A chocolate box cottage: Marcia's Gloucestershire home

About  Marcia

What Marcia doesn't know about Agas is probably not worth knowing. Her energy is legend - she regularly conducts two demonstrations a day, working tirelessly, meeting Aga customers, listening to their questions and offering advice.

Her grown-up children were at secondary school when she first started demonstrating. It was a natural progression for her as she had studied home economics at Radbrook College in Shrewsbury.

While she has spent many years demonstrating for Aga in the Midlands and all over the country, it is the six years she spent demonstrating in Ireland which really seem to stick in her mind. Her whirlwind seven-day tours of the country comprised seven demonstrations to packed audiences in seven different Irish towns.

Marcia's  home  and  her  Aga

It's in deepest Gloucestershire, in a chocolate box village of Cotswold stone. It's a converted barn - in fact horse and coaches used to drive in through what is now the kitchen. For Marcia, there are so many reasons to have an Aga. To her, it's an ally and friend. 

"I love the fact you don't have to clean it," she says. "I can cook curry and lemon meringue pie in the same oven and they will not smell or taste of each other. Whatever you're cooking you won't smell it in the kitchen because the Aga is vented to take cooking smells out of the kitchen.

The Aga: your flexible friend

"For anyone with younger children they're a real boon. All your clothes can be ironed and aired by folding them when they're damp and placing them on the simmering plate lid or on the warming plate of a 4-oven Aga. You'll certainly never need to iron a pillowcase or a tea towel again if you do this.

"You can dry gym shoes, football boots or rugby boots in the warming oven, wellies in front of the Aga and you can even warm your cold feet in winter in the warming oven.

"I find one of the best features about the Aga, as a cook, is not having to use so much fat. Because they cook using indirect heat which is radiated from all sides of the oven the food needs to have much less fat added to ensure that it retains its moisture, so it's easier, cleaner and healthier cooking.
 
"As my Aga is on all the time there are lots of bits and pieces which I simply don't use and I just don't need them in my kitchen. I don't need a toaster - I can make toast on the boiling plate. I don't need an electric kettle - I put my Aga kettle on to the boiling plate and it boils quicker than an electric kettle.

No  need  for  other  appliances

Marcia's kitchen: the hub of the home

"I don't need a popcorn maker or an electric sandwich maker. I don't use my tumble drier as much as I dry so many clothes in front of, above and on top of my Aga. And, as my Aga is on all the time, I can heat food very quickly without having to use a microwave at all.

"Very often people come to demonstrations who have an Aga but don't really understand it. It's wonderful to be able to reveal what a wonderful friend they have in this cooker and how they can truly make the most of it. 

"I have so many customers who come back to me saying that they 'just want to go home and cook'. When they say that I know I have done my job."

 

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By Beverley Nielsen