Nigella Lawson Traces Her Foodie Roots | Who Do You Think You Are

Nigella Lawson's Jewish immigrant family have come a long way from poverty in Europe and the East End to the wealth of Belgravia. Her father Nigel was Margaret Thatcher's golden boy and mother Vanessa was heiress to the Lyons food dynasty. Nigella explores the origins of the Lyons business and discovers that it was a romance in 1863 and the coming together of the Salmons and the Glucksteins that helped cement its original success as a tobacco company.
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Nigella knows quite a lot about her background, mainly because several of her ancestors are quite famous figures. For a start, her father, Nigel Lawson, was Margaret Thatcher's chancellor of the exchequer for many years, while her mother, Vanessa Salmon, was an heiress born into the Lyons Coffee House dynasty. As a British institution, Nigella is acquainted with the history of the company. Instead of trading in tea, they originally sold tobacco under the name Salmon and Gluckstein. But what can she find out about her relatives who started the business? And what about other branches of her family? Are there Jewish connections, as she suspects?
She started with her mother's family, the Salmons, and their links to Lyons. Her grandfather, Felix Salmon, was instrumental in running the company and shaping its direction towards the famous Lyons cornerhouse tearooms. Travelling around London, many of today's famous landmark buildings, such as the Trocadero and Hard Rock Café, were formerly in possession of Lyons. Yet despite his success, Felix Salmon was a melancholy man, and one possible cause could be his wartime role. He was a member of the catering corps, and it appears from research at the Imperial War Museum that he might have been attached to one of the regiments that liberated the German concentration camp at Belsen. One cannot begin to imagine the trauma of the event, particularly for a Jew in the catering corps, responsible for famine relief for the liberated inmates.
Nigella continued to investigate the history of the company, turning her attention to Salmon and Gluckstein, the tobacco sellers, who claimed to be the largest in Europe at their launch in 1873.
One of the founding fathers was her great-great-grandfather, Barnett Salmon. His surname was originally Solomon. On the 1841 census it transpired that his father Aaron Solomon was a clothes dealer in the East End. Barnett started work as a travelling tobacco salesman. He married Helena Gluckstein in 1863, and went into business with his father-in-law, Samuel Gluckstein.
It was on the back of the success as a tobacco company that Lyons was born in 1889. To ensure none of his family was ever threatened with poverty he set up a family fund, but equally insisted that none of the women were allowed to work. At his death, Barnett was worth £3.5 million in today's money, and set up a trust fund for his wife worth £34 million.
The Glucksteins had become naturalised citizens in 1861. Samuel originally hailed from Germany and his wife Hannah was from the Netherlands. Like Barnett Salmon, his early years in this country were very humble, based also in the East End among the Jewish community.
Nigella visited Samuel's place of birth in Rheinberg and discovered his birth certificate. It revealed the name of his father, Lehmann, along with the fact that he was a professor of languages. But her travels were not over. Samuel's wife, Hannah Joseph, was born in Amsterdam and Nigella had a hunch that she was part of an ethnic group of Sephardic Jews who had travelled from Spain and Portugal in the 16th century.
Hannah's original surname was Sammes, but that name was of Dutch Israeli background, suggesting she belonged to the north European Ashkenazi ethnic group. Yet Nigella's disappointment was tempered by the fact that the meaning of Sammes derived from 'carer of the synagogue', a position of great respect in the community.
By contrast, Hannah's father, Coennraad, had been accused of theft and had been tried, convicted and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in 1830. He never served his sentence, instead fleeing the country and turning up with his family in England. Without his flight, Hannah would not have come to England.

[@openskies11]

Sad to think that she was married to Saatchi at this time and what he must have been putting her through behind the scenes.

[@ritalaiila]

The mother looked so much like Audrey Hepburn. Beauty!

[@naomiphilippaheredia9038]

I love her generosity in sharing recipes and I think she is a wonderfully frank and open person...whenever she appeared on MasterChef Australia she was so kind to the contestants...so encouraging... absolutely love her! 👍👏❤️

[@GlobetrotterBR]

Generosity??? LOL It is her business!!! LOL

[@wisequeens]

No surprises she inherited her mothers beautiful looks

[@warjdani]

She does look like her mother

[@atifarohman3342]

Even her maternal grandfather was very handsome

[@imranwkhan]

could not agree more

[@alexpond648]

Stunning parents and ancestors. Sad that she hadn't had her mother around for that long.

[@avengernemesis7990]

Nigella and her mother both stunning looking women. However there is sadness attached to both mother and daughter.. Australia..

[@michaelmcginsie2600]

nigella, I absolutely love you and I find watching your cooking shows helps me deal with all the chaos in the world today. Would love to be at one of your parties. Your a ray of sunshine

[@Mary-xk7sz]

I've always liked her so much. I miss seeing her cooking show online.

[@Reaper4367]

the answer from her son was spot on!

[@mandamorris7934]

My goodness she looks so like her mother! Beautiful!

[@debbiematechuck2998]

Love n miss your inspiring videos me my grandchildren they cook n bake w me keep what u doing

[@shahrulniza5286]

Wow....much later she would found out that her son wasn't joking at all. He is psychic! 👍

[@fdpcompdm]

what happened?

[@hannahx4696]

@@fdpcompdm her son said one of there relatives was a theif

[@jaccoet9894]

Please let the next segments run in order

[@gillschmid5267]

I just love when your darling son answered "thieves"!! What a wonderful family. Thank you so much for inviting us in. 😊

[@kellydalstok8900]

He wasn’t wrong

[@isd4154]

🐖💨🇦🇲 💪🇹🇷

[@nostalgia545]

@@kellydalstok8900 wait why?

[@artemisgoldberg7982]

Muhammad (Teddiursa)

[@cg8397]

​@@nostalgia545One of her ancestors fled Germany for the UK to escape his prison sentence after he was convicted for theft.

[@jeffsmith2022]

Beauty and brains...

[@Westminstrelsy]

OMG at 5:25... Felix looks like Billy Zane in Titanic 😱

[@artemisgoldberg7982]

Everynight in my dreama…

[@nikrosevca9294]

Lol thieves🥰🤣🤣🤣

[@artemisgoldberg7982]

Sinbad (Uncle Albert)

[@gginah84]

Nigella's scornful look when he suggests they were thieves, aw poor little Bruno

[@artemisgoldberg7982]

Normal 60/&0/50/50/50/40

[@Robert-uj5gc]

Nigella l would yikes yeah to brain out a new cookbook point and if you don't worry now a cookbook gorgeous I would like you to bring out a series

[@Robert-uj5gc]

Nigella love you family tree wayback in the past

[@Catlady77777]

Incomplete video.

[@saffron-scotchuniversalone2042]

She’s so harsh on her son when he could very much be correct. She’s trying to control those children but maybe after she’s enlightened, She will chill out.

[@patricelockertanthony7630]

And possibly you know nothing of it at all. You think, write, and judge, from your own experience only, knowing little more than nothing of her or of her relationship with her children. And you're arrogant as well with that horridly patronizing note of "...but maybe after she's enlightened, She will chill out." Crikey, what offal you've served up here.

[@jacobmassey3897]

Everyone has their own way of raising their children as you are influenced by the way your parents brought you up themselves. I dont see anything wrong with how she spoke to her son because he seems like a bit of a rebel who needs a firmer hand than his sister it's often the case with younger siblings in my experience.

[@gillschmid5267]

Rubbish, reptilian brain.

[@GlobetrotterBR]

I think you are very correct. Those children must be going through a living hell!

[@Klynker]

Are you enlightened then? Tell us what you’ve learned, so we can all ‘chill out’. Family dynamics is one thing that remains a very personal journey in my experience.