Sir Paul McCartney is regarded as a national treasure in the United Kingdom because he made his fame with The Beatles, who went on to become one of the most successful bands of all time, and because he has never slowed down, despite having a lucrative solo career. But despite all of his notoriety, he managed to keep his daughter blissfully unaware of the enormous acclaim that her father enjoyed throughout her youth.
Paul was an original member of The Beatles, widely acknowledged as the most influential band in the annals of pop music history. Paul was one of the band’s founding members. That is not an easy accomplishment. The “Fab Four” from Liverpool, England, were only active as a group for a total of ten years, but during that time they made an indelible impact on the annals of music history and popular culture.
Despite the fact that Paul’s days as a member of the Beatles may be behind him, he makes it a priority to continue the legacy of not just the cherished band but also of its late members, John Lennon and George Harrison. Paul and John Lennon’s songwriting collaboration was legendary, and it is still regarded as one of the most prolific songwriting partnerships in the annals of music history. The Beatles are the band with the most record sales of all time, having moved 183 million copies of their albums in the United States alone and an estimated 600 million copies worldwide.
After the breakup of the Beatles, Paul McCartney began his career as a solo artist and went on to create various bands, including one with his late wife, the late Linda McCartney. They became successful in the fashion industry thanks in part to one of their children, Stella McCartney, one of their four children together. Another one of Paul and Linda McCartney’s daughters, Mary McCartney, took after her mother’s profession and became a photographer.
However, regrettably, Linda lost her battle with illness in the year 1998. Before she passed away, the family of six had many happy times together before her demise. Following the dissolution of The Beatles, Paul and Linda Wilson went on to form the band Wings. The fact that Linda was an avid animal rights activist and a vegetarian contributed to the fact that the kids always looked forward to mealtimes at the McCartney table.
In 1967, Linda initially came into contact with Paul while she was working as a photographer at a club. The couple tied the knot on March 12, 1969, after what might be described as a whirlwind relationship. They welcomed Mary in 1969, Stella in 1971, and James in 1977 into the world as a result of their union. In addition, Paul took on the responsibility of raising Heather, Linda’s daughter from a previous marriage.
In the course of Paul and Linda’s marriage, which lasted for 29 years, they made frequent trips to the musician’s farmhouse in Scotland to spend time together as a family out of the prying eyes of the media. There, the kids were free to run about the farm as much as they wanted as their mother shot pictures of her lovely family. In 1975, Linda and her husband, who also had a strong compassion for animals, decided to give up meat and other animal products and adopt a vegetarian diet. Paul said that they would often cook together, and he shared his recollection by saying, “I would say, ‘Anything you’d want me to do?’ ” And slicing the onions was one task that I didn’t mind performing, despite the fact that it brought up a lot of strong feelings in me… Even to the point of crying at times! I really like cutting the onions since it gave me the opportunity to prevent Linda from crying.
After becoming increasingly public about their lifestyle change, Linda is credited with coining the phrase “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, the entire world would be vegetarian.” Linda is also credited with making the famous statement that she would never “eat anything with a face.” Her enthusiasm for plant-based cuisine inspired her to write cookbooks and launch her own frozen food business, Linda McCartney Foods, which she named after herself.
Although Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer and died away in 1998 at the age of 56, she was able to leave behind treasured memories for her husband and children as well as inspire them via the decisions she made in her life. After thereafter, Paul published his own version of the cookbook titled “The Meat-Free Monday Cookbook,” and the McCartney family worked together to create “Linda McCartney’s Family Kitchen” in June of 2021. This cookbook includes more than one hundred dishes that are vegetarian or vegan in nature.
Mary, the couple’s daughter, remembers that growing up, eating was always a huge issue. She doesn’t have any recollections of reveling in the pleasure of having a famous father; in fact, she didn’t even know that he was famous! Instead, she has memories of focusing on food.
She revealed to Closer that her family was more interested in talking about food than they were in music. In her words:
“I have a lot of happy memories of us chatting about different tastes and coming up with ideas together. Always, the topic of “how to cover the space in the center of the plate” came up in our conversations.
Mary did not only become a photographer like her mother, but she also developed a strong preference for vegan and vegetarian cuisine, following in her mother’s footsteps in this regard. In 2013 she released “Food: Vegetarian Home Cooking,” and in 2015 she released “At My Table: Vegetarian Feasts for Family and Friends,” both of which are cookbooks focusing on plant-based cuisine. She told Closer that some of her happiest memories of her mother were around food, and that Linda’s cream of tomato soup was one of her favorite dishes. She said, “When I needed consolation, I asked her to prepare it.” It was almost usually served with a substantial amount of toast. It was just comforting, and I had a sense that I was in good hands.
That sense of security was enhanced by the fact that Mary’s famous parents never made a show about their celebrity status, nor was it the primary focus of their life together. This allowed Mary and her siblings to grow up with a sense that they were always protected.
“When you’re inside it, you don’t really notice it so much,” she commented, adding that her father always encouraged all of his children to follow their own hobbies. “When you’re within it, you don’t really notice it so much,” she said. She went on to say that he advised her to “just follow your heart” and to “try not to be affected too much by what other people think of you.”
That is exactly what Mary accomplished, and now you can see her put a plant-based twist on some of your favorite dishes in the series “Mary McCartney Serves It Up,” which airs on Discovery Plus and Food Network.