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Tag: cook

  • ‘Two Fat Ladies’ TV Star Clarissa Dickson Wright Dies at 66

    The last TV personality of Britain’s Two Fat Ladies has passed away.

    At the age of 66 years old, Clarissa Dickson Wright died Saturday at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary.

    Her cause of death was said to be unknown.

    Born on June 14, 1947 as Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmeralda Dickson Wright, the TV star grew up in London.

    According to CBS News, Dickson Wright dealt with alcoholism later in life during her career as an attorney. After recovering from alcoholism and leaving the legal profession, she became a caterer and ran a cookery bookstore.

    BBC scouted her for the TV show series while she was working at the bookstore.

    At the time, Dickson Wright said she had no professional experience in cooking, but she became a dynamic duo along with co-host Jennifer Paterson.

    Here is a 1998 interview of the pair:

    The international program became an immediate hit, showing the pair touring Britain in sidecars and on motorcycles. Dickson Wright and Paterson were mainly known for traveling to various locations to cook exotic meals and share culinary advice.

    “She [Dickson Wright] was a force of nature and a true character, someone who knew how to tell a great story and had a fabulous sense of humor,” said show producer, Patricia Llewellyn.

    The show came to an end, however, in 1999 when Paterson died from cancer at the age of 71.

    The TV cook celebrity later released an autobiography in 2007 titled Spilling The Beans. She also appeared in other TV series.

    Her agent, Heather Holden-Brown, told BBC News Monday, “Her fun and laughter, extraordinary learning and intelligence, will be missed always by so many of us. Loved dearly by her friends and many fans all over the world, Clarissa was utterly non-PC and fought for what she believed in, always, with no thought to her own personal cost.”

    The clip below shows the pair cooking together:

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Tim Cook – Apple CEO Docks Himself

    Tim Cook – Apple CEO Docks Himself

    Imagine having the kind of money that would allow you to dock yourself $4 million dollars as a slap on the wrist.

    That is exactly what Tim Cook, CEO of Apple did when he learned about the company’s stock performance.

    Actually it was Apple’s compensation committee that decided this past year to align its CEO’s pay with the company’s performance. If stock performance is better than the other stocks in the S&P 500 index, then the CEO, or Cook would take home more – If Apple’s stock performs worse than the index, Cook takes home less. And – if Apple performs terribly – Cook would feel it in his pay.

    In a preliminary proxy statement filed on Sunday, Apple said its compensation committee didn’t want to place too heavy a burden on Cook. The committee only wanted less than half of Cook’s annual stock grants to be subject to the new performance-based metric.

    But Cook wanted his stock grants at risk – he urged the committee to put 50 percent of his stocks in the hat.

    Cook’s decision came from a “strong desire to set a leadership example in the area of CEO compensation and governance,” Apple said in its filing.

    And, subsequently Apple shares performed pretty badly last year and Cook lost the 50 percent of his stock grants that were at risk. Apple’s stock fell 26 percent in August 2012 and August 2013 – The time period when Cooks stocks vest annually. However, the S&P 500 rose to 18 percent during that time period.

    So – that 50 percent that Cook forfeited was worth nearly $4 million.

    Don’t feel bad for him yet – he still took home a bundle. He made $1.4 million just in salary, with a cool $2.8 million cash bonus – and a whopping $36.4 million in stock grants.

    The $4 million ended up being just 10 percent of his annual compensation. Not bad.

    Image via YouTube

  • Nigella Lawson Leaves Husband After Abuse Photos Leaked

    Nigella Lawson, the popular English cook who found success both in cookbooks and with her own Food Network show, has reportedly left her home after photos were leaked showing her husband choking her as they engaged in heated discussion at a restaurant.

    Lawson married millionaire businessman and art dealer Charles Saatchi in 2003 after her first husband died of throat cancer, and the two have reportedly argued in public before; Saatchi allegedly put his hand over their mouth while they were having dinner together last year. She’s spoken of his fiery temper before, but there haven’t been any indications that her marriage is in trouble.

    In 2007 she said, “I’ll go quiet when he explodes, and then I am a nest of horrible festeringness.”

    Onlookers were horrified as they watched Saatchi put his hands around his wife’s neck no fewer than four times during their argument, and that Lawson was trying to pacify him to avoid a big scene.

    “I have no doubt she was scared,” an onlooker told The Sunday People. “It was horrific, really. She was very tearful and was constantly dabbing her eyes. Nigella was very, very upset.”

    The incident was captured on film and the photos, which were published on The Mirror , are being investigated by Scotland yard. Lawson was seen leaving her home on Sunday with her son, and both were carrying suitcases. Sadly, Lawson was the victim of abuse as a child at the hands of her mother and has said she has a “relentless need to please people” as a result, because she never felt good enough.

    “While it is shocking to see someone as high-profile as Nigella Lawson linked to an alleged attack by her partner, it is vital to remember that domestic violence is actually extremely prevalent, with one in four women being abused by a partner at some point in her lifetime. Many women do not tell anyone because they feel embarrassed or ashamed. Having this story in the news is likely to resonate with many women currently living with abuse, and it is important to remind everyone that there is help and support out there,” said Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid.

    Neither Lawson nor Saatchi have commented on the incident or their relationship so far.

    Image: Nigella.com