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Food and Eating

Williamstreeter said:
Well Lyn according to Mike, it was demolished because people wanted to get to fill their faces
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yes john its all to do with eating places these days...at this rate there will be no call for the great british cooker...everywhere you turn there is an eating place of some sorts
 
Astoness said:
yes john its all to do with eating places these days...at this rate there will be no call for the great british cooker...everywhere you turn there is an eating place of some sorts
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Everywhere is the same it seems in towns anyway. Supermarkets also seem to be expanding their pre-packed meal ranges.
This puzzles me somewhat. With all this preference fr eating out or easy meals at home how come so many are interested in cooking programmes? Maybe it is a substitute?
 
Alan,

The cynic's definition of a chef is someone who heats food! I only eat it. :-)

Maurice
 
Have moved these posts to new thread. Personally, I do not think that much of the "food" prepared by modern chefs is intended for eating, or rather that that aspect is not important. What seems most important is that it looks pretty. On one end of Masterchef, I did see (avoid it like the plague, but can't help seeing if I am waiting for next program), there were two contestants , one they admitted tasted wonderful, the other they were less joyful about, but because the best-tasting one did not look as pretty, they awarded it to the pretty one. All bullshit. Little pools of chocolate around the side of the plate that won't be eaten, delicately placed twists of some peculiar foliage perched on the top of the food, likewise not really for eating, Snapdragons or something similar carefully arranged on the top as a work of art. All rubbish, as are the pratts that judge this conglomeration. There might be some good food somewhere amongst all this, but hidden by flummery(though not the edible kind)
 
I agree about the 'pretty' chef stuff but on the subject of eating places I recall the time where the only place you could get a meal out in town was the Lyon's corner house, if you could afford the time to queue and the price.
 
In my days as a working musician I saw some pretty horrible kitchens and catering practices, the worst of those being in 4 & 5 star hotels. This must have left a lasting impression on my bass player, because although I used to stay in good quality hotels when I visited the UK, he refused my invitations to dinner saying that he doesn't eat at restaurants anywhere. We'd end up with tea and cakes at his home. Maybe he has a point and Asian establishments seem to feature regularly in prosecution reports. Perhaps we should insist on inspecting the kitchens before placing our order! :-)

Where there are bad catering practices, you will invariably find that the rats, mice & cockraches by far outnumber the customers!

And why are celebrity chefs so damned arrogant? Like Mikejee, I don't watch their programmes, in fact we don't watch any TV, but these people manage to wheedle their way into the media somehow or other.

Enjoy your meal! :-) :-) :-) :-)

Maurice
 
The so-called 'celebrity' TV chefs aren't promoting the food, just themselves. The only TV chef I ever thought worth watching was Keith Floyd, who produced proper, wholesome dishes that didn't look like works of modern art. You can blame all the current TV nonsense on Fanny Cradock!

I had a friend who was a sous-chef in some fancy up-market country restaurant in darkest Worcestershire, and he told me that for every £1 the actual ingredients cost, the customer pays at least double this for the 'arrangement' on the plate.

G
 
Dear old Major Johnny was just a stooge, she was the prima donna. They visited Devon fairly often usually in their Rolls Royce. The registration was a special one BV (I think 57 was the numerals). BV stood for Bon Viveurs. They went out of the limelight after being badly burned on a yacht. She was, above all, a career woman who carefully chose friends who she felt were important or titled. A haridan who you either got on with (usually her way) or didn't; no half way house. She was the precursor to all the cook shows on tv. However she was fun to watch on tv, rather like a cookery version of Judge Judy. ;)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0185670/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
The Independant article puts it in a very factual way.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...fanny-cradock-first-lady-of-food-1625847.html
 
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Hi GUYS
As some one mentionioned fanny cradock and johny in the kitchem proggs of cooking how many of you can remember phillip harborne he was the first to appear on the BBC cooking series he always had that blue and white Butchers apron on and with his beard no health and safty or hygiene regulations on wearing a beard net cover as they have to do today Alan Astonian;;;;;
 
My word Alan that’s a blast from the past. I recall a portly chap, soft spoken, maybe Scottish?

TV chefs were quite a rarity in those days, I’ve now lost count of the number of TV ‘celebrity’ chefs today.
 
Philip Harben, a Londoner and actor. He was indeed the first on tv just after WW2 when some food came off ration. Marguerite Patten was next and then Fanny Craddock. However the most entertaining and flamboyant, by far, was Fanny hence her longer exposure on our tv screens. Some of the present day tv chefs/cookery pundits also sort beards and untidy hair as well. A puzzle really as most industrial food producers have very strict rules and as Astonian mentions hair nets and other coverings.
 
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The most irritating of all has to be Jamie Oliver, but none of the current batch impress me one iota.

Maurice
 
Astonian said:
Hi GUYS
As some one mentionioned fanny cradock and johny in the kitchem proggs of cooking how many of you can remember phillip harborne he was the first to appear on the BBC cooking series he always had that blue and white Butchers apron on and with his beard no health and safty or hygiene regulations on wearing a beard net cover as they have to do today Alan Astonian;;;;;
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I can remember him , I think he featured in an advert for the other side at some point
 
sospiri said:
The most irritating of all has to be Jamie Oliver, but none of the current batch impress me one iota.

Maurice
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Maurice I'd have to agree with you there , I admired him years ago in The Naked Chef mainly he was young and down to earth . Now when he's on you would think you were on military manoeuvres to hear him , I'm going in now , you'll hit the ground running . for crying out loud you are cooking food what is this twaddle chat about ?
 
When I left school many years ago , I trained as a cook. We made good edible food! Now when if I watch modern chefs I think "That's not cooked through" or "That's not how it should be done"! I cringe when I see the blood running from cooked meat and they don't seem to wash their hands properly or very often! Why do they need to make towers out of everything? Their meals must be cold by the time they've finished crouching right over the plates and fiddling about.
 
rosie said:
When I left school many years ago , I trained as a cook. We made good edible food! Now when if I watch modern chefs I think "That's not cooked through" or "That's not how it should be done"! I cringe when I see the blood running from cooked meat and they don't seem to wash their hands properly or very often! Why do they need to make towers out of everything? Their meals must be cold by the time they've finished crouching right over the plates and fiddling about.
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Bravo Rosie Hear hear
 
I recently noticed the pic below in a well known online newspaper and realised that at home I was eating dinners like the 1940s pic, maybe up to the size of the 1950s/1960s pic ... there's not much difference. I was a child during rationing so they are the sizes I was used to.

Recently in a Yorkshire pub I was served something the size of the dinner on the right. It was excellently cooked but I struggled to eat even half of it. The waitress looked surprised at my half-cleared plate because folks at other tables were easily clearing their plates. As I was almost apologising for not clearing my plate she mentioned that they did serve children's meals (1970s size) and now that is what I order ... :rolleyes:
portions.jpg
 
We also opt for children's size meals, usually, when eating out. The exception is, of course, fish and chips when taken home.
The diagram in the above post does explain, t believe, why there are many overweight adults and children. Most people are not as physically active as their forbears so the larger meals have a tendency to apply avoirdupois to the body. :eek:
 
oldMohawk said:
I recently noticed the pic below in a well known online newspaper and realised that at home I was eating dinners like the 1940s pic, maybe up to the size of the 1950s/1960s pic ... there's not much difference. I was a child during rationing so they are the sizes I was used to.

Recently in a Yorkshire pub I was served something the size of the dinner on the right. It was excellently cooked but I struggled to eat even half of it. The waitress looked surprised at my half-cleared plate because folks at other tables were easily clearing their plates. As I was almost apologising for not clearing my plate she mentioned that they did serve children's meals (1970s size) and now that is what I order ... :rolleyes:
View attachment 131587
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I had the same in a pub yesterday. Absolutly enormouse platefull, half a chicken. I cut the chicken in half and took it home
 
to be honest i dont eat much.just at supper time. the chicken in the pic is about all i could manage.
i agree with rosie,we want to eat it not frame it.
 
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