Philip Harben


Philip Hubert Kendal Jerrold Harben was an English cook, recognised as the first TV celebrity chef.

Biography

Harben was born in Fulham, London, and was educated at Highgate School. His mother, Mary Jerrold, was an actress known for her performance as the murderous Martha Brewster in the first stage production of Arsenic and Old Lace as well as many screen roles. His father, Hubert Harben, was a stage actor. His sister, Joan Harben, played Miss Mona Lott in the BBC Radio series It's That Man Again. He learned to cook at the side of his parents, and "could scramble eggs and make mayonnaise long before I could read Thucydides or solve a quadratic equation".
His first occupation was as a commercial photographer. He was then engaged to run the kitchen of the Isobar restaurant in the Isokon building in Hampstead, London from 1937 to 1940, when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force, but an eye injury put paid to his flying career and he was assigned to the Army Catering Corps.
He compered a BBC wireless cookery programme from 1942, then a BBC TV programme, Cookery, from 1946 to 1951, followed by Cookery Lesson and What's Cooking from 1956. His emphasis was always on method and principles rather than recipes, but he could be remarkably dogmatic – "The Pot to the Kettle not the Kettle to the Pot!".
Philip Harben can be credited with the first TV "moment" when on live television he cracked an egg that was so bad he had to abandon the recipe while he and the studio crew broke into helpless laughter.
He had a regular column in the British Woman's Own magazine in the 1950s.
In 1958 he helped found the Harbenware kitchen utensils company which, in 2020, is still operating under the same ownership.
He died 27 April 1970, aged 63. He was buried in London's Highgate Cemetery.

Other appearances