Katie Stewart, Cuckfield’s most famous cookery writer, dies suddenly, aged 78

The popular chef and food connoisseur, who had lived in the village for many years, died unexpectedly at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath on Sunday evening.

Katie, who was 78, moved in recent years from her former home in Broad Street to a smaller property in the High Street, where she was even closer to the shops.

Funeral director Pat Gallagher, who knew her personally, said Katie will be much missed by numerous friends and associates.

He said: “Katie was an absolutely lovely lady, so well known and a great supporter of everything that happened in Cuckfield. She was a friend to so many and a nice, nice lady with a wonderful sense of fun who was always smiling and was admired by many people.”

Katie was a food columnist of many years standing for The Times newspaper as well as a published author of many cookery books.

She was a leading light in the post-war culinary discovery of foreign flavours that began to filter into British food in the 1960s and 1970s.

Her recipes and books, as well as her newspaper columns, made her a household name with the influences of working periods spent in Paris and New York flavouring her food inventiveness and writings.

Katie’s funeral will be held at Holy Trinity Church in Cuckfield on Friday January 25 at 12.30pm. Family flowers only with donations to a charity yet to be announced.