Vocal Voices

I was going to put this on the News board but thought it deserved a wider discussion.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -cook.html

Why are so many young women today unable to cook, presumably not having seen their mothers cook either? The whole horsemeat thing has brought this into sharp focus I feel. One might think that with all the celebrity chefs spawning hours of tv time, and shelves of books in bookshops, surely people should be able to put together a simple meal. But I have a theory - today's celeb chefs don't actually teach you to cook, they presuppose a knowledge that many people don't seem to possess and often use unusual ingredients which are maybe not easy to access, quite apart from the cost.. Back in the day, dear old Delia (still my favourite) showed you how to do basic simple cooking. There is an Irish tv chef, Darina Allen, who has done a lot of cookery programmes and many books, she went to the same catering college as Mr. Osc and myself, she was just a year ahead of us. Her first tv series was almost word for word what she and we were taught - good simple basic cooking. It seems to be that they need to go back to teaching children how to cook in school, because I'm horrified to think that there are mothers who can't even give their children a simple sandwich for lunch, and make sure they at least have a bowl of cereal before going to school. It can't all be down to money, because I see children buying breakfast rolls in the local shop on their way to school, and on a regular basis they don't come cheap.

I often despair at what I see in shopping trollies and can't believe that anyone thinks it is better for you to eat processed cr*p, when it is so easy to, say, buy a pound of mince and some potatoes and carrots and put together a simple nourishing meal.

Very well said Osc!

I cannot understand why so many people can't cook.

Over here it is very much a passage of rights to be taught to cook by (mostly) the mum.

My lads all wanted to learn to cook..albeit basic, but good nourishing food..as none of them can bear to be hungry and I'm not always around to cook for them.

I read a report the other day in a newspaper claiming some children's lunchboxes contained chips and crisps!
Cold chips?!
Beggars belief!!

I read somewhere that Delia was setting up a website giving online demonstrations of her recipes, taking it right back to basics! I think that's a great idea - cookery has not been taught properly in schools for a generation here in the UK and it's showing

I don't enjoy cooking, but I can cook and do cook.............it's a terrible shame that many just can't or won't

She's just been on The One Show promoting it!

I didn't enjoy cooking but I must have passed something on because Jen is the chief cook in our house these days If she does nothing else around the house (and she doesn't, unless asked!) I enjoy her cooking immensely

Oh - the link is from the DM.....says it all really

Osc, I think that I love you.

This has been a bee in my bonnet for ages.

Fresh food, cooked at home, is cheaper and more nutritious than processed pap. It does not take ages to do, so the time argument is pointless. It does not need a chef's cooking skills, it is basic every day food after all. And yes, the TV chefs have a lot to answer for with their sea salt and virgin olive oil and organically grown saffron.

I once watched Gary Rhodes cook the 'perfect fried egg' and I could have tiled my bathroom floor with the end result.

If you can turn on a stove, and know what a pan is, the world is your oyster.

Workingman wrote:Osc, I think that I love you.

This has been a bee in my bonnet for ages.

Fresh food, cooked at home, is cheaper and more nutritious than processed pap. It does not take ages to do, so the time argument is pointless. It does not need a chef's cooking skills, it is basic every day food after all. And yes, the TV chefs have a lot to answer for with their sea salt and virgin olive oil and organically grown saffron.

I once watched Gary Rhodes cook the 'perfect fried egg' and I could have tiled my bathroom floor with the end result.

If you can turn on a stove, and know what a pan is, the world is your oyster.

Must be a small bathroom floor.

To me, this is the most telling comment in Osc's post ...

.... there are mothers who can't even give their children a simple sandwich for lunch, and make sure they at least have a bowl of cereal before going to school.

I mean, that's not cooking - that's basic survival ! So it's not just down to "skill level", it's something much more fundamental than that ....

It's a shocking state of affairs. How on earth can a woman not know what a carrot is? It really is time for home economics to be a compulsory subject in schools and not just secondary schools either. Most children of primary school age love learning to cook and it is then when they most need proper nutrition. I just hope it's not too late as we are now in a situation where a second generation have no idea how to boil an egg.

allyluvselvis wrote:

Workingman wrote:Osc, I think that I love you.

This has been a bee in my bonnet for ages.

Fresh food, cooked at home, is cheaper and more nutritious than processed pap. It does not take ages to do, so the time argument is pointless. It does not need a chef's cooking skills, it is basic every day food after all. And yes, the TV chefs have a lot to answer for with their sea salt and virgin olive oil and organically grown saffron.

I once watched Gary Rhodes cook the 'perfect fried egg' and I could have tiled my bathroom floor with the end result.

If you can turn on a stove, and know what a pan is, the world is your oyster.

Must be a small bathroom floor.

Tsk, I was thinking of multiple fried eggs laid edge to edge and properly grouted.

Some wimmin.

Nobody has a one egg sized bathroom.... apart from Travelodge.