Keep It Clean, Keep It Simple, is Delia’s Advice
By Sally Williams
IT’S a dish garnished with a generous drizzle of jus, and flavoured with a heady portion of strong language.
But it seems the recipe for modern cookery is not to Delia Smith’s liking.
She may be one of the pioneers of cooking on TV, but Smith – famous for teaching audiences how to boil an egg – has criticised chefs like Gordon Ramsay for making modern food too "cheffy", and making bad language a way of life in the kitchen.
And, in an outburst more in tune with her infamous half-time rant during a Norwich City game, she also laid into her own "prim" image during her early on-screen career.
The 66-year-old’s new BBC series, a updated version of her first cookery book How To Cheat At Cooking, begins soon.
In a fiery interview with the Radio Times, the cookery queen praised Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson, even though she dislikes watching people eat on TV.
She said, "Jamie is brilliant and has done more than anyone. I enjoy Nigella – she has such a passion for food. "I don’t usually like seeing people eat on TV but when she does it’s sexy and it works."
Smith said she regretted the prim image she had in her early days on TV, and even as late as 1998, when she made How To Cook, the back- to-basics TV series that even demonstrated how to boil an egg.
She said, "How To Cook sort of fails because there are still people afraid of cooking.
"Looking back at my career in TV, I wouldn’t do the same again. Everything had to be perfect, and that isn’t necessarily me.
"Sometimes I was really upset if I spilt a bit from a ladle and insisted on filming it again, should have left it in, and times they edited out my smiles. I had this too-perfect image."
She accused restaurants churning out too copycat meals.
She added, "In the 1970s there were lots of restaurants run by gifted amateurs.
"Now food has become like fashion – all the top designers and chefs are copied in the high street.
"Everyone is trying to do cheffy stuff, with ‘drizzle and jus.
"My idea of a treat is one of the restaurants at our footb club, our local pub, or a good curry."
And turning her focus on Ram say’s expletive-heavy screen presence, she said, "That’s not teaching. I like him when he does his recipes, but I’m not keen on his swearing."
But Stephen Terry, head chef at The Hardwick, Abergavenny, who was Gordon Ramsay’s best man at his wedding, last night stuck up for what he called his friend’s "motivational style".
He said, "Delia is entitled to her opinions, these things are subjective and the two of them have completely different styles.
"But she hasn’t worked in kitchens under the same kind of pressure as Gordon has.
"I have a lot of respect for what Gordon has achieved. I worked alongside him for 10 years, for Marco Pierre White and the Roux brothers.
"Yes Gordon swears and I can too every now and again but I find it can act as a motivational tool in some respects.
"But with Gordon, on television, a lot of it is just for effect. It’s an act and he’s playing up to the cameras.
"Delia has just not worked in our world."
He said most working chefs wouldn’t dream of using words such as drizzle in their restaurants.
Terry added, "We’ve got Ainsley Harriott to blame for using the word drizzle. "I would never say that, I would just say pour it on or squirt it. Chefs like to keep their dishes simple.
"If you add phrases like, ‘nestling in’ or ‘resting on’ in a menu, all it does it detract from the food itself."
Nick Jones, chef at the Fairyhill guest house in Reynoldston, in Gower, added, "We don’t use words to show off or overdo it, we just say sauce or gravy.
"There has been some swearing in every kitchen I’ve worked in and sometimes women are worse than men.
"But it can be a shock factor that’s helpful sometimes when you need to stress urgency.
"It is all part of kitchen life."
But Penny Lewis, who has hosted dinner parties for the Queen and runs cooking courses at Culinary Cottage, Abergavenny, agrees with Delia’s anti-swearing stance.
She said, "Cooking can be high pressured enough without the fear factor thrown in on top by being shouted and sworn at.
"Gordon is a good cook in his own right and I think people learn far more quickly if they are talked to instead. "But the swearing works for Gordon because he is known for it and it is expected from him now."
She admits that she uses "chef-speak" occasionally but adds that people cooking to impress their friends at home don’t need to worry about achieving perfection.
She added, "Sometimes if a dish is not perfect it is even better."
Do Welsh chefs cheat like Delia? Find out in Saturday’s Magazine
Food fight! – Delia v Ramsay
Delia Smith
After publishing her first cookery book – How To Cheat At Cooking – in 1971, Delia made her television debut in 1973, hosting Family Fare for three years.
She continued on television through the next two decades, making programmes for BBC Further Education, before hitting prime-time again with her seminal series How To Cook in 1998, focusing on the basics of cookery.
Throughout her career she has continued to produce books, including, most recently, an updated version of How To Cheat At Cooking, which will be accompanied by a BBC television series.
Gordon Ramsay
Generally regarded as one of Britain’s most successful chefs, Scotsman Ramsay has been awarded a total of 12 Michelin stars since starting his culinary career at the age of 19.
Highlights have included gaining three Michelin stars for his Chelsea restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road, in 1998, running the restaurant at Claridge’s, and opening his own branded outlets in Tokyo, New York, Dubai and Paris.
He has become a household name in the UK since the launch of two television series – Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen – in 2004, with another – The F Word, starting in 2005.
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