[Houdini]

He he he 

[nik at work]

"Oliver tragedy" - Are you saying what he did was wrong, or that it didn't work?
On either count I would disagree. He gets (and no doubt deserves) a lot of shit as the mockney twat but you can't critcise his desire to improve the standard of school meals. Surely thats an admirable aim? You also can't say that he didn't galvanise the nation into action. He blatantly did. Government got all excited and had meetings and such like, news pundits asked members of the public questions, the Daily Mail predicted we would all die. Impressive profile raising by just one person by anyones standards.
Does every child now eat a perfect well balanced diet? Of course not. Some kids have had their diets improved to varying extents, and that is great and no more than we could hope for. After all we don't cure everyone of cancer, but that doesn't mean the NHS should pack up all the oncology units and go home does it? Or that Joe Public should stop raising money for Cancer Research. You don't have to reach your ultimate goal at the first attempt, but it's nice to make even a small step in the right direction. Something that Oliver has done, and for that I salute him.

By contrast Delia has just cynically cashed in with no attempt to further the culinary skills of the nation. And as you say she is obviously also a good cook (not to everyones tastes but nobody could deny she can cook) and yet she complete fails to address the issue of showing people how to cook quality food. And for that she is a lazy cash hungry cow.

I freely admit to not being a massive foodie. In fact I would probably align myself with your Delia description, as a wholesome trad style type of cook/eater. Where you get the idea I am overpaid or overeat from I'm unsure, and I don't see the relevence? You know nothing of my eating habits (other than I can make cheesecake and a pasta dish with pesto).

For the record Delia is almost certainly a better cook than I, and yet if it were me on the TV showing people how to prepare simple food I would use fresh ingredients and simple recipes rather than reheating processed rubbish. Which leads us back to the processed food kids want in their lunchboxes, can you see the problem now?

[Houdini]

Worry not Nik, we're on the same wavelength vis-a-vis Oliver.  What you said is what I meant ie it's a tragedy it didn't work.  Sad that parents don't feed kids good food so they know it when they see it, what Oliver was serving looked delicious and nutritious.   Bang on the money w/ his irritibility quotient.  (Oik!) 

*pondering look*  Wonder how the whole affair fares today?

Cash cow?   Yup, that too.  She's a bit fat n'all and needs a good canter to slim her chops and haunches down a few stone.

I kinda like Delia as she was never a TV ego, never too pretentious or snobbish, and not a shouter or freak like that noisy ex-crap footballer/cokehead & Rhodes (but Rhodes isn't too awful too - is he?)  Only ever saw her as a woman making great British food (and we do have some fine cuisine here).

Overpaid/eating:   crumbs Nik, is your sarcasm radar low today?    Nothing wrong w/ dried pasta now Nik.  Fresh is better.  But fresh is better across the board.  Yes you're right about processed shit in lunchboxes, but some tinned food is organic.  But she ain't that bad now is she?  You have to blame the parents and stop looking for people in TV land to hang. 

I think people use the modern lifestyle or "hey I've been working all day" to be lazy in the kitchen, it doesn't take that much more of your life to better yourself (but you know this).  Cooking is now a chore instead of a pleasure, that's sad 

[Houdini]

Oh hang on, knew I had a point to make somewhere.

When I lived at home my diet was terrible.  Mother could only make jams well (she can't cook for shit and to this day is indifferent to making a better effort.)  We ate shit, of course it got a little better w/ time but mostly it was shit: too much fried food etc..  You can picture the scene w/ out me giving you the whole sob story*. 

When she remarried, I used to love visiting the husbands' mother as she was a fantastic cook.  Great British food.   Very Delia in fact.  I couldn't get enough of visiting Grandma - I never knew food could be so tasty.  Previously meals were to be endured.  (No bull, I'm serious!). 

What I want to say is you must understand that diets can be so much worse than Delia at her very worst, and she's got a long way to fall before thinking she should be shot.

(*I gave up meat as she never bought nice meat and prepared it badly.  Thankfully now I'm a health/exercise freak and eat mostly organic vegetarian)

[fatdoc]

I've been trying, for about half an hour, to find something to add to that, but no, it really does say it all.

You've got some balls McFiend!  "Maccy D's"

In the meantime chill with da proles

Ignore Slopes, he wouldn't know an honest pound or a non-overflowing waistline if it bit him on the bell.


You guys ain't understanding the predicament Little Britain is in.  This is the country faced w/ school kids that would rather bitch to Mum to pack them a lunch o' Jaffa cakes/Walkers/Coke than eat subsidised fine lunches (cf.  Oliver tragedy).  Evidently you guys are overpaid - if not that, certainly over fed . . .   You're idea of good food is a heart attack  in waiting.  Pfftt!


Wake up & smell the coffee, bloaters.  Delia may not be Michelin starred but she's trad, wholesome, wealthier and more successful that all of us.  She's also a better cook, deny it.  Tell me you know more about cooking than Delia Smith.  I think not!

my god, the escapologist has come off the red wine induced I hate you all mindset and is asking us to consider the real issue why the state feels we have to have such wank cookery on TV.

houdini yr bang on mate: if it teaches at least some ability to cook to the great unwashed obese shopping mall hordes of common misinformed sky football watching morass of ignorance that is the great british public then it's all fair go.

i know thats she's annoys people, me included... but just dont watch it nik at work...

[Houdini]

...I hate you all mindset

  Don't be ridiculous, I still hate you all. 

I tried to modify one of the post above regarding the overpaid/eating jibe (timed out).  It was directed at Slopes and Yoss who both do well, eat and drink like Kings and come from great families from wealthy areas.  Not that that is a bad thing, it's a great thing (for those fortunate to have had parents as they), but at times regarding food and wine both come across as snobbish and well, over paid/fed.  Which is very for the funny (envy talking), but does sort of remove them a bit from the grass-roots level which is Delia's turf.

I'm certain Slopes actually uses champagne instead of aftershave as it's known to be poisonous to the working classes: one whiff and they recoil in horror allowing him to cut through crowds like Moses and the Sea . . . 

Yoss of course will mix w/ the scum for great copy, and I guess I'm still sore about his Xmas port being a billion times better than mine . . . *mutter mumble . . . *

[Fiend]

Grrrrrr.

At least I know how sodding simple it is to make a tomato sauce and bung some fresh mince and onions in a pan.

[Jaspersharpe]

 

The McFiend tag just wont go away will it?!

[Fiend]

I hate Houdini.

[Jaspersharpe]

Well I've learned something new about cooking from Delia as I didn't even know you could get mince in a tin. Good thread this.

[Houdini]

Everyone needs something to hate, Fiend 

[Joepicalli]

Delia's Winter collection, Delia's Summer collection- Fried Halloumi with lime and caper vinagrette, Delia's tiramisu (my own incomparable version is based on her's) all these give her a rightful place in the canon.
I taught myself to cook by trying out and adapting her recipes.
Funnily enough on the food glorious food thread someone has just posted a question- "how often should a first time try on a recipe from a book go right"- answer: not that often except when you are doing it from Delia. She is meticulous: you get exactly what  is in the picture if you do what she says. Its not the most refined, subtle or authentic of cooking, but I can remember being gobsmacked at how a a recipe that I thought was impossible came out well time after time.
She got me laid (in the early eighties a boy who could cook was unusual) despite the fact that I have three eyes and constantly weeping sores on all visible body parts.
The woman is a goddess.
I do not have a telly so I don't know what the latest series is like, instinctively it doesn't appeal. But if it gets people standing in front a their stoves and thinking about what their doing, gives them some confidence around food the wtf.

[Houdini]

You gotta remember, Delia is self-made:  (from wiki)

Born in Woking, Surrey, Delia left school at 16 without a single O-level. Her first job was as a hairdresser, and she also worked as a shop assistant and in a travel agency before starting her career in cookery. At 21, she started work in a tiny restaurant in Paddington called The Singing Chef. She started as a washer-upper, then moved on to waitressing, and then was allowed to help with the cooking. She started reading English cookery books in the Reading Room at the British Museum, trying out the recipes on a Harley Street family with whom she was living at the time.

In 1969, Delia was taken on as the cookery writer for the Daily Mirror's new magazine. Their Deputy Editor was Michael Wynn-Jones whom she later married. Her first piece featured kipper pâté, beef in beer, and cheesecake. Her first cookery book (1971) was How to Cheat at Cooking. In 1972 she started a column in the Evening Standard which she was to write for 12 years. Later she wrote a successful column for the Radio Times until 1986. Delia became famous by hosting a cookery television show Family Fare which ran between 1973-1975.

Delia approached BBC Further Education with an idea for their first televised cookery course. Her aim was to educate people in how to cook, take them back to basics and cover all the classic techniques. Accompanying books were needed to explain not only how, but why things happen. This led to her three Cookery Course books. Eventually, a new phrase was coined called the 'Delia Effect', which usually involves a huge surge in purchases for a food item or utensil after it has been featured on her show or referenced in one of her books. This effect was most recently seen in 2008 after her new book How to Cheat at Cooking was published.

Her television series Delia's How to Cook (1998) reportedly led to a 10% rise in egg sales in Britain, and her use of ingredients (such as cranberries) or utensils (such as an omelette pan) can cause sell-outs overnight. Because of this fame, her first name has become sufficient to identify her to the public, and 'the Delia effect' has become a commonly used phrase to describe a run on a previously poor-selling product, on the basis of a high-profile recommendation.

In 2003 Delia announced her retirement from television. However, she returned for an eponymously-titled six-part series airing on the BBC in Spring 2008. The accompanying book, an update of her original best-selling 1971 book How to Cheat at Cooking, was publushed by Ebury Press in February 2008, immediately becoming a number one best-seller. Items to have benefitted from the Delia effect as a result include the Kenwood mini-chopper, Martelli pasta and Aunt Bessie's mashed potato.


She may be a God-squadding crank, dumpy, trad and not exactly cordon bleu, but she's a working class lass who has sold 18 million books.  She deserves respect.

[Joepicalli]

Good effort Houdini

[magpie]

Well I've learned something new about cooking from Delia as I didn't even know you could get mince in a tin.

Why would you want mince in a tin, you can  keep fresh stuff in the fridge or freezer.  I am a lazy bitch and even I wouldn't use meat from a tin, it's wrong  ???

[Jaspersharpe]

Fuck knows. I bet it tastes shit too.

[magpie]

I'm not brave enough to find out, it's meat - from a can! 

[Houdini]

Well I don't let that filth pollute my temple, but surely it (the taste) must depend on the quality of the produce in the can.  Assuming that meat doesn't get tainted w/ a metallic taste (which it already has from the iron in it naturally).  You can buy high quality organically produced tinned food.  That's a fact.  Some tins are also lined to protect the food.

[magpie]

I see your point, but the idea of meat in a can gives me the boke.  It reminds me of that really awful canned chicken curry in a can stuff that people used to stuff vol-a-vents with or spam.

Although I use tinned tuna so maybe I'm being weird about it 

[grumpycrumpy]

My problem with Delia's current offering is that she is so far out of step with the current climate .In the six years since she last graced our screens and bookshelves English cooking has come on a long way , people have been encouraged to find alternatives to packaged produce   , farmers markets are rife , tv chefs have grasped the nettle and tried to show us great unwashed that it is just as cheap and easy to make a good nutrious meal from scratch using fresh meat and veg as it is to switch on the microwave .....
And then back comes Ms Smith , THE most influential of all , who proceeds to instruct on how using frozen mashed potatoes , tinned mince and jars of passata filled with preservatives is just fine and sodding dandy ......
Children learn how to cook from their parents , if their parents are only capable of weilding tin openers and scissors in the kitchen then the next generation ain't gone to learn jack shit and will thus be more obese and stuffed with e numbers than the current crop of fat little fuckers  ....

[Shy Ted]

she does ma bridge in that woman

[Houdini]

Were Delia's ingredients the worst?  It could be organic bolognase?  It is out there.  Fresh veg is best IMO but frozen veg also is not bad as freezing just after picking preserves vitamin content / stems natural biochemical decay.  

(Frozen mash does seem beyond-the-pale, like.)

You still have to remember that as a nation our your eating habits are diabolical, and Delia has always advocated making stuff at home, on occassion she has written about cutting corners in cooking etc.. but she is still very muchos for zee home cooking, DIY ethos.

As for advances in UK cooking buying habits . . .   Most still eat bullshit.  We're educated and care about things. Delia can't reach everyone, many are beyond help and will die of obesity-related disorders in their 40's & early 50's (some even earlier)  Delia must not be held responsible for these people.  There are more TV cooks out there than Delia.

[Houdini]

You don't even need to line her pocket to get her recipes.

http://www.deliaonline.com/

You haters are barking up the wrong tree.  You should be pissing on Hungry Horses/Beefeater/Maccy D/KFC/shithole kebab shops/the chippy's doorsteps.

[Bubba]

Kebab shops and chippies don't have their own tv program and sell books on how to make lardy food though.

Ok, you can admire her for making her own way in life from humble beginnings but that doesn't mean her cookery programs are good. I admire Madonna for her business sense but her music is shit.

[Jaspersharpe]

As for advances in UK cooking buying habits . . .   Most still eat bullshit.  We're educated and care about things. Delia can't reach everyone, many are beyond help and will die of obesity-related disorders in their 40's & early 50's (some even earlier)  Delia must not be held responsible for these people.  There are more TV cooks out there than Delia.

TV cooks in general shouldn't be held responsible for these people. In fact nobody should but themselves or in the cases of obese children their parents. I don't agree with all this bollocks about it being down to advertising either. Fuck that shit. If you're brought up to enjoy good, healthy food then no amount of Ronald McDonald on tv is going to persuade you that it's a good idea to stuff McShit down your neck every lunchtime. Everyone wants an excuse rather than taking responsibilty for their own actions. I HATE McDonalds etc as much for their shocking corporate practices as the utter shite they serve as food but nobody forces you to eat there. It's like those fatties in the States who tried to sue Taco Bell or somesuch for serving them too much crap food. Pathetic. They lost. Good.