Poor Delia Smith. The British TV chef who’s best known for teaching the UK the basics of cooking must have been inspired by the success of American chefs who cut corners by making semi-homemade food or doctoring cake mixes.
Her latest BBC television show is How to Cheat at Cooking, and everybody hates her for it. The recipes in the show and the accompanying book use ingredients like frozen mash (that’s frozen mashed potatoes on this side of the pond) and tinned mince (ground meat in a can, near as I can figure) to shortcut traditional recipes, and British foodies are crying foul.
In an attempt to get to the bottom of the controversy, the Guardian pulled together a panel of experts, including a school dinner cook, a few chefs, and assorted food writers, to taste test some of the recipes. This wasn’t an easy task, since Smith’s show has created a run on items like prepared potato rostis (“we had to get the McCain potato rostis for the Shortcut Omelette Savoyard couriered—couriered!—from McCain in Scarborough”) and frozen mushroom risotto. But the larger problem was the way the recipes actually tasted:
‘This,’ remarks Giles [Coren, columnist and restaurant critic] kindly, ‘is like having a pig piss in your throat. It tastes of freezer and plastic. I don’t understand. If you can’t cook and you can’t afford to go out, eat a cheese sandwich.
Still, Smith does have her defenders. Not everybody, notes Nicholas Clee in Britain’s New Statesman, has time to cook from scratch, and stock cubes, canned beans, pregrated cheese, and precut vegetables can help the time-pressed eat somewhat healthy meals.
When my wife said a wine tasted like battery acid I asked when did she taste battery acid. That would be similar to my question for Giles .
I should have done my research before I wrote the above. Clearly it was possible during this production. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/edwardian-supersize-me.shtml
What’s particularly disappointing about this is that Delia’s legacy was her commitment to teaching people who know absolutely nothing in the kitchen how to cook properly. And if that meant they had to start with learning to boil an egg, so be it. But this isn’t cooking, and the fact that it’s intended to be quick and simple is no excuse at all. Especially when other English cooks/writers have done excellent work in the fast and easy variety. Nigella’s recent book has real food in it, and several years ago Nigel Slater pout out a great book called “Fast Food” that really was about simple prepared meals made out of real food.
The fast and easy shows don’t generally interest me, but even Rachael Ray’s show is still cooking (I do not defend her schtick, but every time I’ve caught her program, she’s been cooking food), and she uses the sort of convenience products that are reasonable compromises (the canned beans, frozen spinach, etc.). But Delia’s destroyed her reputation with this Sandra Lee style bullshit.
Wow I am looking at the taste test article. The ingredients for the frozen mashed potato cupcakes cost over 11 GBP: over $20
Chicken and leek pie: 15.27 GBP (over $30).
Omelet (!) 6.92 GBP (about $12
moussaka 16.61 GBP (over $30)
mushroom risotto 14.87 (almot $30)
Who is she trying to help?