I try a lot of celebrity chef recipes for my job (hard-hitting journalism, you know?).

And while I love Nigella Lawson’s iconic lasagne of love, swear by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s brown butter brownies, and have even allowed Gordon Ramsay’s tips to alter my treasured rocky road recipe, my heart still lies with Mary Berry.

Her Thai-inspired tomato soup was an instant hit in my home. I tried making her 15-minute lemon curd last weekend too ― it was so good, I skipped making the rest of the pie I’d planned and made six jars instead.

So, who else would I turn to for my next spag bol? Though the dish is described as “controversial” on the BBC’s site for its, er, un-Italian star ingredient, hey ― in Mary we trust.

The start of Mary’s bolognese is pretty simple. She finely chops onions, celery, and carrot, and fries them over a medium-high heat until soft.

I took Nigella’s lasagne advice here; it’s just faster to whizz them up in a blender rather than chopping them to tiny, even bits.

Once those have softened, she chucks in pork and beef mince (I’ll be honest; I only had beef, and it was fine) and garlic, cooking them until the mince is browned and its liquid has evaporated.

Mary adds tomato purée to the mix and follows it up with passata, chopped tomatoes, stock, wine, and thyme.

If you take nothing else from her advice, I’d recommend the half-passata, half-chopped tomato mix for almost all tomato-based dishes now I’ve tried it. Tinned tommies can be too watery, while the paste can be too thick – this is perfect.

After seasoning it, you bake the bolognese for an hour. I placed tinfoil over my frying pan and whacked it in the oven, though I’m sure a proper Dutch oven is a better option.

Then, you stir in some cream (the controversial ingredient), put the bolognese back in for an hour, and serve it with whatever pasta you like.

I regret to inform you it’s delicious. I don’t know whether it’s the cream or the extended stay in the oven that did it, but this was the deepest, richest, most satisfying bolognese I’ve tried.

It kind of makes sense ― Nigella adds milk to her lasagne’s ragu for a subtly creamy finish, so this is sort of the same idea (only more decadent).

The two-hour bake time is annoying, but it didn’t require much actual active cooking. I work from home, so made the sauce on my lunch break and cooked it in the oven while I was working. As Mary points out, the sauce “can be made up to a day ahead and reheated.”

I ate mine with Parmesan, linguini, and a huge smile on my face ― OK, her star ingredient is “controversial”, but there’s no denying the results are delicious.

Ex-Great British Bake-Off host Mary Berry doesn’t just do sweet treats ― we love her sausage casserole and “Mexican lasagne” recipes for our midweek meals.

With that said, there’s a reason one of her (many) cookbooks is called The Baking Bible. When I want to make dessert, I turn to the Cordon Bleu-trained chef first.

This weekend, I craved a lemon meringue pie. So, I thought I’d give her pared-down recipe a go (I’d tried more complex recipes recently, like a pomegranate curd, and had been left with a runny disaster).

People, the pie never got made. The curd was so good, I simply slathered it on slices of bread and ate spoonfuls from the jar ― I re-made double the recipe again to stay in stock for the rest of the month.

Her instructions are simple: whisk one egg per whole lemon zest and juice to 75g caster sugar and 56g butter together. Twice this calculation makes roughly a jar.

Then, keep whisking the lot over a gentle heat for seven to 10 minutes. Mary warns: “Do not allow the mixture to boil or it may split.”

For that reason, I made my first batch in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water (like the one you’d use for melting chocolate).

I recommend this if, like me, you’re using thin, cheap saucepans; if you have a heavy-bottomed saucepan and really good temperature control on your hob, though, a saucepan should be fine.

Once the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, you’re ready to spoon the curd into a sterilised jar ― it should thicken in a couple of hours, and the curd will last for a month or so in the fridge.

I loved that Mary uses the full zest and curd of all lemons. It makes a brilliantly tangy curd, and also means your kitchen smells amazing for hours.

I also think it made the curd less creamy, which I personally prefer.

Yes! Mary’s advice for sterilising the jars accidentally ensures they’re capable of taking in the hot curd without breaking or cracking, too.

“To sterilise jars, wash the jars in very hot, soapy water or put through the hot cycle of a dishwasher,” she writes.

Then, “place the jars onto a baking tray and slide into an oven preheated to 160C/325F/Gas 3 for 10–15 minutes”.

I spooned my curd into the jars while they were still warm(ish) from the oven. That way, you run far less risk of a shattering disaster.

Mary Berry isn’t afraid to switch up a classic recipe.

She uses tortillas in place of pasta sheets in her speedy “Mexican lasagne” recipe, for instance ― wraps form the base of her no-fuss midweek quiche too.

And her posh version of cottage pie is topped not with mash, but with creamy, cheesy dauphinoise.

So perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the former Great British Bake-Off host’s fish pie recipe has a similarly decadent topping.

In her elevated version of the dish, Mary’s “fish pie with a twist” boasts a topping most chefs would be proud to present.

Mary adds a “fancy soufflé style topping” to the usually humble meal.

After cooking off her leeks and forming a roux, she seasons the sauce and adds fish to it.

Then, she spoons the pie base into a casserole dish with some hard-boiled eggs and places it on the counter ’til cold, then in the fridge until hardened.

Once it’s chilled, the Cordon Bleu-trained chef starts on her soufflé, copping some crustless white bread into chunks.

She puts cream cheese, butter and cheese in a pan until melted, setting it aside to cool when she starts whisking egg whites in a separate, “spotlessly clean” bowl.

After the egg whites have reached stiff peaks, Mary adds salt and pepper to them before gently folding the mixture into the cheese and butter along with the bread chunks.

That goes on top of the chilled fish pie mix before hitting the oven for 20-25 minutes, or “until golden-brown and bubbling.”

Delia Smith has a similar recipe, sharing that most cuts of white fish “instantly become more special when made into a fluffy soufflé.”

Her recipe incorporates the fish into the batter, rather than sitting underneath it, though.

Chef Marcello Tully does separate his fish-infused soufflé from its spinach base and creamy sauce, but doesn’t keep the haddock away from the topping.

You can’t say Mary isn’t original…