Onions that make me cry

By Paul Fulford on Feb 25, 08 03:55 PM

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.

But I find it hard to accept that anyone is so terribly busy that they can't find time to buy a pound of onions and, when needed, dice one.

I think it's also implicit in this approach to cookery that the purchasing of fresh food and its preparation is somehow a chore.

We should celebrate food - and that means buying the best, freshest ingredients we can afford and preparing them ourselves.

Otherwise there's probably a market for a cheats' cookery book with only one page that reads: "Order a takeaway pizza. Eat."