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From The Sunday Times

February 17, 2008

Delia Smith changes the way we eat in new book

Delia has shown she has the power to change the way we eat. But is her ‘cheat’s guide’ really what the nation really needs?

Lydia Slater

Last Friday the waiting ended for the worlds of cookery and publishing. After five years of self-imposed exile, Delia Smith, the doyenne of Britain’s celebrity cooks, was back with a new book, How to Cheat at Cooking.

Britain’s supermarkets and the suppliers of ingredients used in the book were bracing themselves for the inevitable “Delia effect”, a term recognised by the Collins dictionary in 2001.

In the past she has started a nationwide run on cranberries by using them on her television show, boosting sales by 200%. She has been credited for a 10% increase in sales of eggs, and rescued a Lancashire firm that was selling just 200 pans a year before she described them as “a little gem”. It sold 90,000 in the next four months.

Seasoned Pioneers, based on the Wirral, was one of the lucky ones to be offered a “Delia cheat ingredient” sticker for its products this time, its premixed spices getting the nod.

“We’ve had to ramp up our production by about 500% and we’ve trebled the number of staff we’ve got packing,” said Mark Steene, the firm’s founder. “And that was before the book came out.

“It’s all exciting but a bit scary. I’d like to think it will make my fortune but maybe it will kill me.”

For her publisher, Ebury Press, sales success was guaranteed. Delia’s books have sold 19m copies and, according to Waterstone’s, preorders of the latest were the largest in any category since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was already No 2 on the Amazon bestseller list before it had been published and predictably hit the top spot on its first day.

For its readers, though, there was a surprise in store. When she says “cheat”, Delia really means it.

The woman who taught a nation how to make perfect mashed potato has announced that we are allowed to get it out of a packet. And that’s not all. She also extols the virtues of fried onions in a can, precooked bacon and ready-made cheese sauce. A television series will follow in the spring.

Her aim, she says, is to show us “how to discover and use ready-prepared ingredients, how to sometimes short-circuit the accepted rules of cooking”.

The book, she feels, is not only a boon to the overworked and harassed parent who doesn’t have time to spend hours slaving in the kitchen, but also a necessary corrective to the smorgasbord of uppity television chefs now being served up on all channels.

All that effing and blinding may be good entertainment, but the effect, according to the sainted Delia – with whom the whole country is on first-name terms – is to have left many of us feeling that cooking is a dangerous sport reserved for the professionals.

Her theory is backed up by a recent survey by Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine that found only 5% of viewers were inspired to cook by watching celebrity chefs on television.

The initial reaction to Delia’s book was puzzlement. “I can see that she’s trying to reach out to people who are intimidated by cooking, but I’m not sure people will feel much more fulfilled by opening a tin of mince and putting frozen potato on top than they will by buying a ready meal,” said Henrietta Green, founder of the gourmet website Foodlovers britain.com. “This isn’t cooking – it’s assembly.”

One reader said online: “I’ve been mixing scratch ingredients with ready-made for years with great success. I wish I’d known people were waiting for permission to do the same. I’d have written a book myself.” The unthinkable question was being asked: had Delia somehow misjudged the state of the culinary nation?

This is not the first time that Delia has ventured into the arena of cheating. In fact her first book, published in 1971, was also titled How to Cheat at Cooking, and featured such delights as fish pie made from fish fingers, tinned mushrooms and tinned tomatoes.

One might have hoped that the nation had moved on since the early 1970s, those culinary doldrums when cheesy pineapple sticks were all the rage. But apparently not: this time, the first ingredient in her recipe for lobster soup is a can of lobster soup.

As I am a busy working mother and longtime Delia aficionado, How to Cheat at Cooking would seem to be aimed squarely at me, so I decided to try her “good old shepherd’s pie”.

A concoction of tinned mince, frozen mash, pregrated cheddar and frozen diced onion, it sounded, to be frank, horrible. But Delia says it is “nothing short of sensational”, so who was I to argue?

On closer examination, the “quick” recipe required one trip to Marks & Spencer, at one end of my high street, for the mince; a second to Tesco, at the other end, for the diced mixed carrot and swede (fail to get the Tesco kind, she warns darkly, and you’ll have to get out your chopping board, which kind of defeats the object of the exercise).

I couldn’t find any minced lamb – perhaps the Delia effect already in operation – so had to settle for a £1.69 tin of beef.

And although there were bags of unadulterated potatoes in every shop I passed, the Aunt Bessie’s Homestyle frozen mashed potato discs required a bit of a hunt. I unearthed them in Iceland, although I gave up on the frozen onion (Delia does allow you to slice your own in extremis).

Laden with plastic bags from different supermarkets, I staggered home. The shopping trip took an hour; assembling and cooking the ingredients, a further hour. The result was . . . okay. That did surprise me, as it had looked like a concoction of cat food and ice hockey pucks to begin with.

But not only does my normal recipe (involving meat that I fry myself, a good slosh of red wine and potatoes I peel, boil and mash to a Delia recipe with crème fraîche, butter and milk) taste nicer; it is also a lot quicker to shop for – and takes no longer to make. I was left wondering what the point of cheating was.

Are there shoppers out there who are too time-starved to peel a potato, but happy to trek to several supermarkets to obtain the ingredients? Delia is very particular about which item comes from which supplier, though she insists no money changed hands.

Of course, the idea is that you stock up at the supermarkets in advance – but it’s not much harder to store real potatoes, and freeze raw mince, is it?

“This is really how people cook,” insists William Sitwell, the editor of Waitrose Food Illustrated, a fan of the new book. “It’s totally realistic to expect people to cheat and cut corners. It’s how most of middle England cooks anyway and Delia knows that. She’s making it acceptable.”

Last week Delia suggested that she was partly influenced in writing the book by the scourge of child poverty. “I feel that’s a disgrace and that somehow or other we’ve got to make sure that everybody gets enough nutritious food to eat in the first place,” she said.

It’s a laudable aim, but my pie was rather expensive. The cost of the ingredients (leaving out the olive oil and cinnamon, which I had at home) was a smidgen under £7. I couldn’t help noticing that an 800g Tesco Finest shepherd’s pie would have set me back just £3.97 – and there was even an economy pie for 79p.

Where the book makes most sense is in the chapter on Asian food, in which combining prepared ingredients, such as spice mixes and coconut milk, with fresh meat is the only sensible way to proceed.

But do we really need Delia to tell us this? Who, aside from Michelin-starred Indian chefs, is such a purist that they create their own spice mixes and milk their own coconuts?

Among Delia’s fellow chefs last week, the reaction to the book was bafflement. “I’m surprised,” admitted Tana Ram-say, wife of Gordon and author of Real Family Food. “Delia really taught me to cook, and I’ve got all her books. They were my bibles.

“I’ve been really looking forward to this one coming out, but I thought it was going to be full of clever chef’s tips about how to make things quicker – like setting aside an afternoon and stocking the freezer when you’ve got time. My first thought would be that it’s going to be much more expensive for people on a budget to cook like she suggests.” Others are less charitable. “It’s depressing,” says the uncompromising food writer and publisher Tom Jaine, who edited The Good Food Guide for five years. “This simulacrum of cooking doesn’t make anyone nearer a cook than before. It may be a very accurate reflection of what really goes on in English kitchens but that doesn’t mean it should be encouraged.”

Delia's critics do not merely object to the book on grounds of good taste; some say that her message is irresponsible.

Consumers are generally being encouraged to cut down their carbon footprint, avoid supermarkets, buy as locally as possible and minimise packaging. But anyone cooking their way through Delia’s new tome will become intimately acquainted with most of our major supermarkets and have to chuck out acres of wrapping.

Last week Delia was quizzed about her eco-credentials and disclaimed any knowledge. “Don’t ask me – I haven’t got a clue,” she said, confessing to a liking for fresh Kenyan peas in winter. “I’m a cook. I can’t get into the politics of food.”

Many of her readers will nod in approval. But, like it or not, food is a political hot potato. Yesterday a report by the Sustainable Development Commission suggested that the food chain accounts for a fifth of UK greenhouse gas emissions.

“Delia is a very smart person, and I’m sure there is a logic to what she’s doing,” said the restaurateur Oliver Peyton, owner of Inn the Park and the National Dining Rooms. “But I wouldn’t suggest cheating by buying loads of processed food from supermarkets with lots of packaging.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using some frozen vegetables – frozen peas are great. But someone with as much influence as she has ought to be focusing on seasonal food. She has the power to make a huge difference. We all have a responsibility to take on these issues. Food, the production of food and the way we think about it is pivotal to our society.”

But isn’t that merely a middle-class preoccupation?

“That’s twaddle,” he said. “Food trends are very important, and most trends end up filtering down to the whole population. What's important is doing the right thing.”

Last week it was reported that sales of organic and free range chicken had soared by more than 35% after the screening of television programmes campaigning against battery farming methods by Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and supermarkets are struggling to meet demand.

Will this movement overtake Delia’s packet-and-tin crusade? The sales figures of Aunt Bessie’s frozen mash, Seasoned Pioneers’ spices and M&S tinned minced lamb will give us an answer.

I was fuming because I forgot that Delia's new TV program was halfway through when I switched on.
However after watching the second half I calmed down.
I don't believe I missed anything worth watching. The 'cooking' amounted to opening tins and mixing the contents then heating it all up.
The minutes spent at her favourite football club could have ended up on the cutting room floor as could the religeous plugs in this weeks offering.
Delia you WERE great but retire gracefully.

GJB, SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE

Delia has done this in a cynical attempt to gain attention, winning back the limelight previously stolen from her by the likes of Jamie Oliver. Delia, once the darling of plain and proper cooking has sold her cooking soul for the chance of renewed fame.

Peter Webb, London, England

Don't, for heavens sake, take it all so seriously. The book is quite clever, a best seller, and promotes supermarket products although it seems only Harrods, Fortnum and Mason and similar elite supermarkets would stock these expensive ingredients. It is all a bit of fun and replenishes the coffers which, for all I know, may be in need of it. Running football teams can be an expensive hobby.

George Herbert, Bournemouth, England

After spending year trying to convince my dad to cook rather than live off ready meals, he phoned me the other day to say he had seen Delia on the TV and was going to try and make a shepherds pie! He succeeded too, evn though he also couldnt find tinned mince so he used fresh (mixed with gravy) instead.

I wouldnt buy the book myself, but if it gets my dad into the kitchen a bit more and reduces the fear then its fine by me.

Helen, Swansea,

I actually watched (as much as I could bear, 10 or so mins) of this the another night and I stand by my previous comments.

The woman is a JOKE, the food looked foul, shes a naff presenter, wastes time she could be showing more "recipes" waltzing around her equally as poor football club.

BOYCOTT!

Jon T, Maidenhead,

absolutely disgusting! Delia must just be attention seeking in this ridiculous and disingenuous attempt at "cheating". What health conscious person would seriously want to eat her concoctions?!

Jo, Oxford,

SELLOUT. Undoing all the hard work of Hugh, Jamie, Gordon and all the chefs who actually know how to cook.

Delias food always looks like something your mates' mum lumped together.

She is a walking joke, disgrace and makes for a poor presenter.

Jon Travis, Maidenhead,

I'm not even concerned with the ecological issues of what she's promoting. But given all the recent efforts lately by the UK government to get people to eat healthier this is a step in the wrong direction for sure. A diet based on tins and packets with all the preservatives, sodium and fat contained within will just bring the UK closer to having the same obesity issues that are seen here in the US. Getting premade food from M&S would be far healthier than what she (or Sandra Lee) suggests.

I'd like to see Jamie come out and comment on this. I'm sure he won't as he seems too nice a fellow.

Stephanie, Fulton, NY (USA)

Dear heavens, she *does* sound like the excrable Sandra Lee!
Stop her, Britons, for making "semi-homemade" acceptable in your fair isles.

There are shortcuts I use, absolutely: frozen veggies are a must have, tinned tomatoes another, but the day I can't brown a pound of ground beef and slice an onion to add to frozen spinach and make the Northern Californian home favourite of Joe's Special is the day I pack it in as a home cook.

Frozen mashed potatoes, frozen chopped onion, tinned mince - dear God, Delia, what are you thinking?

MM Brown, San Francisco, USA

Delia has sold her soul for the sake of a come-back. Face it Jamie Oliver and James Martin are the new faces and are inspirational in reaching young people and the more senior I'm a young 60 and love to watch both these super young men with their no fuss but inspiring ideas and recipes.

Anita Hinder, Bristol,

She sounds like Sandra Lee from the Food Network, here in the States...How to do good food using 70% premade/premixed w/ 30 percent fresh ingredients....

Mary, Colorado Springs, Colorado

I just wanted to point out that you'll find frozen onion just a couple a chest freezers further along from the one holding the Aunt Bessie's mash potato in Iceland. Anyone who shops in Iceland knows that the frozen vegetables and frozen potato products are next to each other deliberately in order to make meal planning easier. I find it hard to believe that the writer of this article set foot in the store, actually.

Andy Panayiotou, Aylesbury, UK

I've seen Deila on TV and read the book and it is no big deal. If you can afford to buy preprepared vegetables,jars of peppers,tinned sauces and meats, frozen potatoes etc then why not? It is not quicker to prepare like for like from scratch; yes home prepared may taste better and be cheaper but that is not the point, it is all about convenience. An alternative to the supermarket ready meals and for those that pour a Grossman jalfrezi over their microwave rice.. The man who is really taking the mickey is Jamie Oliver and his Jamie at Home series with an outside wood oven,posh gardener and specialist vegetables that are not available in the shops.The trouble is that most supermarkets don't carry the turbot, dover sole, halibut,guinea fowl,clams etc that TV chefs love to use.I cook and like to eat out, and what disappoints me is the quality/price of restaurant food, not the quality of vegetables in the supermarket. There is a real world that Delia has tapped into and good luck to her.

BRIAN PARSONS, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND

I run my charity 'Good Food Matters'. We teach disadvantaged young people and children in Croydon, South London, how to cook real food. We include whole grains, pulses ethically produced meat, poultry and fish and loads of organic fresh fruit and vbegetables. Our recipes span the globe. We teach that you can choose the best by eating less meat and learning how to incorporate a huge varety of other nutritious plant foods into you diet. In 10 x 2 1/2 hour sessions our students learn to prepare delicious meals from scratch. We all eat together , which is a treat for most, and they love to share their efforts with drooling staff. We discuss how our food is produced and what fairtrade can mean. It's every childs right to learn how to cook and have some knowledge about the way food is produced. How else can they choose food wisely or make informed decisions about their own health and the health of the planet. A positive sense of wellbeing often radiates in our teaching kitchen.

Evelyn Findlater, London, England

How could you do it Delia?
Just when the tide is turning and the nation is starting to think about cooking real food again with fresh ingredients and caring where they come from - you come along and stick your oar in!
I am a busy working mum but I can always manage to rustle something up quickly from scratch with good ingredients and am insulted by the suggestion that it is better to use processed foods which cost more and are not as good for you.
Sorry but I think she has sold her soul to the supermarkets. It seems ultimately they have more power than her!!

jane shimmin, lancaster, lancashire

I make a fresh meal for my family every night in@ 25-40 minutes, depending on the dish I'm cooking.I use Nigel Slater's "real fast cooking" , and "the 30 minute cook" as inspiration, although as Nigel encourages, I don't stick slavishly to the recipies. To me this is a hoo ha about nothing, as it just seems common sense to take certain shortcuts. No disrespect to Delia, but having looked at the book, it just seems a massive advert for supermarket frozen and tinned goods.Not her best by far, it seems the Smith coffers were a little empty, so she "wrote herself a swimming pool" to quote John Lennon.

Alan, Stafford,

Has noone thought about the high salt (and perhaps sugar) content of the some these processed foods? You only have to look on the packaging of most cheese sauce mixes to see the additives etc. It takes minutes to make a sauce with fresh igredients and you can stir it while you're frying off the mince....
Delia should be ashamed of herself.

Clare Birtles, Frosham, Cheshire

I agree with Delia, why shouldn't I buy Kenyan peas, Vietnamese prawn, Balinese passion fruits? I help farmers in those countries by buying their products. Those farmers work hard and I don't think it's wrong to help them by buying their products.

Markus, Brighton, UK

In the 1970s I was given Delia's first "How to Cheat at Cooking". As a new wife with the barest understanding of how to create a meal I learned by small steps how to create wonderful "new" meals without all the sweat and tears. This helped me to lose my fear of cooking and go on to write my own cook book for my son (now 40) which, in the same way as "How to Cheat" does, has brought down his (and his - recovering anorexic wife's) wall of fear of shopping and going on to create nourishing and interesting meals. If this is what "packet and tin" cookery can lead to, then I'm all for it!

Christine A., Aberdare, South Wales

Three cheers for Delia. I have ordered the book but not received it yet, but what she's saying makes sense. Why should she care about the politics? What's politics got to do with food anyway? It seems as though her method of cheating might influence people to try fresh ingredients. I think the idea behind the recipe for shepherd's pie is that you would make it from ingredients you'd already bought rather than make a special trip for them.

JW, Boston, UK

Very clever move by Delia -perhaps we're all a bit fed up of "in yer face"chefs and cooks with recipes for ingredients we can't find in most outer city locations.
What she has done was so obvious that everybody else seems to have missed it.
Whilst all other chefs and cooks are successful I suspect there will still be resentment as this book as usual will be a massive best seller and prove that Delia can still be ahead of the clan. Good on you Delia !!

Richard, CAERNARFON, Gwynedd

i remember the 1971 edition. Essential reading.

JANE FLEMING, Whittlesey, cambs

Pre-chopped carrots, ready-made cheese sauce, and ready-made mash potatoes: perfect if you want to spend a fortune on food. I find it strange that a country with such a bad food culture has so many celebrity cooks.

All what people appear to be interested in in the UK is food as fashion statement - hence the use of many expensive ingredients - and not just plain good food. The number one complaint of foreigners working in the UK is food. And I've been told that 10 years ago it was even worse. I'm almost crying when I see the poor quality of the vegetables and the meat in my supermarket. So yes, Delia just reflects how most British people cook (if at all), and it is sad, really.

I'm a man, a bad cook really, can't do any fancy recipees, but my mother taught me some basics. Every evening, I make a fresh meal from scratch in just 20 minutes. It's not that difficult. Ans as most expats here, every time I return from Europe I bring a suitcase of real food.

peter, Birmingham,

Judging by the comments on Amazon so far, she has shot herself in the foot. But what does she care about her credibility? She's laughing all the way to the bank!

Ant, Limousin, France

Delia has lost the plot!
Nothing for 5 years and then she comes up with something like this? Perhaps a case of writer's block?

She has the power to influence the way people feed themselves and out of packets and tins is not the way forward.
In the end it is no faster than doing it properly with fresh ingredients and fresh is a darn site more tasty and nutricious!

Frie Martin, Echternach, Luxembourg

Very depressed that Delia should say that she has no interest in the politics of food. To say that she is not aware of the ecological realities of life today is surely untrue and hasn't she heard that the Churches even are now trying to Green their image.

Rosemary Fitzpatrick, RUTHIN, DENBIGHSHIRE