Favourite Chef?

pennyocs

Other - please say below

i like tamsin day lewis she always seems to do usable recipes rather than stuff you will only ever do now and again.

flaire

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

I voted for dear Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. I find his work inspirational - and he's dash cuddly with that floppy hair and chunky jumpers.

I love Nigella because she's sinful and Rick Stein because he's comforting. And, of course, The Two Fat Ladies (as someone pointed out - meat, meat, meat with a bit more meat and a side dish of meat).

My oddest choice would be Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour. The best way to describe Bourdain is 'Hunter S Thompson Does Cooking'. Not much in the way of recipes, more a journey.

Finally, Elizabeth Davis who taught the British to cook. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Kind regards.

geordie_joe

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I really struggled to choose between HFW & Rick Stein - but went for HFW in the end as more than anyone else he's really changed the way we eat and think about food. Thanks Hugh!

No he didn't, even by his own admission his "chicken campaign" doubled the amount of FR chicken eaten in this country from less than 5% to less than 10%.

You me and the other 1.5 million who watched, and took notice may have changed, but the other 58.5 million people didn't give a !!!!!!.

Deliha made more of a change to cooking by teaching people the basics, like how to boil an egg.

How many people watched HFW and then went out and bought a whole pig, slapped it on the kitchen table and had a go at cutting it up.?

How many people watched Deliha make scones and went into the kitchen to give it a go?

nodwah

Nigel Slater

I love Nigel Slater - he's not on telly much but I read his Observer column and in the Sainsburys Mag - His recipes are never outlandish or daft and they work!

MadDogWoman_2

Delia Smith

My favourite books are:

Nigella - Recipes always work. Her chocolate brownies from Domestic Goddess are always popular. I can also read them when there's nothing on TV.

Delia - use her way to cook rice every time, same goes for roast potatoes, she is also the first cook I watched on TV.

I've also got a Toddler Cookbook for quick, easy and store cupboard recipes for DD, but everyone gets the same. I like Annabel Karmel for the same reason everyone can eat it.

My GI diet recipe books, which I will return to after Christmas.

MDW

Peartree

Nigella Lawson

I like cookery books as, as they say, 'food !!!!!!', buying them cheap, I hasten to say, from Book People and the like. Every so often I cull them but I always keep the Nigella and the Nigel Slaters. I went off Delia a few years ago after a rather critical disappointment with one of her recipes (my friends and I still call her that b*tch Delia because of it!) but I don't throw hers away!

What I do go back to, however, are an old Dairy cookbook, the Be Ro cookbook and an old Good Housekeeping one with pictures of all the recipes at the front. I've also got a wonderful Jocelyn Dimbleby (on long term loan from a friend) which is more to do with techniques then recipes.

I prefer books by 'cooks' than 'chefs'. The recipes by chefs always seem to assume a large back up kitchen staff so you can get everything to the table on time - there is no cooking ahead or options for freezing. That's one reason I favour Nigella - she understands cooking for my own lifestyle. I enjoy cooking, but not to a deadline - if I'm having friends around I'd prefer to potter around and do most of it the day before (and have a relaxed evening with my guests) rather than do everything professional kitchen style!

Peartree

Nigella Lawson

PS I've also got my first cookery book by Marguerite Patten which I was given as a gift in my teens. I keep it for sentiment only as it has some truly disgusting 1970s food ideas in it.

Westywoodpecker

Gordon Ramsey

I've found this thread really interesting reading, BUT I'm still not sure how people unearth threads from 2006

mudgekin

Gordon Ramsey

Gordon Ramsay for sheer sex appeal:o

Delia because her recipies always seem to work for me and I'd also a huge fan of Mary Berry. I used to really enjoy Nigella but now I find the pouting and breathlessness is getting a bit much. I kind of want to ask her does she have some sort of respiratory distress.

hotcookie101

Nigel Slater

I want to vote twice!! Nigel Slater is my all time favourite-just SO passionate about food, I can read his cookbooks like a normal book, especially kitchen diaries, its great!
I also love HFW-again same sort of thing-so passionate, Meat is my meat bible
These two I use probably at least 2-3 times weekly, I also like to read Jamie for ideas, and Nigella (How to Eat, not that fussed on others)
And Rick Stein is great-especially his latest one coast to coast.
I don't like Delia, or James Martin particularly, or gary rhodes, Ainsley makes my feel a murderous rage (LOL) and AWT is just irritating
I love to watch Gordon Ramsey, but don't tend to cook his food-its a wee bit faffy for me (but I do talk to myself sometimes when cooking and say "done" a lot lol
Just realised I could probably have voted for most of the options as my favourite chef, but will stick with Nigel Slater and get the kitchen diaries out after work for some bedtime reading :D