that time and is still dreaming up new recipes.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cCan I have more pork please?\u201d<\/p>\n
Terry bellows in the direction of the kitchen. <\/p>\n
Under the heat lamps of the serving counter his team of chefs are busy carving a chunk of crispy pork belly, plating haddock fishcakes and replenishing huge bowls of new potatoes and roasted carrots. <\/p>\n
A long line of parliamentary staff, MPs, a few police officers, political journalists and visitors are all waiting with their trays.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re in the Debate canteen in Portcullis House, the relatively new building beside the River Thames where many MPs have their offices. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s just across the road from the Palace of Westminster. There are many places on the Parliamentary estate to eat but this is always one of the busiest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hub, a meeting place. Everybody eats together, MPs queue up with the general staff… they all stand together and chat,\u201d sous chef Terry tells me proudly as we talk beside a vat of soup.<\/p>\n
After 50 years spent feeding our politicians, he is retiring this month. <\/p>\n
Today he has swapped his chef’s whites for a floral shirt and a green tweed blazer. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s just back from meeting the Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and is mid-way through a celebratory lunch with his wife.<\/p>\n
Terry started working in the House of Commons in September 1974. Harold Wilson had been elected prime minister, Brian Clough had been dismissed as the manager of Leeds United and Kung Fu Fighting was topping the charts.<\/p>\n
He was just 16 when his school\u2019s careers office suggested he apply for a catering job in Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d done home economics at school and I cooked with my mum. I thought it was a great opportunity.”<\/p>\n
He remembers being very shy as he went to work with the \u201colder gentlemen\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it has come full circle and I am one of the older gentlemen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
‘Old school’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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David Cameron once asked for the recipe of Parliament’s famous (it had its own social media account) jerk chicken.<\/p>\n
John Major used to send his staff over from Downing Street to pick up one of his curries.<\/p>\n
He remembers Margaret Thatcher as \u201ca lovely lady\u201d and Sir Keir Starmer as a busy \u201cgrab and go\u201d man.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just politicians. Terry also counts Frank Bruno, Brian May, Rick Wakeman and Gary Lineker among his customers.<\/p>\n
Over the years politicians have changed and so have their palates.<\/p>\n
House of Commons catering services began in 1773 when the deputy housekeeper, John Bellamy, was asked by MPs to set up a dining room. <\/p>\n
Famous at the time for its veal pie, tastes hadn\u2019t evolved much by the time Terry arrived in 1974.<\/p>\n
There was a lot of what he calls \u201cschool food\u201d \u2013 dishes such as spotted dick.<\/p>\n
Classical French dishes were popular and there was an experiment of offering \u201cnouveau cuisine\u201d. That didn\u2019t last very long, says Terry.<\/p>\n
There was also plenty of beef tongue and halibut.<\/p>\n
He remembers two politicians who would eat together and regularly put in the same order: “Two working man’s portions of your beef and two pewter mugs of your finest ales.”<\/p>\n
“They reminded me of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets.”<\/p>\n
These days he says MPs tend to be healthier but also have more cosmopolitan tastes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Sir Lindsey Hoyle thanks Terry Wiggins for his years of service<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cPeople go on international holidays,\u201d he says and like dishes that replicate what they ate when abroad.<\/p>\n
Jambalaya, jollof and pho are all popular.<\/p>\n
Terry says he researches his own recipes but also gets help from members of staff who come from places like the Caribbean or Vietnam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know the little tricks that make that dish memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018Two heads and talk funny\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Food tastes have changed and so has Parliament.<\/p>\n
Back in 1974, Terry says Parliament was \u201cHogwarts and Eton all joined into one”.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a great time but that was that time. Now we have moved forward.<\/p>\n
In particular, he welcomes the change to hours, which has reduced the number of late night sittings. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first started we were here until two in the morning, three or four days a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFemale members have helped to change that \u2013 that\u2019s for the good. MPs should have a work-life balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says people often have the wrong idea about MPs. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think they\u2019ve got two heads and talk funny but they are just the general public who we have voted in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very sad that society puts them under the amount of pressure that they do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are just really good people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Love in a cold cut climate <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Parliament has been his workplace for 50 years. It is also the place where he met his wife, Christine.<\/p>\n
He was serving cold cuts of meat at the buffet. She worked in one of the members\u2019 dining rooms. <\/p>\n
One day, by the hot plates, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. <\/p>\n
Thirty-seven years later, they are still together. <\/p>\n
Terry admits he feels \u201ca little bit nervous\u201d about his impending retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had structure in my life for 50 years \u2013 maybe there is hardship in getting up at five in the dark and going home in the dark.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is a fantastic job, like working in a museum.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryday is busy or an adventure.”<\/p>\n
Listen to Ben Wright’s interview with Terry Wiggins on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour at 2200 GMT on Sunday<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/17e5\/live\/dddcbcc0-6c4c-11ef-944c-9fead083e8e4.jpg.webp\")
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