Country House Cook - Penny Lewis

by Jann Seal

She whirls through the kitchen, mincing, dicing, slicing and sautéing a variety of preparations, all in a choreographed dance that takes place in a world of calm. Penny Lewis, Country House Cook is at work.

When you first meet Penny it’s hard to imagine her tiny figure and quiet presence commanding a kitchen, preparing three meals a day for a dozen or more house guests several days running, and plating her creations for Royalty and aristocrats. But that’s exactly what Country House Cook Penny Lewis does – all the while maintaining calm and cool in the kitchen while the Lord and Lady of the house tend to their titled and aristocratic company.

Diminutive, shy, and emitting a quietly confident aura, Penny drives or is flown on private planes or helicopters to locations throughout the United Kingdom. Toting her baskets of groceries, special seasonings and lovely, bluehandled Portuguese knives, her assignments find her preparing dinners of freshly hunted game for the Duke of Edinburgh - HRH Prince Philip, a breakfast tray for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and full-course meals for all of them, plus Kings and Queens of various European countries.

When she’s not cooking for her selective clientele, Penny helms the kitchen at her Culinary Cottage, located in the foothills of the verdant Brecon Beacons mountains of South Wales. Nearby Abergavenny, inhabited for over a thousand years and a flourishing “market basket” of locally sourced meats and vegetables, is Penny’s personal fresh market, where she provisions for her notable clients and students for her in-home cooking school. It’s quite a lifestyle for a woman who defaulted into the cooking game out of necessity.

“My daughter came home from school one afternoon and announced she’s becoming a vegetarian,” Penny explained. “I didn’t want her existing on cheese and pasta, so I started experimenting with different foods. One thing led to another, and I found myself in cooking school, learning the fundamentals of food preparation, and most importantly, how to ask to be paid for what I did!”

Her first paid assignment came before she even graduated, when her culinary school instructor asked if she’d consider cooking for a prominent family for the weekend. Out came the traveling knives, nerves were tucked away, her chin was lifted in confidence - and off Penny went, prepared for her new career. Until she met the Aga.

For those who don’t know, the Aga is a marvel of Swedish engineering. Made of cast iron, the original Agas were fired by coal, were “on” continuously and required specific instructions before attempting to cook in one of its four ovens. Never having cooked on an Aga, and ever efficient, Penny ran to the nearest bookstore, purchased Mary Berry’s “Complete Aga Cookbook” and read throughout the night. The rest is history.

The fact that Penny doesn’t panic is one of the features her clients praise her for. When the Lady of the House at one of

the stately mansions she cooks at rushed in and announced an additional eight guests were coming for Sunday lunch, an announcement that came just minutes before the food service was to begin, Penny took a deep breath, calmed her Ladyship, and turned a dinner for eight into one for sixteen within moments.

The Downton Abbey set and even the Royals who have graced tables featuring Penny’s recipes all marvel at Penny’s creativity in the kitchen. She constantly scours books and magazines for new ideas, trolls cooking shops for gadgets that make her preparations easier or more creative, and eagerly shares her knowledge with those who ask.

A noted food demonstrator at the world-famous Abergavenny Food Festival, Penny’s reach now extends to the United States. After completing a media tour that took her to St. Louis and Boston, a television appearance in New York and a demonstration in the state-of-the-art “Food and Wine Magazine” kitchen, Penny

flew to Palm Beach County, Florida for a month of private dinner parties.

“This was my third year in Palm Beach County. People start asking, “When’s Penny coming back?” in July and I arrive in February!” laughed Penny when describing her attraction to Americans. “I think they like my stories. Many consider me the real Mrs. Patmore of Downton Abbey fame.”

American dinner guests are treated to a three course meal, paired with wine and interspersed with tales of Royal faux pas (“I held on to the Queen’s wrap for a bit too long and she had to ask me if she could have it back! I was mortified!” Penny remembered.) Or the time HRH Prince Philip came into the kitchen to thank Penny and came face-to-face with total chaos – the result of the meal service being moved ahead forty-five minutes and the mad scramble to achieve it flawlessly.

Penny’s soon-to-be-published book: “Country House Cook” will feature recipes she’s prepared for her illustrious clients and the tales that go along with them. But for now, Penny Lewis is carefully planning this Fall’s Royal weekend menus, many to be served in stately homes, attended by Lords and Ladies and special guests that include a Prince and his wife, the woman who wears the crown.