I used to go to lots of dances. There was a dance for servants run by the big houses every month.

Every year there was a big ball for servants in the Albert Hall - the big houses laid on transport and hired a 'box' for us to sit in. The Duke of Devonshire's lot used to have the box next to us. We knew them quite well; there were 7 in the kitchen there, but they did more entertaining than the Inverforths.

Then there was a chef's ball once or twice a year at the Grosvenor Hotel or the Savoy Hotel. Once I went to a ball for servants at Buckingham Palace, in Queen Mary's time, it would have been. We didn't see her - we went in a side entrance to a big ballroom.

Dorothy at a ball. Cook is on the right.