Results tagged “Delia Smith” from Birmingham Mail - Restaurant Spy

It's always been ia bit of an oddity that television food programmes are dominated by posh people when restaurant kitchens are generally the domain of people from far less elevated backgrounds.

Years ago we had the appalling Fanny Craddock. Later came Keith Floyd. More lately we've had the boring Delia Smith and sloppy Nigela Lawson.

Last night came a plummy voiced and ridiculously named bloke called Valentine Warner, whose advice on seasonal cooking seemed neither particularly interesting nor very original.

My favourite character in lthe BBC2 programme was the Welsh gran who looked less than impressed as Val slapped all sorts of herbs and flavourings on a shoulder of lamb that surely needed no such help.

I'm a pretty liberal sort of bloke who's willing to accept most people's lifestyle choices, even if it involves supporting a team other than Birmingham City But a line has to be drawn somewhere.

That line - for me - is the use of ready-cut vegetables and stuff such as instant mashed spuds, ingredients that feature in Delia Smith's new cookery book.

I'm quite willing to accept that such ingredients have improved over recent years and obviously I acknowledge Delia as a fine and popular cook who prepares food of impeccable quality.