Delia Smith has got to be the first chefs (or COOK, as I have once been seriously told by Paul Levy on the phone during an interview, whilst being completely hungover) that I have seen on TV. I must have been about 10, still living in Hong Kong and not really understanding what the English woman was saying, although I understood she was teaching us how to boil an egg.
I was never a big fan of Delia's cooking in the first place, maybe it's her tone of voice, or the fact that she was teaching how to boil an egg, but I have always found her cooking fairly boring. Delia published the book How To Cheat At Cooking in February 2008, which created an uproar by the whole army of celebrity chefs. It is true that frozen mash and pre-crisp bacon are not real cooking, as Aldo Zilli has pointed out by trying out some of the recipes in her new book, that the mushroom risotto tastes like 'pig piss down your neck'.
What I don't understand is that food issues are so discussed these days, everyone is urged to buy organic food etc; and here comes the courageous Delia with her recipe book full of tinned food. Whatever her reasons are for publishing this book, I have to say this woman has balls.
For food enthusiasts who actually spend time to read about these food articles /blogs, they probably have never experienced a time desperate enough to buy a ready meal. But there are many people who has full time jobs and kids who just buy tinned and frozen food for dinner because they simply don't have the time to cook or even for shop for food. If they are going to eat junk food anyway, what is the harm in putting a bit of creativity in junk food? Another Jamie Oliver cookbook is not going to make certain people go back to the kitchen, but at least another Delia Smith's cheating cookbook would.
I was never a big fan of Delia's cooking in the first place, maybe it's her tone of voice, or the fact that she was teaching how to boil an egg, but I have always found her cooking fairly boring. Delia published the book How To Cheat At Cooking in February 2008, which created an uproar by the whole army of celebrity chefs. It is true that frozen mash and pre-crisp bacon are not real cooking, as Aldo Zilli has pointed out by trying out some of the recipes in her new book, that the mushroom risotto tastes like 'pig piss down your neck'.
What I don't understand is that food issues are so discussed these days, everyone is urged to buy organic food etc; and here comes the courageous Delia with her recipe book full of tinned food. Whatever her reasons are for publishing this book, I have to say this woman has balls.
For food enthusiasts who actually spend time to read about these food articles /blogs, they probably have never experienced a time desperate enough to buy a ready meal. But there are many people who has full time jobs and kids who just buy tinned and frozen food for dinner because they simply don't have the time to cook or even for shop for food. If they are going to eat junk food anyway, what is the harm in putting a bit of creativity in junk food? Another Jamie Oliver cookbook is not going to make certain people go back to the kitchen, but at least another Delia Smith's cheating cookbook would.
Having all these chefs going mad at Delia is almost like having Stevie Wonder commenting on the Cheeky Girls' latest progress; it is aiming at a completely different type of audience. People who'd buy Delia's cookbook would not have had the will to buy fresh ingredients to cook up a meal in the first place, hence the 'cheat' bit in the title. Anyway, I would have thought controversy is exactly what Delia would want, to gain attention when she is slowly blending into the background of the new generation of television chefs. I wonder if any chefs or food writers feel just a tiny bit backfired when everyone is talking about Delia's book.
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