New BBC2 Back in time for dinner

Pollycat

lessonlearned wrote: »

Goldiegirl - I tend to agree with you. I also watched the Greg Wallace programme.

I have been both astonished and dismayed at the criticism and scorn that has been poured on the participants of these programmes and all because they are not aces in the kitchen.

I don't understand why people have to be so judgemental.

I've only caught part of one of the 'Back in time for dinner' programmes so can't comment that much on it but I don't think you can compare the different families on that and the Greg Wallace programme. That was coming from a very different angle.

The Greg Wallace programme wasn't so much a case of the families 'not being aces in the kitchen'.
More a case of being stupid in the supermarket.

lessonlearned

Yes you are right, it was all about shopping and budgeting etc.

However a lot of the participants were ridiculed because of their poor cooking skills.

A shame.

We are not born knowing how to cook, and although some people take to it like a duck to water, for others it doesn't always come easy.

I just think,that sometimes the criticism is a little overly harsh.

There's worse crimes than being an indifferent cook.:rotfl:

Goldiegirl

Pollycat wrote: »

I've only caught part of one of the 'Back in time for dinner' programmes so can't comment that much on it but I don't think you can compare the different families on that and the Greg Wallace programme. That was coming from a very different angle.

The Greg Wallace programme wasn't so much a case of the families 'not being aces in the kitchen'.
More a case of being stupid in the supermarket.

The programmes are different but the judgement poured on the families because they are not perfect in old style terms is the same.

flea72

suki1964 wrote: »

Erm, this isn't a cookery programme, it's a social history programme, showing how the supermarkets and food producers and the government have shaped our lives over the decades to what we have now

Ok, its a social history programme based around the food people have eaten/prepared through the decades. As a women taking part in the exerience, i would have expected to spend my time cooking all the meals, seeing as that was what a womens role was within a household, until very recently. If i didnt enjoy cooking, i wldnt take part in a show, where i knew i was required to cook

FairyPrincessk

But then I see it a bit differently Flea. I think Rochelle knows she isn't a particularly ambitious cook but was willing to give it a go to see what it was like for other women. She hasn't necessarily enjoyed all of it, but hearing her reflections is, nevertheless, interesting.

In a sense I think there is still a tension in the programme that I wrote about after the first episode. The programme wants to be both food and social history. For a contemporary women who doesn't have the experiences of women of the times explored to do the cooking means it ends up being more social history as the food history really needs an 'expert' or at least someone more experienced to pull it off. I don't think that is Rochelle's fault as much as it is a problem with how the programme is conceived. If they wanted it to be both, then they needed to find a woman who was experienced at making all of her family's meals and possibly with a far wider range of cooking skills--but then we wouldn't get much insight into how an 'outsider' experienced it.

duchy

I'm guessing they ditched the idea of giving Rochelle a pressure cooker after seeing her with a tin opener ...........on H&S grounds

Lizling

I think having a very average cook in the show makes it much easier to sympathise with the women of the earlier decades. They had to spend all day cooking even if they hated it and weren't any good at it.

Also, if you're not great in the kitchen yourself, it'd be easier to put yourself in Rochelle's shoes than if they'd put someone who's a brilliant cook in there.

As for why she'd do it when she doesn't like cooking, well, it's an amazing, immersive educational experience for her family and it'll probably help them all appreciate the food they have in the current era, but I'm sure there are lots of other perfectly good reasons too.

Snowy_Owl

JackieO wrote: »

Or if we went to visit relations up in Scotlad we would go up on the overnight SMT coach to Edinburgh, then another coach after that, then a bus ride before we got to my Aunts in Brechin.It would take almost 24 hours to get there. Often, as she had four children of her own, my two brothers would be farmed out to sleep in her neighbours house overnight.

I can remember being taken to Montrose as a little girl and Dad making us all get into the water It was freezing but he insisted it was 'good ' for you.Wearing a knitted swimsuit that Mum had made I looked a sorry site when I came out as my 'cossy' was down past my knees :):) and my brothers absolutely fell about laughing.Put me off of swimming for years and I never learned until I was in my late 50s

But relatives recipricated and when they came down to London they would stay with us for their holidays

WOW!!!! What a surprise reading this and you start to talk about holidaying in my neck of the woods!!!! I live in central Angus, and worked for 4 years in Ferryden on the outskirts of Montrose (south of the river/basin), have had friends based for a while in Brechin and was a student in Edinburgh.......After leaving Edinburgh, some of us used to visit and stay with each other as a means of catching up and have a mini-holiday!!!

Snowy_Owl

Liz3yy wrote: »

I agree re the decor, I don't remember anyone's homes being like that during the 80's

One of my best friends had a very similar style house!!!! It was total flash backs!!!

Rainy-Days

I thought last night was brilliant although the kitchen units were not 1990's at all. I recall my kitchen having the arched tops and being wood, yes allot of the stuff was integrated for sure, but that kitchen along with the Dualit toaster and kettle was modern.

Having said all of that, the food shop has changed. I used to do a massive weekly shop in one place and now I split it up between two or three. I worked at Ford at the time and we used to finish early on a Friday. I used to go through the house on a Thursday night checking the cupboards and writing my shopping list. I would put it in my handbag and when I left work on Friday I would drive straight to Tesco in St Albans's and do the one big weekly shop.

I would then go home, put it all away and then clean and blitz the house through. That meant the the rest of the weekend was mine without housework - apart from ironing on maybe the Sunday morning.

The fridge used to be stacked out because it meant one shop. Now I hunt and search around for bargains and I do allot more meal planning. Food wastage has gone down considerably and the fact we are all now recycling which is a good thing. It used to be black bin bags piled outside the house drive now it's the wheelie bin that has taken over. I actually really loved my wheelie bin when I first got it - others hated them, but I still think they are a brilliant invention.

Rochelle was right with Brandon though that the choice of food has just mushroomed to epidemic proportions. I can see exactly what they meant when they did the cheese aisle and the same with bread as well.

I think Rochelle did come through really well through the 80's but the 90's was really hitting her 'curve' and she felt and came across as being way more in step with things - even though it is 20 years ago :eek: To be fair this family is not media 'savvy' and I think towards the end that was a gift both to the programme and them because it delivered up the honesty, just sad that some of the editing maybe did not do this family justice through the 50's, 60's and then the 70's.

I loved the kitchen though, I liked the way it was planned and the sofa being in there. Ironic isn't it that at the end Brandon said the fact of them sitting around the dinner table was the key thing. It was something my parents insisted upon and I still have my kitchen table because I think it is important. There is no TV in the kitchen. I just like the table being the element that ties it all together, the cooking and sitting down as a family and eating.