ENA Baxter, an art teacher who helped turn a small Scottish family cottage industry into a multi-million-dollar food business, has died. She was 90.
In 1952 she met and married Gordon Baxter, who had inherited his father's small food company in Scotland producing soups, preserves and chutneys. At the time, the company had 11 employees and an annual turnover of just 44,000 British pounds (P3 million).
Together they transformed the fortunes of the company and today it has over 950 employees and a turnover of some 157 million British pounds (P10.6 billion).
Baxters is now known globally for its gourmet soups, sauces, chutneys, jams and marmalades. It exports to more than 30 countries and has factories in Scotland, England, Canada, Australia and Poland. Although Baxters has no official distributor in the Philippines, its products can be found in outlets which specialize in British foods.
Although not a trained chef, Ena had the Midas touch in the kitchen. While Gordon busied himself with the day-to-day running of the company, Ena was busy creating their best-selling Cock-a-Leekie soup, improving the company’s already famous Royal Game recipe, introducing new soups and developing a wide range of jams and condiments.
As the company grew in size, so too did its reputation around the world. Their soups became favorites with the British Royal family. Described as Scotland's soup queen, Ena became one of Britain's wealthiest women.
Ena and Gordon nearly came to blows over a new leek soup. She wanted cream of leeks, he wanted Cock-A-Leekie. He won. Although a traditional Scottish soup, with the Ena "touch,"Cock-A-Leekie became Baxter’s biggest seller around the world. It is especially popular in Japan.
Ena was so crucial to the company’s success that she became a star of television commercials featuring her tending her stockpot in the kitchen of the family home in Scotland, surrounded by baskets of vegetables, bunches of dried flowers and rows of copper jelly moulds. In 1974 she published the highly popular Ena Baxter’s Scottish Cookbook.
In tribute to this grand old lady of gourmet soups, I'd like to feature her famous Cock-A-Leekie soup.
Cock-A-Leekie
Ingredients
(Serves six to eight)
1 whole chicken
1 large leek
1 onion
2 carrots
1 tsp dried thyme
5 white peppercorns
1 bay leaf
salt
Garnish
200g rice
50g chopped prunes
20g chopped parsley
1 chopped leek
In a large pan, cover the chicken with cold water or broth and bring to the boil. Add the vegetables and herbs and cook slowly for two or three hours until the chicken is cooked.
Remove the chicken and break away from the bones and place back in the pot - keeping it hot on a low heat.
Cook the chopped leeks in boiling salted water. Chop the prunes and parsley, keeping aside for garnish.
To serve
In a bowl place the cooked rice, prunes and chopped parsley. Spoon in the chicken, veggies and broth and serve.
Cock-A-Leekie is a hearty soup and can be eaten as a meal in itself. I made a big batch last week and am enjoying it. It's delicious and freezes well.
As they say in Scottish Gaelic "Ith gu leòir"! (Bon Appétit)
r1 Ena Baxter and husband Gordon (telegraph)
2 Cock-A-Leekie soup (gastrorob)
3 Cock-A-Leekie -- Baxters top-selling soup (tesco)
4 Ena Baxter was also an accomplished artist (scotsman)
5 Cock-A-Leekie - chicken plus leeks (standrewsrarebooks)
6 Ena Baxter's Scottish cook book (bookcrossing)
7 Baxters soups are firm favorites with the British Royal family (bbc)