Delia says cheating is ok.

Gingernutmeg

Essex-girl wrote: »

Delia said that she wasnt going to do any more cookery series' but that she found a gap in the market & had to do it.

I'm wondering what gap she's found ... only one I can think of is 'more money than sense' lol

Essex-girl_2

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

I'm wondering what gap she's found ... only one I can think of is 'more money than sense' lol

Yep, strange isnt it, I thought it was going to be more along the lines of using say a tin of soup to make a pasta sauce etc. I agree with Keith Floyd - I dont have a problem with that at all - like nowdays most chefs say they buy ready made pastry but to make a whole meal out of convenience food - cant see the point.

The gap she saw apparantly is people who cant cook, and people who just have too little time. I remember her saying once that slow cookers were not a must have for the average kitchen - perhaps she has changed her mind on this.

I probably will watch the rest of the series just for entertainments sake.

code-a-holic

I watched too and me and dh were shocked. its awful. I chatted to a friend who does not always cook from scratch and even she wont buy pre grated cheese or ready made cheese sauce.
I cant believe this is allowed on telly...... In the time she took to assemble ready made food she could have cooked a meal from scratch.
I agree her first recipe was bizzare... who has quail eggs etc just sitting in their fridge/cupboard ready for use.
Im always insisting how easy it can be to people, how easy cooking form scratch can be.....why not do that instead of this rubbish(using rubbish to be polite!)

Primrose

After reading the trailers for Delia's new programme I was prepared to be disappointed - and I was !
This wasn't cooking at all. It was just assembly by numbers.
Frozen mashed potato and shop bought grated cheese! Can't believe it!

moanymoany

MiniLauraRocks wrote: »

Havent read whole thread but I do buy diced swede and carrots on a regular basis from Tesco/Asda, find it saves me ages in preparation time and very easy just to throw in a pot of soup or boil up for mash. Once had a sticker on it saying one of delias cheats.

I find swede terrible to prepare so this really helps and figure theres less wastage, price isnt bad either. Use veggie stock cubes as well for convience.

I make a lot of homemade veggie chilli, too expensive to buy in shops and not enough choice for veggies - but find using colmans sauce is great, saves trying to get taste right with spices/chillis etc.

All comes down to what you are comfortable with?

Is that a jar or sauce? I was talking about the sauces like ready made cheese sauce. The cook in sauces can be a terrific help in cooking.

What, for me, was a problem was that, especially the fish pie, was something that took a lot of planning to buy the ingredients. The other things were mostly what one might have in the freezer and cupboard.

I buy the frozen swede and carrot mix because of the swede!!!!!

taketwo

I felt it didn't quite sit right with her either -

"I'm going to use a packet of sliced leeks, but just in case you want to use a whole leek but don't know what to do with it, here's one, just slit it and rinse it" !

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat

Cheating for me is using things like a jar of Chicken Tonight fajita paste when making chicken fajitas, or a tin of condensed mushroom soup when making tuna and mushroom pasta bake. I guess Delia's interpretation of cheating is somewhat different to mine! IMHO a "cheat's" dish contains one or two "cheats", but an entirely cheated dish...well, you might as well buy a ready meal...which I don't think is Delia's aim sadly!

maypole

I think she should have just finished on a high with her last series. This is just so out of character as to make her look foolish.

Nix143

I've just watched Delia's prog on bbciplayer. I think I understand where she is coming from but I think she has got it drastically wrong.

There are always trends in cooking and so much cooking is 'aspirational' - we aspire to a kitchen garden so we can be healthy, organic, it's all part of aspiring to a certain lifestyle. Or we aspire to cooking for ourselves and our families in a back to basics, OS to us, way. Some of us want to be able to waltz into the kitchen, throw our posh shopping bags down and rustle up something delish a la Nigella. Look at all the cookery programs around - they aren't just presenting food, they are wrapping it up in lifestyle, be that fast paced glamorous mum Nigella or back to basics Jamie. How many of us have a smallholding and animals reared for slaughter, yet we lap Hugh Fearnely DooDah up by the bucket load. Heston Blumenthal anyone?

However what part of the country aspires to an 'Iceland' lifestyle? We may not all cook with fresh veg grown in our own back garden but we watch cooking programs to believe that we could and to see what it's like. But who here aspires to buying frozen food then serving it up under the guise of real food? If she IS aiming it at the 'Iceland' frozen food market then she has again got that wrong - quails eggs anyone?

We may not all cook but an intrinsic part of watching a cooking program, to my mind, is the belief that yes we could do that and wouldn't it be lovely if we did. But throwing dip on some oven chips and calling it cooking? Who on earth is going to aspire to that?

Churchmouse

I didn't watch the program, so I'm just going on secondhand information. From what I gather, I think you have put it absolutely right Nix These programs do sell aspirations, and lifestyles, that few will fully achieve. I just can't make out who is supposed to be wanting this particular lifestyle I'd have thought anyone with the money to afford these ingredients would prefer to eat out, or buy high-end ready prepared meals.

It's strange though, how everyone's idea of an acceptable cheat is different:D