The great day has arrived ... and I'm off to Berlin. Hoorah! I haven't been there since before the wall came down. When I first visited (aged just 16, and ridiculously thick) I didn't even know there was a wall there. Much has happened to both the city and I over the past couple of decades - and I can't wait to put us both together again. Friends will be reunited too ... oh yes, this is exciting! But I couldn't go anywhere without leaving a rant for you to enjoy, could I? Ah, Delia; what's going on???
Enjoy the weekend without me, folks! You have an Access All Areas pass to the Disco in my absence, and I'll fill you in on Berlin when I return.
Delia Smith: The (not so) Sweet Cheat?
Nigella undulates her way around an Italian deli, fills her saddlebags with expensive antipasti and croons “There - starters for six people, and virtually no effort on my behalf”. Swooooon! Marco can’t get through a sentence without mentioning Knorr chicken stock cubes. Do we lambaste him for not boiling and skimming a carcass for three hours? Nope - we flutter our eyelashes and dream that one day we too might crumble in his capable hands. When Jamie says we’ll Taste the Difference, Sainsbury’s has to triple the available space in the ready meals aisle.
Then poor old Delia comes along with ‘How to Cheat’ – all tinned mincemeat, frozen vegetables and ‘Dress Italian’ jars of tomato sauce – and wow, watch those knives come out! Not, it has to be said, taken from the drawers of the millions who have already bought the book itself (you don’t need knives to chop a pre-sliced jar of onions). But it is a bit weird that just when the importance of buying local, organic and/or responsibly sourced food finally starts to penetrate the consciousness of the average British consumer, the woman who prissily lectured the nation about how to boil an egg decides to promote over-priced, over-packaged convenience food over the affordable, healthier, tastier alternatives.
But perhaps, for the first time in Delia’s life, she’s having a rebel moment. Despite her indisputable culinary skills, she’s generally considered to be a bit of a prissy school ma’am, bland but reliable, with a persona as frosty as the frozen mashed potato she’s currently promoting. The words ‘passion’ and ‘Delia Smith’ rarely appear in the same sentence; maybe this book is her big coming out party, wherein she confirms to the world at large what we’ve all suspected for a long time: Delia actually loathes cooking … and ‘How to Cheat’ proves it.
4 comments:
Enjoy Berlin, Sally Bowles!
Sally Bowles? Cruella deVille, more like - or Nigella Lawson on acid (dollface?).
Delia hates cooking! I never thought of it like that before, but now you point it out ...
Ben's delighted with the book, though. For the first time in his life, he thinks he'll actually be allowed Pot Noodles for supper, seeing as we're all told to buy frozen mash and dog food - sorry, I mean tinned meat. Where do we draw the line?
Enjoy Berlin, Glamourpuss!
While you're in Berlin (do I remember the last time you went - with the lovely boyfriend, mine, not yours?) I will be perusing my copy of How to Cheat. Bought for me for Mother's day. The youngest is waiting for me to cook him something delicious in return. I'll let you know how it goes.
Be complex and loop the loop in the de-walled City of Sin.
Dollface
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