Hall of Fame
Margo Oliver Morgan
by Helen Hatton
Truly a household word since 1959 home economist, food editor, cookbook author and now avid amateur gardener, Margo Oliver began her illustrious career as a parcel girl at Eaton’s in her home town of Winnipeg. Quickly realizing that this position lacked creativity, Margo went on to business college and became a legal secretary. This wasn’t for her, either.
Fortunately, Margo had developed an early interested in food when, as a young girl, she happily took over the job of baking in the family home. Unlike the hobby breads of today that we may turn out, families then expected fresh, home-baked bread every day. Margo’s mother was only too happy to lose this time-consuming job, and quickly helped her daughter learn to make a delicious product. So, in 1950, a wiser Margo earned an undergraduate degree in Home Economics at the University of Manitoba and after a year of graduate work at the University of Minnesota, went to work for General Mills in the Betty Crocker kitchens in Minneapolis.
Today, of course, the kitchens employ home economists literally from around the world to lend authenticity to the recipes and food products, but back then, Margo was the first non-American they hired. She was always a stop on the kitchen tours when the group leader would proudly point and exclaim, “There’s our foreigner!”.
When General Mills decided to expand into Canada, they recruited Margo who became our first “Betty Crocker”. Margo spent four years crisscrossing the country appearing on radio and television, speaking to groups and giving the usual demonstrations that so many of us now know and love.
Mary Adams recalled, “Back in those days, General Mills had no milling facilities here, so Maple Leaf Mills was under contract to produce flour for them. I had just started at Maple Leaf, and Margo, over a General Mills, was really the competition. I was the new kid on the block, and even ‘though we were in competition, Margo really did extend herself. She was always so kind and helpful to me.”
I asked Mary if she remembered any funny anecdotes, and anything juicy, or …disasters, and Mary said, rather seriously, “I can’t think of a thing. You know, Margo Oliver was so together I don’t think she ever had any failures. She wasn’t like the rest of us all kind of flopping around. She was perfect!”
Nevertheless…
Margo had on of the very first microwave ovens in her Betty Crocker Canada kitchens, and was just learning to operate it. A tour group came through, and on one of her very first demonstrations, she proudly showed off this space-age appliance by cooking eggs. Margo admitted that the group was still picking bits of cooked egg and shells out of their little pillbox hats when they left.
Margo Fraser worked with Margo for three to four weeks when Margo was moving from General Mills to Montreal with Weekend Magazine. Marg worked part-time only, doing some interim recipe testing and answering the test kitchen telephone during the transition. “Oh, she was glamorous”, related Marg. “She always had beautiful clothes and could wear this big, chunky jewelery. In those days no-one really felt completely dressed unless we wore a stupid little hat, but somehow Margo never had to.”
Marg Fraser’s further memories included the CNE. She said, “Margo was a great ham in the kitchen and her demos with various celebrity chefs were huge hits. When the audiences were dull, Margo just flirted a bit, and the shows always took off. And you know, she always had such good ideas with food and could ice a cake in jig time. Those demos were just terrific!”
Marjorie Flint commented that Margo Oliver always had flair, and great presentation ideas.
M-A-R-G-O is not the usual spelling for Margo, and indeed some of you undoubtedly remember her as Marg. The additional “O” came out of signing her name Marg followed by a capital “O” obviously for “Oliver” , and Marg-o just naturally evolved.
At General Mills, Margo regularly submitted reports to the various grain mills, and soon just signed her letters with her initials “M.O.” Years later, she found out that the men in the field referred to our Margo – who is tall- as Big Mo….short for battleship Missouri.
Canada’s first Betty Crocker really come into her own as the popular food editor for Weekend and then Today magazine. Based in Montreal, she took over the job at Weekend from writer Helen Gougeon.
Helen, who was the Women’s Editor for the Montreal Standard from 1950 to 1958, had been doing articles on fashion and make-up. In that period, someone senior realized that food companies were buying advertising space, and management suddenly announced that there had to be a regular column with recipes…period! Helen said, “I was not a home economist, but loved food and cooked well, and had access to chefs in Montreal who were happy to help. When I decided to leave the paper, I suggested Margo Oliver apply for the job.” Margo told Helen that she’d love to, but really only knew about baking, not pickles and jam and such, wherein Helen replied, “Don’t worry, dear, you’ll learn.”
Helen had been testing recipes in her own kitchen at home, but Margo charmed management into building a proper test kitchen. It paid off handsomely. Beginning in late 1959, Margo Oliver produced for the magazines a minimum of 6 and sometimes as many as 10 recipes I until her retirement in August 1982.
I did some math: Twenty-three years, 2 months is approximately 1,205 weeks. An average of 8 recipe each week gives you a total of 9,640 recipes, give or take a few. And each week the photography was done in-house, in a studio next to the test kitchen. Margo accomplished all this with one and occasionally two helpers, plus a secretary who also pitched in.
Helen Gagen Magee said, “You know, Margo never seemed to make a terrific effort. She was always so relaxed, yet she always had the most amazing results with her food. The more she relaxed, the more things got done!”
I asked Margo about producing all those recipes week after week. “Well”, she replied, “I kept an eye on styles and changes in attitudes and paid attention to what people were asking about.”
Kay Spicer said of Margo, “While she was food editor with Weekend magazine, I had something to look forward to in the publication every week, and I’m sure most of the readers felt the same way.”
Elaine Collett did enjoy food editors’ conventions and trips with Margo. “She would always go out of her way to get good stories and ideas. We were once in California with Sunkist and I seem to remember that Margo and I spend a lot of time climbing up and down orange trees when no-one else would.
While at Weekend, Margo met and married Englishman Victor Morgan. They had a wonderful relationship for 12 years. Marg Fraser commented, “You know, when she was single, Margo managed an amazing social life, but her marriage was the best date she ever had.”
During her career, Margo has produced seven cookbooks – all best sellers. The titles range from Margo Oliver’s Most Treasured Recipes and her Weekend Magazine Cookbook to the current Good Food for Seniors and Good Food for One. Several of her cookbooks were printed in French as well.
Alison Fryer, owner of The Cookbook Store, commented, “Margo Oliver’s books are very practical with wide appeal. She has struck a chord with people and we’ve found that once they are introduced to her books, they want more. Her latest books, Good Food for Seniors and Good Food for One sell very well, and we still get requests for her original books. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back in print one day.
I asked Margo what she liked to cook today. And the emphatic answer was “simple”. But I also listened, drooling, to her loving description of fresh pears in apple juice- not sugar- that she “puts by” every year, and the freezer stocked with perfect peaches, raspberries and fresh-picked peas. I was tickled to hear Stephen, her gardener and handyman, state seriously, “I may get married someday, but I don’t want anyone cooking for me but Margo Oliver!”
Mary McGrath, the food and fashion writer at the Toronto Star said, “Margo Oliver set a standard of excellence for the rest of us; she never compromised; she was really well ahead of her time in so many ways. Margo was promoting Canadian recipes and foods long before everyone else go on that bandwagon. The Star ran her column for a number of years, and we still get readers bugging us if they’ve lost one of her recipes that they had clipped. And, Margo was always extremely gracious and a fabulous role model.”
Cynthia David, food editor at the Toronto Sun, added that she got interested in food and food writing because of Margo’s columns and cookbooks.
I think Lyn Cook’s nomination of Margo for the Hall of Fame beautifully sums up our admiration and respect. Lyn says “Margo worked in the Montreal area for the greater part of her career. I first became aware of her through her articles and recipes in the weekend magazines of the newspapers – the Telegram and the Star. She was the lady who inspired me to learn about food, consumerism and presentation of information to the interested public. She inspired me to enter the profession of Home Economics. Margo has written some wonderful cookbooks. I often refer to them because I know the recipes work. This nomination is my way of saying “Thank you, Margo” for leading me into my Home Economics career.”
And at that, I think the next sentence is simply “Thank you, Margo, and warmest congratulations from all of us.”