Who are your most favourite or least favourite TV Chefs?

[Durian]

IIRC he insisted on Stranglers music for all his TV shows although Peaches was an edited version. He was by the far the best TV chef just for the sheer humour and bon viveur attitude. The highlight of his shows for me is in a Norwegian mine when he's cooking for the miners. He picks up a bottle, pours a glass, takes a "slurp" and realises he's poured Aquavit rather than wine. Not content with this, his recipe calls for wine to be included and he again gets the bottle wrong resulting in a bit of a "whoosh" moment!!

He certainly was the best for humour and the bon viveur attitude. If I could have chosen any chef to get on the booze with for a day it would have been him. I've not seen much of the Hairy Bikers but from what I have seen they would have run Floyd a (not so) close second.

 

[Archie_tect]

My issue with Delia is that her approach is cooking-by-numbers, with no attempt to get you thinking for yourself.
As long as you're cooking for the right number of people, using the correct baking tin or whatever, it'll all work. It's when you have an extra person, large eggs instead of medium and every sort of sugar except the one you need that the wheels fall off.

Doc! That's just down to interpolation and improvising to suit what's in the cupboard... never followed a recipe to the letter yet!

 

[theclaud]

We call it "dinner" when we go out of the house. Supper is a glass of milk and a digestive.

You think this is boosting your working-class credentials?

 

[Archie_tect]

Ayup...

 

[martint235]

We call it "dinner" when we go out of the house. Supper is a glass of milk and a digestive.

Errm, let's just lay this to rest right now. The meals of the day in order are: breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. As stated supper is not a particularly substantial meal but neither is tea which would commonly be sandwiches.

 

[User169]

Raymond Blanc always seems like a nice chap, although his clouseauesque persona seems a bit put on at times.

Fergus Henderson's really good, if not exactly a telly chef.

 

[TheDoctor]

Doc! That's just down to interpolation and improvising to suit what's in the cupboard... never followed a recipe to the letter yet!

Exactly my point. Her techniques don't show you improvisation, they're to be followed like holy writ.
They don't teach you how to think for yourself.
That's why I don't use them.

 

[Archie_tect]

Surely it's up to you how you use the information when you've tried them, not her?

 

[summerdays]

John Burton-Race?

I have the book that went with that series, I have to admit to not cooking that much out of it ... but the sweet pastry recipe worked for me (I used to make absolutely appalling pastry).

 

[swee'pea99]

I will not hear a word said against Saint Delia. She is a paragon of good, hearty, common sense cooking. It's very difficult to get her recipes wrong; she says things like 'it will look a bit gloopy at this point'; and she never insists that you need Tibetan goat cheese.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I will not hear a word said against Saint Delia. She is a paragon of good, hearty, common sense cooking. It's very difficult to get her recipes wrong; she says things like 'it will look a bit gloopy at this point'; and she never insists that you need Tibetan goat cheese.

I agree that Delia occupies a very special place in middle class British cooking, in fact she was a revalation in her day. However, it IS cooking by numbers and it teaches you very little about the basic techniques and methodologies. Her recipes are over complicated and a mite bland (having said that I'm tucking into Italian Chicken' right now).

Mrs FF and her mother are products of Delia, both fine at serving-up tasty dishes, but not cooks. Without a recipe they are lost. They wouldn't last five mins on 'ready steady cook'. This is where IMO Jamie get's it right, he shows possibilities, variation on themes, gives you the notion to think for yourself, teaches techniques and concepts rather than instructions, implores experimentation. and extemporisation. Impactful flavour combinations, simple bold, magnificent.

OT I know, but I'm gonna recommend a fab cook book from a chain of resteraunts but no TV personality. This is THE firm fave in the FF household with recipes adored by all ... and simples:

 

[summerdays]

I agree a recipe in a book is a starting point.... problem is recreating a fantastic dish a couple of months later unless I make notes in the book of the little diversions and alterations I make as I go along!

 

[Fab Foodie]

I agree a recipe in a book is a starting point.... problem is recreating a fantastic dish a couple of months later unless I make notes in the book of the little diversions and alterations I make as I go along!

I scribble notes/deviations etc. in cookery books, it's not a hanging offence ....

 

[Archie_tect]

Thinking about what we do, I haven't used a cookery book for years... we never even bother buying stuff in advance for recipes.

 

[summerdays]

I scribble notes/deviations etc. in cookery books, it's not a hanging offence ....

No - it is the remembering to do it ...