TV Cookery Programmes.. are they out of touch with the real world?

PasturesNew

davidspd wrote: »

Saturday Kitchen is a real case in point, who is it aimed at? It especially annoys me as James Martin is the celebrity face for the http://www.cannedfood.co.uk/ website and so is in a perfect position to showcase budget recipes.

I was thinking only the other day how I used to love watching his programme as a lot of the food was nice/achievable.... but he's definitely gone up market and does poofy stuff now (aka expensive).

wik

Ohhhhhhhh!!!! Dont get me started on TV chefs!!! Their obesssion with salt drives me boinkers!!!
I was a Chef for over 20 years and got told off many times by managers for not using salt in potatoes, vegetables etc!!!
My reply was always you can add salt at the table to taste.... BUT you cant take it out.

The other thing that drives me mad is when Delia (for example) says you need to use (for example) chantary carrots in this casserole along with sherry, port and bleugh bleugh bleugh red wine... hmmmm
No!! you use carrots - value ones.. and a dash of red wine... at the end of the day a cooked carrot in a casserole tastes the same! and the alcohol will have burned off, so do you really need 3 different ones?

~~~~ takes a deep breath ~~~~

PasturesNew

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Has anyone seen the new Sainsbury advert on how to save with leftovers, funny that they were asking people to submit their left over recipes last year under the guise of a competition, crafty so and so's :mad:

Leftovers is all the telly and online speak of these days.... I never have leftovers. I've either cooked for one/one item, or I've doubled it up (or 3-4x) and plan to have it the next 1-3 days, therefore it's not leftovers it's the meal plan.

Leftovers..... as if.

PasturesNew

wik wrote: »

The other thing that drives me mad is when Delia (for example) says you need to use (for example) chantary carrots in this casserole along with sherry, port and bleugh bleugh bleugh red wine... hmmmm
No!! you use carrots - value ones.. and a dash of red wine... at the end of the day a cooked carrot in a casserole tastes the same! and the alcohol will have burned off, so do you really need 3 different ones?

~~~~ takes a deep breath ~~~~

It drives me mad the way a lot of them put a splash of this, that or the other in .... either wine, booze, or some fancy vinegar. I've never got any of those in the house.

officeguru

wik wrote: »

Ohhhhhhhh!!!! Dont get me started on TV chefs!!! Their obesssion with salt drives me boinkers!!!
I was a Chef for over 20 years and got told off many times by managers for not using salt in potatoes, vegetables etc!!!
My reply was always you can add salt at the table to taste.... BUT you cant take it out.

The other thing that drives me mad is when Delia (for example) says you need to use (for example) chantary carrots in this casserole along with sherry, port and bleugh bleugh bleugh red wine... hmmmm
No!! you use carrots - value ones.. and a dash of red wine... at the end of the day a cooked carrot in a casserole tastes the same! and the alcohol will have burned off, so do you really need 3 different ones?

~~~~ takes a deep breath ~~~~

Thanks a lot for this.. I had never noticed this thread before and I thought I was the only one on the planet who didn't think these celeb chefs were Gods !!! What has happened to them all ??? I mean the newest Italian Cookery book that will make millions for *igella, is so far removed from the real thing that it is a travesty..

Do celeb chefs add all these extra ingredients so that they can call these recipes their own? Some people might not realise that a lot of these recipes have been around for hundreds of years and that all these extra ingredients do not add extra flavour - they are totally unnecessary.. I think that's why all the supermarkets are heaving with people all the time buying all the umpteen extras that go into these meals..

My son came visiting tonight and he started on about Jamie's 30 minute meals or whatever it is called and I gave him a plate of home made soup, which he thought was divine... so I gave him the recipe which is so basic an idiot could cook it..

I also love the cooking programmes that show the celebs heaping the food onto some wooden platter.. Do they not realise that it was thousands of years before the poor could afford plates and also how hard it is to teach kids to use a fork an knife ?

Sorry about the rant, but almost everyone I know would totally disagree with what I have just written, but life goes on

PS I am not a trained chef like yourself, but a very passionate cook, who owned her own restaurant and pub for 10 years..

Eenymeeny

BitternandTwisted I'm with you on the serving yourself thing, but we used seperate vegetable dishes, gravy boats etc. I mean when he puts it all, including the sauce, oozing all over a board. Looks most uninviting too me.
PasturesNew I watched Mary Berry yesteday making a simple baked alaska to which she added 'a splash of kirsch or anything else suitable that you have in your cupboard' I was wondering if I'm the only one who doesn't have a stock of all of these liqueors and vinegars so thanks for that

Butterfly_Brain

I have two of Shirley Goode's books, I must look them out.
You can still buy her books on Amazon if that is any help

Shropshirelass

I may be an old cynic, but I do think these celebrity cooks are in the business of publicising themselves in order to make a profit from their own restaurants and cookery books (which will be supported by the top percentage of people with money to spend on such luxuries).

They are not trying to help anyone else. TV companies should be ensuring that at least some cookery programmes are aimed at educating the general public to provide nutricious meals on an average salary. It may require some skill to make an interesting programme on these lines, but should surely not be beyond the powers of the highly paid experts available.

You may work up an apetite waiting though.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

raphanius

The other thing that drives me mad is when Delia (for example) says you need to use (for example) chantary carrots in this casserole along with sherry, port and bleugh bleugh bleugh red wine... hmmmm

theres a reason for their excessive use of ingredients and jamie is the worst offender - product placement. all these cooking shows are huge adverts for leading brands who can afford to [STRIKE]bribe[/STRIKE] pay channel 4 et al to get their stuff seen by millions of viewers. while you are passively viewing through your half asleep eyes over the morning coffee they try to subliminally influence the ingredients you buy and even in jamie, heston and delia's case where to buy them.

ok rant over

thriftwizard

TV companies should be ensuring that at least some cookery programmes are aimed at educating the general public to provide nutricious meals on an average salary. It may require some skill to make an interesting programme on these lines, but should surely not be beyond the powers of the highly paid experts available.

You may work up an apetite waiting though.

You'd think the BBC ought to be able to do it, wouldn't you? But knowing one or two people who work alongside them from time to time, their idea of an "average" salary for us plebs is probably around £50K or so. I've heard it argued at a posh party that obviously, the "average" salary is brought down drastically by all the people who don't "bother" to work... think they may be confusing mean "average" with median!