Oh, Delia, what have you done?

[contadina]

I've been given two of Delias cookbooks in the past - one of the how to books and the veggie one and they get used far less than any other recipes books that I own, mainly because her recipes require far too many jarred ingredients that I don't usually keep in my stock cupboard. I find her recipes too finickity and much prefer recipes that require fresh produce rather than a cupboard full of extras.

[red]

I never really like her but here is another article with a slightly different slant

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1773

and the cook book is how to cheat at cooking

but as the daily mail serialised her new book, they would take that view point, wouldn't they.

If she was honest and said her book was for people who wanted to pretend they had cooked something, then ok.. I still wouldn't like it cos it would still be encouraging more packaging and forgetting how to cook properly. but to pretend to be doing this to get the family back around the dinner table and to help the poor, is just insulting.

[Thurston Garden]

I managed to watch only 4 minutes of St Delia on bbc iplayer. My blood was beginning to boil....

The world is going to hell in a handcart and she is surrounded by packaging

I was ready to send here a stroppy email through her website but its run by a Ltd Company, so it's meaningless. I had a brief look at her forum but there are more people on there praising and thanking her than telling her she has made one mahoooosive mistake...


££££££££££

[Millymollymandy]

There's no way I am going to watch it for even 30 seconds!

[QuakerBear]

As a very busy person I value convenience food, but I make it myself. Why can't Delia teach people how to make in bulk cheap meals that can be fozen then re-heated latter, your own ready meals. Cooking isn't rocket science and some of the best meals are the easiest (omlettes anyone?). As for using those chemical over loaded poducts that claim to be food... She's just.... Arrgh...

(Stomps off home in a fit of digust)

[hamster]

And, as another busy person, I would contend that the problem isn't so much that I don't physically have the time to cook, but more that I don't have the mental energy after spending 3 hours on trains and tubes and taking notes on conferences all day - I could find half an hour, but sometimes I just don't want to. The idea of faffing around with things in tins or packets of frozen potatoes is just as offputting as cooking mince or peeling potatoes anyway.

As I work from home half the time, I usually cook proper meals from scratch, and can often think ahead and make double the night before, but if I don't, I'd far rather have a sandwich or a poached egg and lots of fruit or something really simple like that, than some dubious pre-prepared ingredients.

[Mydreamlife]

I just don't get the cheap chicken 'for the poor' we have chicken once every few months... because it is too expensive (I will only buy organic raised meat and animal products)
We have lots of beans, chickpeas and mushrooms... we bulk out minced beef with these so that it streches to several meals.
Perhaps the poor need better education and the industry needs to be better policed, and alternatives pushed - by the government and/or NGOs.

I don't see how people have some god given right to eat chicken... we do however have a god given duty to look after our planet and all it's inhabitants...

Well said! I whole heartedly agree. I am unfortunatly a vegetarian because I was subjectd to understanding the apaling conditions so many animals live and die in so we can eat cheap chicken. I do however cook meat for my oh and three children on the condition that it was given the best life and death possible. We are always positivle skint so just make it go further or don't have it untill we can get what we should. Society has gone crazy, how can T**** blame the consumer, they pay the farmers and put the meat on the shelves, it's time they sat up and took responsibility.

[porkchop]

i don't eat them myself but two quid for an abused bird or five for something better.
a family on a low budget can buy a bird and all the trimmings for the price of the other more expensive bird.
i can see how they sell so many. and the way food and power is going up leaps and bounds they will only sell more, or do you think the minimum wage/the giro check will rise at the same rate. i doubt it.
i am just thankful my dinner is running around outside laying my breakfast.
i just feel sorry for the others those that work hard all week and have little to show for it.
the birds yes its a shame but they don't know better, and thy don't go quietly into the night.
oh ye Delia well shes making a buck that's all she's bothered about

[PeterNZ]

I don't know Delia and have never seen a book or a programme with her. But one thing makes me think: Why is it that in peoples mind organic food = expensive food? And another question: why is it, that quite often this formular is true? I can only speak about the situation here in New Zealand. What really makes me angry is, that organic food in NZ is actually very posh and in fashion. So you have the people in their Porsche, working at an marketing firm or in a law practice and on the weekend they have their dinner parties and show off with their organic chardonnay! I stay away from one organic market (Matakana) in our area because I can't stand all these cocky city folk who dress up as country people. This is a big part of Organics in New Zealand.

My dream I work towards is to produce organic produce at an affordable (realistic?) price. I do not see one reason why an Organic goat cheese should cost 4 times more than a conventional one (again, New Zealand conditions). What really makes me angry is that most organic producers are quite happy to take the money and are not very interested in selling to a realistic price. I am not expecting to give it away for free. Organics to me means more than producing healthy food. It also means to make it affordable! Making a quick cash is very short sighted if you ask me!

Cheers

Peter

[Marc]

I agree Peter.
It's very much the same in the UK. When I was selling organic veg I charged about the same as conventional produce in the shops.
One of the favourite ways to sell organic produce in the UK now is in 'veg boxes' where you get about 2 kilos of veg and a loaf of bread for £10.
I really couldn't afford to buy food at those prices.!!

[oldfella]

When you so called cooking experts who make a their living showing people how to cook at the same time working in advertising supermarkets and fast food suppliers, then I think that the public get what they ask for. I"m afraid that the days of Mum teaching the kids how to cook have gone, as have the days of sitting down to meals around the table as a family, but then many of the old fashions have disappeared as quaint and outdated. You folk know that when you talk of your way of life you are thought of, by many as a nutcase, which is fine with me because I probably am.

[Martin]

-it's you that's sane - it's the majority that's barking bonkers!

[hamster]

When you so called cooking experts who make a their living showing people how to cook at the same time working in advertising supermarkets and fast food suppliers, then I think that the public get what they ask for. I"m afraid that the days of Mum teaching the kids how to cook have gone, as have the days of sitting down to meals around the table as a family, but then many of the old fashions have disappeared as quaint and outdated. You folk know that when you talk of your way of life you are thought of, by many as a nutcase, which is fine with me because I probably am.

I heard something on 'The Food Programme' a while back that said we have more hours of cookery programmes on telly and buy more cookbooks than any other European nation, but we spend the least time cooking and have (I think) one of the highest rates of diet/lifestyle-related diseases. We have this national fascination with cooking and food, but have convinced ourselves (or been convinced by the supermarkets) that somehow it's only these fancy telly chefs that can do it - not us mere mortals.

Madness!

[ina]

I heard something on 'The Food Programme' a while back that said we have more hours of cookery programmes on telly and buy more cookbooks than any other European nation, but we spend the least time cooking and have (I think) one of the highest rates of diet/lifestyle-related diseases.

It's true! We also spend the least time sitting down to family meals together. And we eat more snacks (i.e. crisps, sweets etc) than the rest of Europe together. Unfortunately, the they are trying to catch up with the UK, I think...

[Wotta Wally]

Oh don’t get me started on this rant! It is the hypocrisy of it that does it for me. She gives all these wonderful justifications for “cheatingâ€