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Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

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Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Jan 14, 2018 3:54 pm

Hello all

I read the following article with a great deal of interest, and found myself agreeing with quite a lot of what she said. Especially with regards to the point she made about cookery writers who e.g. advocate using organic chickens when most of the British Public cannot afford them, even for special occasions. Mr Strictly and I are one of those couples. It's definitely worth a read, and I'd be interested to see what everyone else thinks. Us foodies have to remember that we may be in the minority here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42675725#

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Pampy » Sun Jan 14, 2018 4:07 pm

I saw this on tv and like you, agree with what she says.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Joanbunting » Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:42 pm

I listened to Dessert Island Discs today. I really like Angela. She is a no-nonesense cook who believes passionately, as I do that cooking comes from the heart.

However i think she would say you must cook with the best ingredients you can afford, Organic , why? Free range of course. Does anyone really believe you must eat any chicken , however produced, just because it is cheap?

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:50 pm

This was the quote I was referring to Joan, and I apologise if I worded my original point wrongly (it took me several attempts :oops:).

"When you haven't got any money [and] you're living on a low income, to patronise and sit there and say, 'You've got to have an organic chicken' is wrong."

Free range chickens are as rare as hens teeth where I live. Although Gatwick Airport is nearby, I do not live in a wealthy town, which is reflected in what is available in the local supermarkets. Therefore I reckon that, as the majority of chickens sold are supermarket bargain or standard, not many people can afford to go up to free range. Our nearest Waitrose stores are in nearby towns, although we do have a small M&S food store on the edge of the industrial estate. There is an Aldi next door to it!

If I was ever in a position to write a cookery book, I would just list 'chicken' as that in an ingredients list. However, I would probably put a sentence in the introduction such as follows:

'Use whatever chicken you can afford, it doesn't matter if it's frozen pieces, supermarket bargain/standard or a butchers free range/organic. The most important thing is that you've enjoyed what you've eaten.'

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Petronius » Sun Jan 14, 2018 6:23 pm

We've been in the same position as you and Mr SS, though being retired we don't need so much and life is a bit easier. I'm afraid I'm a bit cynical about organic food unless I know exactly from where it comes – Farmers' Market carrots for example, is from a local small holding and his dirty carrots taste as carrots once did!

I had similar thoughts watching Tom Kerridge's programme – expensive pancetta – we use bacon, rolling pin to make it thinner.

We rarely buy a whole chicken unless we are absolutely certain we'll be able to use it up. We do buy his best chicken breast – just one – does for us, with the chicken and rice dish I posted for poor Pampy.

The other point she made was about not throwing anything away, sometimes we struggle with that as we need to take a little more care these days than hitherto but generally we stick to the golden rule – waste not, want not. My Dad's words echoing in my ear!

Also, with lots of buying done on-line, there's little opportunity to teach children how to shop. Sadly, the supermarkets have encouraged an attitude towards cheap products, rather than taste.

I smiled about her comment on not cooking with her boyfriend, 'cos he's messy. OH feels the same.

"Does anyone really believe you must eat any chicken , however produced, just because it is cheap?"

If HFW's series was anything to go by, then the answer is yes.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby mark111757 » Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:01 am

The store I worked at for7 years, offered bulk packs of certain food products. Such as chix breasts.

Here are a couple of examples price wise....

Boneless skinless chix breasts...bulk pack.. standard chix .2.7 kg. Average pkg .....$1.99/450g

Boneless skinless chix breasts...organic.....regular pack....675g average weight....$7.99per 450g


". ". ". ". ". Bulk pack.....1.47kg av weight.......$5.99 per 450g


Being in my financial situation and on retirement, I would go with the first one. Not ashamed to say so!!

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Jan 15, 2018 1:35 pm

I think there's a difference between the way people in the UK [have to ] budget and the rest of Europe spends their money

I was told years ago that Brits would spend a at least a third of their income on housing whereas no other Europeans would spend more than a quarter. A lot of the difference can be and is spent on food at least in France and Italy. The figures will have changed a bit, but the culture remains

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Joanbunting » Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:59 pm

Still the same today Sue. Things like new cars and expensive Christmas gifts are way down the list of priorities but we never cease to be amazed at how much they spend on food and we don't think we are frugal.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:35 pm

My neighbour Debora Robertson has expanded on Angela Hartnett's them in the Telegraph, I very much agree

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/anything-less-appetising-britains-food-snobbery/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:40 am

Good article from the neighbour, Sue!

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby mark111757 » Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:40 pm

In the store I worked st, in the produce area of the bigger ones, there was packaged fresh cut produce. An example being chopped onions as well sliced onion s. I am guilty of using them as well as recommending them to customers.

For example, for a family of four and the adults work, pre cut veg helps alot or in my case, knife skills are rubbish. (I did a net search and came up with these,).

$7.49 per 450 grams

675167.jpg
675167.jpg (54.86 KiB) Viewed 3475 times



2 pkg for $5.00 for 400 grams


32123.jpg
32123.jpg (68.21 KiB) Viewed 3475 times


Yeah, it costs but you pay for convenience. Does that make someone who uses them lazy?? Of course not. There is a serious market for this type of thing.

I was intrigued by the cauliflower steak. That and some curry powder and olive oil. And roast it in the oven. Sounds nice to me. As one person it would take me forever to go thru a whole head of cauliflower.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:45 pm

I think the problems with the cauli steak were that it was overpriced and heavily over packaged rather thanthe convenience

There is a tendency to assume that prepared veg etc are an example of western laziness "first world problems" but in Burma, a very poor country, I watched women on market stalls reducing huge cauliflowers to tiny florets ready to stir fry. They were sold by the cup, no mess or waste as you bought what you needed.

They also sell ready prepared deep fried crispy shallots there

Many other examples.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Pampy » Thu Jan 18, 2018 1:27 am

M&S have withdrawn the cauliflower steak from sale, admitting that they'd "got it wrong".
I sometimes bag pre-prepared bags of mixed vegetables that can be microwaved in the bag. Like Mark, I'm only cooking for myself and it's a way of having different vegetables, rather than living off a cauliflower for a week.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Gillthepainter » Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:06 pm

With you on those onions, Mark. I often buy ready chopped. It's so convenient.

Now, has Angela missed the point? Directing her argument towards the UK public, our not being foodie.
Is it the chefs who do not understand that more money will not get you more food result.

She also comes across as a food bore, in that she always bangs on about being foodily brought up with her Italian grandmother. As her badge of honour and foodie passage.
The UK public isn't suffering much because they don't have Italian grandmothers (or Spanish for that matter).
Not a huge fan of Angela, she's all right I guess.

What I'm saying rather badly is that she is advocating that Spanish and Italian homes are better at it than the UK.
Not necessarily so. I've regularly shopped in Spanish supermarkets - tins and jars a plenty. Ready made delicatessens packed with the public buying it made for them.

What do I know. I just get tired of the "not traditional" "not authentic" "not healthy" "not expensive enough" .

And the food moaning bandwaggon. Give me a break.

M&S cauliflowers, not just any cauliflowers, M&S cauliflowers.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Pampy » Thu Jan 18, 2018 8:21 pm

I think reading your comments, Gill, has made to re-evaluate the article and change my mind - you're right.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby karadekoolaid » Fri Jan 19, 2018 4:45 am

Gill:
For me, there's nothing wrong with convenient, providing "convenient" does not become " far too accommodating". Convenient as in ' prepped food" strikes me as a great option. However - well, there are both positive and negative outcomes.
Positive: I can go home and prepare a yummy meal from scratch in 15 -20 -30 minutes.
Negative: I dump everything in the slow cooker with a chunk of meat and forget about it. AND this is what I do every day.
The thing about prepared veg/meat is: (a) you don't know whether these delicious-looking strips of pepper were actually rescued from a half-rotten pepper and (b) even though it has a sell-by date, you don't actually know what time the veg were prepared.
Fine - in my case, it matters; but in many cases, it doesnt. Meals-in-a-moment is a blessing for many British families,whereas, for La Nonna or Maria de Dolores Sanchez in Girona, perhaps it's a scandal. It's a cultural thing, I believe. My wife has an Italian client who never, ever eats out. She prepares everything from scratch, at home. Her children go home ( to her home) for lunch EVERY DAY. My B-I-Ls family(Italian) is not dissimilar. Personally, I would not want my kids to come home for lunch every day, even though I love them to bits!
Different strokes, perhaps.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Gillthepainter » Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:49 am

Pampy - you rock! Have a star Magic1

Clive, I do like your take on things.
Most of my meals are from scratch. I'll slap down on the top of my thighs to get myself going, and say "I'm off into the kitchen, Tony".
And I'm there for anything up to an hour.
Even a salad takes me about an hour of pottering if say I'm boiling eggs ;)

There are days when I cannot fit it in. So my speed up is usually shortcuts.
We don't do takeaways, and we eat out about once every 3months, so it's me who cooks. Gawd forbit I be one of those people who just cook and cook for ever increasing numbers.

I'd go loopy if I lost the joy, and the privilege of choice.

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:27 pm

Pampy wrote:I think reading your comments, Gill, has made to re-evaluate the article and change my mind - you're right.


I completely disagree, I'm a Hartnett fan

And I think the point is surely not whether you find her references to her Italian granny irritating personally, which you may well do, but whether she and Debora Robertson are right about there being an unfortunate culture of food snobbery in the UK?

I think there is, and Debora's article is spot on in explaining how it manifests itself

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Re: Angela Hartnett article on BBC News

Postby Joanbunting » Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:51 pm

I'm a fan too. I listened to Dessert Island discs again this morning and I do like her take on life.

As I listened I was preparing lunch and other food for DD and s-i-l who flew in today. We had local fish soup because I know they love it but who on earth makes Mareilles fish soup from scratch for 4 people? I made a flat bread to go with it and baked a sherry/almond cake for the tin over the weekend.

I don't mind spending a couple of hours most days cooking supper and another hour on lunch if necessary but I am not at all ashamed of getting stuff from the butcher/traiteur, from Picard or the patisserie if it is far better than I can make and/or saves me several hours. Most of my friends and neighbours do just the same.

We eat out at restaurants every month or less except that at this time of year most restaurants are closed :lol: We invite and are invited too regularly and this seems not to be so amongst folk I know in the UK. So what Angela was saying about foodie culture is right Cooking and sharing food with love and generosity is what she means and I think this still holds in Italy, Spain and France for example.

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