Cooking Up A Storm!

Cooking Up A Storm!

Did anyone else out there witness the demise of Delia Smith last night on her new BBC 2 Programme? Quite possibly I think that dementia might be kicking in. That or the booze. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I have a lot to thank Delia for. You don’t get an OBE at the age of 66 and sell 18 million cookery books (and, therefore, outselling Nigel Slater, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay), without being successful. Her recipes have rescued many a Christmas dinner in our household and her “How To Cook” taught at least two of my sister-in-laws the joy of cooking and eating as well as increasing the sale of eggs by 10% overnight and causing most shops to see-out of omelette pans. 

I even quite fancied her when she was on “Multi-Coloured Swapshop”, being the first female chef on children’s TV, before I gave my heart away to Emma Forbes. And, having seen her, Delia that is, modelling bathing costumes in this week’s Radio Times, I can easily see why I did.

Even the rather camp Nigel Slater (who is a chef I admire greatly) seemed to have a soft spot for ol’ Delia, talking at one point about receiving “permission from Headmistress”. I wouldn’t have put him down as being into S&M. It takes all sorts. 

However, I am now beginning to believe that the drink-fuelled rant at a Norwich City football game may not have been a one off. She must have been boozed up when she made last night’s show, surely. For, as far as I can tell, it had next to nothing to do with proper cooking or even cheating at cooking as she claimed. How many of us put quails eggs in our fish pies? How many of us have capers, cornichons and walnuts on our shelves? How many put potato into our chocolate cakes? How many of us would pour a sauce that looked like cat sick over spiced potato wedges, boiled eggs, and olives? 

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about last night was her constant use of frozen mashed potato. Why didn’t she just show her audience how to make perfectly good mash? It takes just 25 minutes to peel, boil, and mash a potato and with a little butter, milk and seasoning it is quite delicious. The frozen monstrosities that Delia was hawking took 40 minutes to cook. Where is the sense in that? 

Maybe it is the lowly position of Norwich that has got her down. Maybe it is the realisation that she has been usurped in many male eyes by the beauty of Nigella Lawson (admittedly fading), and Tana Ramsay (Gordon’s much easier on the eye wife), or, for our American cousins, Giada de Laurentiis and Rachel Ray. 

How the mighty have fallen.  

Related articles

• Delia Smith vows never to make another cookery programme (telegraph.co.uk)
• Delia Smith quits TV to teach online (guardian.co.uk)