Driven to post poll rather than watch Delia

[brixtonbrood]

[Poll #1167359]

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I date myself - my TV cookery muse (in as much as I have one) is The Galloping Gourmet.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

It's okay; I remember him too, though I didn't do cookery in those days!

I remember him too

[jackfirecat.livejournal.com]

and of course instant nostaliga is available on youtube
er, sort of

[gingerelanor.livejournal.com]

Hm..

Nigella = used to be good, now a piss take of herself. Surely she's not serious? Domestic Goddess is a wonderful book, I love the recipes in it. Express though = pile of garbage.

Delia used to = boring but safe, but now = EWWWWW disgusting and should know better.

Jamie Oliver used to = annoying but now = lovely, sensible, enthusiastic all round lovely chap who cooks proper ingredients properly.

I also very much like Mrs Beeton.

And I am addicted to Saturday Kitchen - I like James Martin very much. Ooooh, and that Australian guy, Bill Someone - I would like his life please.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I'm a big Nigella fan - I think that's pretty common for women in my demographic. I haven't read Express though - and I'm not surprised to hear that it's rubbish - I think she said pretty much all she had to say about actual meals in How to Eat and then did the extra baking stuff in Goddess (which I love) and is now scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit. Honestly, she can't need the money, can she?

[gingerelanor.livejournal.com]

I used to love Nigella. I have How to Eat and Domestic Goddess and the Summer one, and Feast, and they're all good. Did you watch any of the Express programme though? I thought it was AWFUL. There were very very few real recipes, it was all tins and packets and chemicals, and lots and lots and lots of simpering winsome sideways looks to camera, and far too many *oh I'm such a hardworking mother, I must just take my children to school by taxi and then pop into Waitrose to buy lots of packets and then simper a bit at the camera* and I was so disappointed in her. What I always loved about her was that she took the time to make really good stuff, with good ingredients, something special and interesting. Express just went against all that and seemed so pointless.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I can't take Nigella on telly at all. All the stuff which I enjoy and (more or less) believe on the page seems appallingly fake on screen, and the sexy stuff became annoyingly self-parodic pretty much instantly.
But Delia running round the lake with her personal trainer every morning is even worse. Why the hell are you showing us this? Who could possibly care?

[gingerelanor.livejournal.com]

I only watched one episode of this Delia series, and when she got the tinned mince and the frozen mash out, I gave up. I just happened to flick through the channels earlier tonight and she was dolloping some sort of slime onto a prebought pastry case. EWw.

[k425.livejournal.com]

The scallops with chorizo was good, though. After the prog we found the recipe online and made it and want to make it again and again because it's nice. And it's not all chemicals and packets.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I do find Nigella's general approach to food fits well with mine. Scallops with chorizo sounds horrible, but that's just me and shellfish.

Delia's packets aren't quite as bad as you might fear - they do mostly consist of recognisable ingredients, and I'd be tempted by her shortcuts for the kids' suppers (which, let's face it, is where you *do* find yourself grateful for pre-chopped onions and pre-cooked mash) if they weren't also pre-salted, which means they are not at all suitable for pre-schoolers.

possibly, just possibly, over-analysing

[jackfirecat.livejournal.com]

Express made me worry about her. I only watched one or two as as you say the recipes weren't that interesting, but whereas I had previously been able to stand her flirtatious TV mannerisms, and the sharing anecdotes about her mother, her family & c., in Express I thought she looked like someone who was depressed but was trying to act jolly for the camera. Maybe just bad direction/editing/filming and she was just the same really but the schtick wasn't working, who knows, but it looked like she'd fallen out of love with me.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I cannot stand Nigella, never have been able to. The recipes irritate me but in part I realise it's something about the way she looks, as I also cannot stand Rachel de Thame (who used to prat around on Gardener's World until they replaced her with Carol Klein), and Julia Roberts the actress; they seem to me to have something similar about them. Utterly irrational.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I occasionally find myself recommending How to Eat to people for the children or dieting sections, but I always always preface it with the requirement to flick through it in the bookshop first to see whether you can take the writing style. I personally love her recognition of the games that many of us play in playing the part of the perfect cook/mother - I find it funny in Domestic Goddess and very moving and honest in Feast. However my mother represents a fairly large section of the population which just doesn't get what she's playing at at all and cannot parse the tone. Another group can see what she's doing but doesn't care/finds it self-indulgent/wishes she would just get on with the bloody recipe.

If in addition she reminds you of that complete cow you sat next to in fifth form French (my usual reason for taking a dislike to an entire physical type) then she's even more of a non-starter.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I am perhaps a bit harsh on Jamie by claiming Nigel Slater as my muse, but whereas with Nigel Slater it was instant rapport (plus, unlike other cooks, his books are so very often slanted towards recipes for two – also, I learned from him how to improvise and adapt), it took me some time to warm to Jamie on tv, until one day I caught him being knowledgeable and serious rather than conforming to the producer's notion of what he should be doing. But bookwise, I use his basic bread recipe every week (one of the few recipes I've completely memorised, and I realise he was the one who inspired me to give up on, ironically, Sainsbury's horrible batch loaves, and bake my own) and I roast chicken the way he did in his first book.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Nigel would definitely be my second choice and His first choice by a long way (with Heston trailing in second, but that's engineers for you). It's a rare week that we don't do at least one supper from 30 Minute Cook or Real Food.

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

I also put Nigel first and Heston second. Nigel isn't worried about the recipe but by what works and what doesn't - when you need to follow a recipe and when it is a matter of taste. Heston is mad but the only really scientific cook and the only one who really analyses the parameters of cooking, the characteristics you should control in the final product.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

The Two Fat Ladies for me, with a side-serving of Hugh, probably washed down by a bit of Oz.

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

Sophie Grigson and Jennifer Paterson.

I have a sort of fascination in Heston, too -- although he always gets something wrong -- and a sneaking fondness for Raymond Blanc, though, really, you're never going to do that yourself.

I used to like Hugh, but that was a long, long time ago.

[drpete.livejournal.com]

Antony WT fills me with rage.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Nigel is our kitchen god and 30 minute food/Real food fast/Appetite are regularly used. Then Jamie because actually his stuff is good.

I used to love Graham Kerr when I was younger. Not the recipes, they were beyond my ken, but Kerr himself, fantastic.