Things I have learnt since becoming rich (a.k.a. fuck you: Nigella and Jamie)

[TheAutumnHere]

1. Having an oven that holds temperature stops cakes falling
2. A stand mixer simplifies baking by a factor of at least 4, and improves the results
3. Branded vacuum cleaners actually remove dirt from the floor
4. Le Creuset pans don't stick, and just wipe clean
5. Baking with children is delightful japes, when timed the morning before the cleaner comes
6. Corn fed chicken is the bomb

Just leaving a note to my past self - who never cut herself any slack and thought she was a slattern and a crap cook.

My le Creuset pan has something burnt on that no amount of soaking and scrubbing will shift

Snap. I've got loads of LC from 1yr to 12yrs old and it's all got bits of brown tarnish and black dots round the edges. Also I've exploded two trays and one heart shaped casserole (which fucked me off no end) by lifting said items out of oven and without thinking, placing them on the side, and the temperature difference causes them to split in half, the noise of thick ceramic splitting is so loud you think you've been shot. They are pretty though, and look really naice in the kitchen, but I cook much better in cheaper and more practical ovenware.

I second Sainsbury's. They've got some kind of "finest" range that they do made out of really heavy non stick metal, which is brilliant for cooking and baking. And it's always on offer. And it flies through the dishwasher so easily.

Good equipment helps. Good equipment is not always highly expensive equipment.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude
I thought the OP was saying that people should be kind to themselves if they are struggling to reproduce food without the equipment to do it.

On average more expensive ingredients and a better equipped kitchen are likely to produce better results.
...................

That's what I thought and good utensils are certainly an investment. Parents had stuff for yonks that lasted better than poorer quality stuff I had.

Things improved as I was able to buy better.

It's a good idea to employ domestic help if you can afford it, what's wrong about that? It makes sense, someone working for you relieves you of some of the work, freeing you up to do something else (or nothing); it means you can relax. The ironing shop does the same!

OP, I think the disconnect is just how you're saying it.

It's not really coming across as 'let's hold each other up when we're in shitty circumstances' more 'damn I'm good - and rich'.

For whatever reason your posting style is not computing for some people. I'm trying to see through it to your good intention.

Just realised I'm an absolute fool and posted the above in the wrong thread. Sorry! I've reported it to ask for it to be deleted.

@Cardboard33 wrong thread perhaps?

lol, cross posted!

@Bendylikebeckham They really don't make this easy for themselves do they... Why can't you just edit your own posts leaving only your username/edit in its place like you can on most other forums? Talk about making hard work for your mods..

I completely get you OP. I used to really struggle in a tiny, damp rented cottage with a miniscule galley kitchen. Cleaning was the worst- black mould would cover the walls (and yes, I ventilated all. the. fucking. time), then catch in the flaking paint when I scrubbed it off. So it never looked clean, no matter how hard I tried. Now I have a new build house that is very good quality for a HA one, and everything is much easier.

Also, I'm completely not getting the guilt- tripping about the cleaner. When I was a cleaner, nothing was more dispiriting than trying to clean an already sparkling kitchen. You'd feel that your employer would be inspecting the fridge seals and skirting board to check you'd actually done something.. I'd've got a real sense of achievement from cleaning up a properly messy kitchen, and if it takes longer, you just charge an extra half an hour.

@IfWishesWereFishes - people are always saying this from the opposite circumstances.

That they can't manage to balance their budget, that they have to rely on convenience food, that they're doing their best with the cleaning. And they get back the @MaidenMotherCrone type comments about how a bad workman blames their tools. Or maybe: Neil and Christine Hamilton moving in with them for a
week for a Channel 5 documentary to 'teach' them how its fun and cheap to make nutritious vegetable muffins with their kids.

Having lived both lives in relatively quick succession - I can so comprehensively see the stiff upper lip superwoman bullshit that I was weighed down with.

I have no vested interest in calling it out. I've nothing to envy, nothing that I want changed about my life. And despite some PP - no interest in boasting - my money is largely blind luck - it does not define me as a human being.

But I think its worth saying. From this side of the fence. You don't hear it said as often as from the other side of the fence (and the nastier comments on this thread remind me why I maybe shouldn't bother saying it. Clearly I'm just a talented baker. Much easier for everyone to accept that.)

I think I love you.

I also think that cheapest of the cheap stuff is impossible. Flimsy kitchen roll. Awful transparent loo roll. Cheap brittle spatulas. Baking trays that buckle as you cook.

That kind of stuff, that costs pence is awful, it makes life difficult and gets poor results. The kind of stuff you'd get from the pound store.

However, you can spend only marginally more, and get great results. Standard supermarket prices.

DH and I are in the top 1% of household incomes, and I bloody love a bargain. I shop mainly at Lidl and find their quality of fresh produce to be better than Waitrose. I'm a great cook, and yes, good ingredients help, but if you cook from scratch, Lidl is dirt cheap and gives you excellent results.

Our Dyson is a bit rubbish really. We've got a cleaner and it grates on me how much it costs (heavily pregnant with twins though, so need the assistance).

I do agree that better products last longer in general, some of my appliances are 10yrs+ and still going strong. They aren't ridiculously high end though. Just well researched purchases.

Just saying I agree with the OP here. Everyone just feels offended.

To be fair though, if someone posted on here saying they could only afford a shitty cooker and no fresh veg, they would rarely get sarky comments back.

People were only sniping because they perceived you as judging them. I'm not saying you were, I'm saying that's how it read.

Yes! I'm with you more generally on this subject. Shouty, stressed mum living in dirty chaos, kids eating ready meals most nights and watching too much TV vs mum able to do wholesome craft activities, keep a (relatively) immaculate house and cook all meals from scratch? Both me, but the latter in a house with a nice big kitchen and a garden. Situational parenting I call it. The kind of thing no parenting book seems to mention. Sure, some parents might be excellent even in a bedsit, but for most of us we can be better parents if not struggling for the basics.

(that's not judgement btw, it's a recognition that everyone should have a right to those basics.)

It was all my fault.

If only I'd tried a little bit harder.

It's not about trying harder.
It's knowing things or not knowing them. You sound like you just didn't know about things, some people don't and it's got nothing to do with money or Jamie or Nigella.

This 'knowledge' your passing on,
not cooking makes you an effortless host, that would be true whether you shop in M&S or Iceland,
paying someone to clean makes cleaning easier,
a decent hoover is better than a shitty hoover,
its not groundbreaking information for most people, yet your posting it as though your some sort of whistle blower.

Not knowing how to do things isn't your fault but it's not being poor's fault either.

@IfWishesWereFishes I was judging them by telling them that my good oven bakes better cakes ..... ? That's not to be spoken of in polite company.....?

It reminds me of pre-election pundits - who always assume that top tax bracket will be voting tory, teachers will be voting labour etc etc.

The divisive attitudes that stops us being able to properly gel into a supportive society. It's possible to hold a view that isn't self interest.

I've had a lot of flack for name dropping my pans - they're relevant to the thread (being ostensibly a baking thread) - but they're also a social class marker. And the yelling I've had over it says to me that I have no place commenting on social justice - especially IRL when obviously people can see my pans and my car and my shoes and whatnot.

Because I'm rich. So my opinions will definitely be insincere/repeated or boasting. And hence I should butt out and stop making poor people feel bad by dissecting what privilege is (clue: the good stuff isn't the shoes and the pans and the car).

I have those books and I’m a pretty good cook. I’m not rich and I have basic/ average equipment.Get over yourself!

I was a good cook in my infested uni house and am a good cook in my current home. And I tidy and don't leave big messes for my cleaner. While kit helps that's not all there is to it.

Am amazed you managed to rent a flat in London on £30k tbh though well done

Yes, but you are very badly trying to discuss the issue so people haven't really got what you're going on about!

It's not that people are ignoring your lovely posts and slagging you off. It's more that your posts don't say what you seem to think they do.

I give up now.

Well done going from 30k to rich, that is impressive especially doing it so quickly.

I kind of see what you are saying, as in money makes life easier but your delivery comes across a little smug.

I know what you mean OP,

I am also in Web Development now, but not quite rich like you (but well paid for part time flexible hours )

Still, I have always know that equipment matters, and don't blame Nigella and Jamie. Also, weirdly, my best ever WOK was a cheapo one.

Le Creuset totally worth it, have had my 2 pans for 20+ years

But also a cheapo French market cast iron pan, which is the best one I ahve

So it is not necessarily money, also luck

And Jamie and Nigella did nothing wrong! I don't think...

@frogsoup - yes.

And my kids make lovely junk models now they have a craft cupboard they can tidy into themselves.

And the chest freezer makes my bulk cooking work.

Which would would qualify me as a thrifty canny mum .... just when I don't care so much about stretching a kilo of mince over six dinners.

I'm not working any harder - but I look immeasurably more competent.

I was always told to do these things but struggled. Looking back I feel like I was being set up to feel incompetent.

also, what do you DO in web devel? I am in QA which is not exactly £££ but ok