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

freyasmum

JBD wrote: »

Yes, a lot of them are. I find a lot of tv chefs use too many ingredients, especially people like Jamie Oliver. He uses things like different types of fish and strange coloured tomatoes which simply are not available in the places I shop. Plus, cooking meals for under £5, I think most of us already do that.

Most of us do, yes. But we're on here; loads of people aren't.

That's why sainsburys et al launched their feed a family for a fiver - lots of people didn't (couldn't?), that's why it was quite a successful marketing tool.

And you don't have to stick to the exact ingredients. I suppose it would be a bit boring -- for other people -- after a few episodes if they only used the same ingredients. Don't get me wrong, for us it'd be great! But we're only a small percentage of the country sat on here, able to cook, able to pass on our advice and that's the dilemma that the programmers have, they can't please everyone all of the time.

Even when economy gastronomy was screened, the people on the show saved an absolute FORTUNE on their previous bills - OS was up in arms. How could they still spend £300 a week - on a budget!! The fools!!

Perhaps OSers just shouldn't watch cookery programmes? :rotfl:

p.s. all the different ingredients help make beautiful photography. Red, yellow, purply, green tomatoes all look much more interesting in a photo than just red. But that doesn't mean you have to eat them

DominicJ wrote: »

I nearly wet myself when he urged his viewers to save the parmesan rind, like everyone who watches doesnt buy is in a plastic tub....

There's absolutely no comparison between a fresh chunk of parmesan and the cheesy feet stuff :eek::rotfl:

knitter_nan

Just to let you know Shirley Goode has a blog where she posts nearly every day and includes lots of money saving tips and recipes

http://shirleygoode.blogspot.com/

lostinrates

easy wrote: »

I don't buy parmesan in a plastic tub - it's vile like that, all dry, might as well spinkle salted sawdust into your food.

OK I don't buy big chunks at a time, but buying 'real' parmesan is much nicer, it keeps for ages if you wrap it properly in the fridge and use as much as you need in each dish. Not cheaper, but better Value For Money.

It freezes too. I do buy it in fairly big chunks, especially when it works out cheaper.

You can sometimes buy the veryends, including rind, cheaply an cheese counters.

And the rind is excellent value for adding guts to a soup or ragu.


I think some chefs are very intouch with some peoples real lives. I too love nigel slater, and i like nigella. They cook somewhat how my family cook and eat, and make really nice gentle fusions of flavour.

I am enjoying the heston series but also laughing my socks off at it..the this is how i cook chilli was pArticularly hilarious.....he said you'd cook it that way after tasteing it...where as i am pretty sure most people cooking for a family as part of a normal week would not, however great his version tastes.


The 30 min meals i have seen are fairly adaptable. I don't use bottled sauces etc, but think i could do most of them, probably in not much more time, maybe even the same. But it is right they ar enot cheap. The abandon with which he uses vanilla paste is almost distressing! However, i think a less indulgent and nice approximation can be made using a normal amount.

rinabean

Most people watching cookery shows don't want practical advice. They want to be entertained, or they want a fancy recipe/technique to add to their repertoire. I think the internet fills that gap now.

flaire

I've always viewed TV cookery shows as gastronomy !!!!!! - wish television in the same league as Top Gear. I doubt few watching Top Gear can afford the £200,000 price tag of the car highlighted on Sunday but it is all fantasy. Pretty much like most of TV.

There's a world of difference between the cook and the chef and most of the presenters are former chefs.

beccad

There's something about Nigel Slater that makes me want to slap him The food looks nice but he's so prissy about it. (Note: it's a turn of phrase rather than an actual violent desire!)

I was watching Heston's potato programme last night and was wondering who has the time, or indeed the motivation, to spend the best part of an hour making mashed potatoes, carefully heating the sliced potatoes at exactly 72 degress celcius for 30 minutes. But then I suppose Heston isn't aiming himself at the budget/quick market.

scrabbles_2

flaire wrote: »

I've always viewed TV cookery shows as gastronomy !!!!!! - wish television in the same league as Top Gear. I doubt few watching Top Gear can afford the £200,000 price tag of the car highlighted on Sunday but it is all fantasy. Pretty much like most of TV.

There's a world of difference between the cook and the chef and most of the presenters are former chefs.

Well, you're bang on with that analogy. The average Celeb Chef viewer is no more going to go and cook the food than the Top Gear viewer is going to go out and buy a Maserati. It's about aspiration, not reality. 'Lifestyle' with a capital 'L'.

The old-style cookery programmes - Delia, Madhur Jaffrey, the first Ken Hom ones, even Fanny Craddock - were educational programmes made under the TV stations' educational remit and even, in some cases, as pert of Open University broadcasting.

These days cookery shows are very much for entertainment only, funded and produced accordingly. Many of them are little more than 30-minute advertisements to Buy the Book. That's not to say they're not enjoyable, or even that they're out of touch.

hotcookie101

I agree with others-Parmesan in a tub is YUCK! I buy chunks at a time, and they last for ages in the fridge (I keep in a tefal cheese preserver from lakeland and they last for months) I save the rinds and chuck them in bolognaise, minestrone, or italian meat stews.

I love cookery shows, some I will use recipes from, some I like to watch for the "show value". Nigella, Nigel Slater, Jamie, HFW, saturday kitchen I reckon I have used recipes from all of them. I admit I prefer reading Nigel to watching him though. I am enjoying Heston's latest programme-yes some of it is ridiculous, but I adore the science behind it (I have tried his egg boiling method, and it works well, and I really want to try the burgers)

I have said on here before, that for me, it is not about the cheapest way to feed us, its about feeding us the way we want to be fed, with the highest regard for the animals we eat, so make the most of the meat that we do eat, maybe by cutting back on it.

We LOVE food, and I don't think of beans on toast as dinner really (although I did just have that for lunch, and I am fond of an omelette when its just me for dinner )

Food programmes are a way to get ideas, you don't have to follow recipes exactly (the colours of tomatoes for example-you can just use red ones) and I often sub stuff if its too expensive that month, or if I can't get it (or I just don't see the point of it) I read cook books like novels, I love them, the tv shows are another way to do this.

Not everyone is on MSE, not everyone is OS (and even the ones that are-aren't necessarily feeding a family for a pound, I know I don't, I daren't say my food spends on here for fear of being cast out for not being frugal enough!)

It takes all sorts to make the world. Or OS :cool:

anguk

I used to love the Farmhouse Kitchen and I do wish we still had shows like that, I think the closest thing we have now like that is The Hairy Bikers. I guess it depends on the type of food you like, some like more "traditional" food, others like something a bit more "exotic".

Most cookery shows now are for the entertainment value and perhaps for ideas you can adapt yourself (and of course a long advert for the celeb chef and his latest book). I do enjoy watching Heston if only to say things like "who on earth has time to faff about making that" but I have picked up a few tips from him like how to cook steak properly, mind you I can't remember the last time I had steak.

lostinrates

anguk wrote: »

I used to love the Farmhouse Kitchen and I do wish we still had shows like that, I think the closest thing we have now like that is The Hairy Bikers. I guess it depends on the type of food you like, some like more "traditional" food, others like something a bit more "exotic".

Most cookery shows now are for the entertainment value and perhaps for ideas you can adapt yourself (and of course a long advert for the celeb chef and his latest book). I do enjoy watching Heston if only to say things like "who on earth has time to faff about making that" but I have picked up a few tips from him like how to cook steak properly, mind you I can't remember the last time I had steak.

Ah, well, the steak thing is intersting. I have tried his fifteen seond turn method and the resulting steak was horrendous. . I must have gone wrong somewhere. But i also fou d doing the fiftennsecond turns meant i couldn't get on with doing other stuff i might do while the meat was normally in one side for a couple of minutes.
The steak was cooked through, where as we prefer rare, and tough.
My pan was smoking, but the only think i can think is that it still must have been not hot enough.