AT 78, one might think Merle Parrish would be slowing down, but it seems the Cudal cook may just be hitting her full stride.
It’s all thanks to a delightfully named creation, the peach blossom cake, and an appearance on Channel Ten’s popular reality show, MasterChef.
Last month Mrs Parrish was invited to participate in a one-on-one immunity challenge against MasterChef contestant, Billy Law, which she won convincingly.
The two cooked what has become Mrs Parrish’s signature dish, a peach blossom cake, as well as a set of cupcakes, and for her win she was allowed to keep the gold MasterChef immunity pin – the only guest chef to do so.
The buzz that followed has now encouraged her, with the help of her son, David, a hospitality worker based on Queensland’s Gold Coast, to complete a cook book she started two years ago.
Meanwhile, that cake – a firm Parrish family favourite – now looks set to propel her into a late-blossoming career.
Mrs Parrish was born and bred at Cudal, and her late husband, Clyde, worked for many years as a storeman and clerk for the former regional air service, Hazelton Airlines.
She remembers her first competition as if it was yesterday: aged seven, she entered a plate of Anzac biscuits in the 1939 Cudal Show and duly won.
Mrs Parrish still uses the Anzac biscuit recipe, handed down by her mother, Ivy Parslow.
“My mother was a good cook, but she wasn’t competitive, although she encouraged my competitive nature and gave me full use of the kitchen.
“My family has always encouraged and supported me in competition cooking – Clyde even used to do all the washing up.”
Almost every year since that first success Mrs Parrish has entered baked goods in her local show and other country shows in the region.
She has been a member of the Cudal CWA branch for 57 years – now as a life member – and remains a regular competitor in the CWA’s The Land Cookery Competition.
As her skills matured, Mrs Parrish graduated to judging at both country shows and CWA group and State finals.
She has also competed at Sydney Royal since 2000, being most successful in 2007 and 2009 – beaten by a single point for top honours in 2008.
In a busy lead-up to Sydney Royal, where Mrs Parrish enters 14 categories, she starts baking up to three days before judging – rising at 2am on judging day to make her scone entry.
At 5am she catches a bus from Orange to Sydney to be met by her daughter, Marianne Baker, who drives her to the showground.
“People say I’m mad, but I love the competition,” she said.
“If I win or lose it does not matter – if I lose, so be it; if I win it’s such a thrill.”
The MasterChef producers first approached Central West Group CWA president, Gail Hayden, to appear on the show, who suggested Mrs Parrish instead.
Which quite shocked the master cook.
“Never had I ever thought about being involved in something like MasterChef.”
The team at MasterChef has also encouraged her to continue with the cook book.
So far, it is progressing well, a publisher and agent have been lined up, and hopes are to publish in time for Christmas.
It will feature Mrs Parrish’s favourite recipes and some of her mother’s - and, of course, a peach blossom cake, the recipe for which she found in the CWA Coronation Cook Book owned by her grandmother, Ann Murray, another Cudal local.
“The recipe remains much the same as the original, although I’ve modified it a little - I only use the egg white, not the yolks, and have altered the amounts of butter, sugar and flour.”
The cake’s name is drawn from a pink swirl that represents the pink of a peach blossom.
Nor it seems are the family’s cooking talents yet exhausted.
Mrs Parrish’s daughter Marriane at 11 won The Land State CWA cookery competition prize for a chocolate cake, and at eight her youngest son, Robert, now working and living in New Guinea, baked the top scones at Cudal Show’s junior cooking section - then used the leftovers to enter the senior section and beat his mum’s offerings.
“And he never lets me forget that.”
