Agnes Bertha Marshall was an Englishculinary entrepreneur. She became a leading cookery writer in the Victorian period, and was dubbed the "Queen of Ices" for her works on ice cream and other frozen desserts. In a time before practical domestic refrigeration, her success increased the demand in London for ice imported from Norway.
Early life
Marshall was born in Walthamstow, Essex. Her father, John Smith, was a clerk, but died when she was young and his widow, Susan, remarried. Marshall's early life remains obscure, but it was later written in the Pall Mall Gazette that she studied cooking from an early age, and "practised at Paris and with Vienna's celebrated chefs". She married Alfred William Marshall in 1878.
Books and school
Agnes Marshall wrote four books: Ices Plain and Fancy: The Book of Ices, Mrs. A. B. Marshall's Book of Cookery, Mrs. A. B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes, and her Fancy Ices. Her 1888 cookery book included a recipe for "cornets with cream", possibly the earliest publication of the edible ice cream cone. She also gave public lectures on cooking, and ran an agency for domestic staff. She was granted a patent in 1885 for an improved ice cream machine that could freeze a pint of ice cream in five minutes. She also suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream, a method Heston Blumenthal uses today in his three star Michelin restaurant The Fat Duck. With her husband, she established the Marshall School of Cookery in Mortimer Street, central London, in 1883, and published a weekly magazine, The Table, from 1886. The couple also sold cooking utensils and equipment.
Fatal fall
Marshall fell from a horse in 1904 and never fully recovered from it. She died in Pinner the following year, and was cremated at Golders Green crematorium. After her death, her estate and the rights to her books were sold to Mrs Beeton's publisher, Ward Lock, "which had little interest in keeping her recipes in print." Her husband took over the business that they had run together, but it failed. Unlike Mrs Beeton, Marshall quickly faded from public memory. Four biographical essays by Robin Weir, Peter Brears John Deith and Peter Barham were published in 1998 in one volume entitled Mrs Marshall: the Greatest VictorianIce Cream Maker, including a facsimile of her 1885 Book of Ices.
Legacy
English chef Heston Blumenthal, a recipient of multiple Michelin stars, called Marshall "one of the greatest culinary pioneers this country has ever seen". A liquid nitrogen ice cream store that was inspired by Marshall was opened in 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri and named "Ices Plain & Fancy" after her book.
