Cooking Price-Wise

Multi-award winning actor, author and art collector, Vincent Price was a man of many talents. Alongside all the rest, he was a gourmet chef. There’s little of the gourmet about Cooking Price-Wise, the six part TV series that he made for Thames Television in 1971, but it was adventurous by the standards of the time, and has since acquired legendary status amongst his fans. This is, in part, down to the fact that it has been almost impossible to get hold of.

With episodes devoted to potatoes, lamb, bacon, cheese, rice and cream, the series seeks to enhance viewers’ culinary skills in a gentle way, building up confidence with simple explanations, whilst explaining how they can use basic, affordable ingredients to create a range of dishes that they probably haven’t tried before. Price makes a wonderful host, gracious as ever, and never once comes across as talking down to the audience. Delivering the whole of each episode in a single take – he did, after all, have a background in theatre – he is plainly enthused by the simplest of tasks, and by the opportunity to share ideas. His charisma turns the preparation of vegetables and the stirring of sauces into compulsive viewing – frankly, he could probably read a phone book and make it entertaining, but there’s much more to enjoy here.

Part of the charm of the series today is the strangeness of the era and the ways in which it contrasts with our own. Price’s cooking involves literally pints of cream, large quantities of butter, and even lard – yet overall, people were healthier then than they are now, perhaps because of the comparatively low quantities of refined sugar and synthetic chemicals. It is strange now to reflect on what then seemed exotic. The Seventies staples of prawns, pineapple rings and glacé cherries all get their moments. The whole thing is set in a cheery little kitchen space with patterned orange pots and pans, crystal bowls and a smattering of the gadgets that were coming into popular use – though each time one of these is used, Price is careful to suggest an alternative.

There is little reference here to the actor’s horror career. One might note a certain relish in his voice as he delivers culinary history lessons with gruesome aspects, and during the episode on cheese the lights are lowered as he creates cucumber and melon-based monsters. A number of the dishes he makes are, one way or another, quite peculiar, and it’s unlikely that you’ll think all of them look edible, but the techniques he teaches are highly transferable.

An intriguing historical artefact, created just at the dawn of the popular cooking programme when its parameters were still being established, this makes for fascinating viewing, and Price fans will find much to enjoy.