Reality cooking shows have a lot to answer for when it comes to humble cooks like us … and Nigella Lawson.
Wait … domestic goddess Nigella???
Well, yes. The celebrity cook has spoken out against The Great British Bake Off, saying her cooking is too “homespun” for the show. In fact, she doubts she’d even make it onto the hit program in the first place.
She told Radio Times in the UK, “I wouldn’t get on Bake Off, it’s too complicated. I like baking in a homespun kind of way – if I make cookies, I don’t expect them all to look the same. I’m not being modest; I’m a home cook.”
The Great British Bake Off has become a huge hit in the UK with an average of 9 million viewers.
The Australian version of the show debuted on the Nine Network in 2013 and moved to Foxtel’s Lifestyle Food channel for season 2 this year. However other Australian cooking shows continue to conquer ratings including My Kitchen Rules and Masterchef.
Phrases such as “plating” and “technique” - which formerly had no place in any decent Aussie kitchen - are now thrown around by lay people who once had better things to worry about than the “consistency of serving sizes” and their “balance of flavours”.
Nigella Lawson has never called herself a chef. Just like our beloved Julie Goodwin, winner of season one of Masterchef, she considers herself a home cook and more from the Julia Child’s school of thought, where food is to be enjoyed, technique doesn’t have to be perfect and the only thing that matters about the finished product is that it is delicious.