CITY'S joint majority shareholder Delia Smith has today been invested with the CBE by HRH the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.

Delia was joined by husband Michael Wynn Jones and her mother Etty in London to receive the honour for services to food. With a cookery career spanning 40 years, the award comes in recognition of Delia's contribution to television cookery and recipe writing.

Commenting on the honour, Delia said: "'After 40 years of writing recipes I'm very, very proud and honoured that not just me - but the whole tradition of food and cooking in England - is being recognised.

"There are so many people who do so much but to be picked out amongst them is a great honour," Delia told the Press Association.

"I think the main thing is what my husband said, he said it's sort of a tribute to home cooks all over Britain. I still love cooking. I don't like it, like all of us, when you've done a hard day's work and got to rush home and get a meal on the table, then it's not much fun.

"But if I've got nothing to do and can lock myself in the kitchen for a couple of hours with the radio on then I love it."

Picture courtesy of the Press Association