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.

Being rich might not necessarily make you a better baker but it definitely makes it easier

@foamrolling I'm genuinely not trying to make anyone feel bad.

'Old me' actually wound up quite unwell - part of that was the self esteem hit of feeling like I was failing at everything.

I often used to share a bag of chips for lunch on a park bench with my kids because I literally couldn't bear the cook/clean/feed/clean circus. Like - as far as you can imagine from the yummy mummy that's trigering @NormaBean .

It would have helped me to be told "you're doing fucking awesome - given your circumstances".

God you sound insufferable. I was a great baker as a student with rubbish kit and basic ingredients.

Le Creuset pans are useless to cook with as they’re so heavy. No pro chef uses them - they use very light pans.

I kinda get it.

Our last place was tiny, and if we were both in the kitchen it required a Morecambe and Wise style routine to maneuver around each other. We had an electric hob and no room for a dishwasher. Cooking was hard work.

Where we are now has a bigger - but not huge kitchen. But I have a dishwasher and a gas hob, more counter space and room for a stand mixer. Cooking and baking is so much easier now.

Another example is good quality cake tins (tkmaxx helps)

I disagree. My adult son is a great cook. I am not. When he's home we use the same kitchen and equipment. He puts together fantastic meals. I put together meals.

Wow - the inverted snobbery is not nice.

I've made plenty Nigella & Jamie recipes using inferior utensils and in rental property kitchens in my time. I don't find they talk down to people at all.

Nigella uses shitloads of butter in some recipes which I find extravagant but I just use common sense & reduce it.

hmm...on one had good kitchen aids do make life easier and yes food tastes better in a Le Creuset pan tastes much better as compared to cheap non stick pans. On the other hand cooking is much more than that. I my experience water makes much difference to the taste too. My food tastes different in London to what it tastes when I make it back home or up North at my inlaws and I use the exact same ingredients. I have also noticed that food reflects our mental state. When I was suffering from depression and anxiety or when I didn't have much time my food tasted just ok. But when I put time in my cooking and am happy when I cook the food tastes way much better.

I find baking a faff, all that counter space and mess. My dc make me do it sometimes. I was ok when pg, baked a lot, every week as at least I could indulge.

Most of my cake tins are from 1968 - they were wedding presents to my parents. I even have some tins that belonged to my grandmother.

It’s really not in the tins.

I'm glad your life has the flexibility and order that you can't imagine what difference 2 minutes wiping down the counter might make (and indeed the kind of cooking and kids that only make 2 minutes worth of mess).

Do you pack Flash spray when you stay in a hotel?

Of course, you are the only person in the world ever to have baked with children. I do apologise.

I partly agree and partly don't. A mix of Nigella and Jamie helped me make the perfect pancakes (which had always eluded me for some stupid reason).
It is possible to bake good cakes and make nice meals with poor utensils but you probably need to view recipe books as inspiration and then add your own adjustments/amendments to fit what you have. Either that appeals to you or it doesn't.

No pro chef uses them - they use very light pans

Not a pro chef (I don't think) but I bought the 'little gem' cheapish frying pan on Delia's recommendation, and I think I paid even less than the £23 that it currently costs.

www.silverwood-bakeware.com/collections/delia-online/products/delias-little-gem-sauce-frying-pan

Absolutely brilliant for omelettes, like she says, but sadly I had to give it up when we got an induction cooker, as it's made from Aluminium.

But I did get some nice non stick replacements from Ikea, which were cheap and good.

you do know what they say ...a bad workman always blames his tools Don't be that person

I had a set of Le Creuset pans for my 21st, they lasted 40 years and were still servicable then, just too badly stained to carry on in use.
Sadly my relations who bought them for me have long since died and I can't justify the cost of another set.

Well I had a dyson animal and it's the shortest overhyped Hoover I have ever had. It broke this morning after 18 months.

I've just got a Henry this morning. That's my game changer. I love it. I didn't realise just how shit the dyson was until this morning when I hoovered.

I don't care I now have to drag it up the stairs and that it's not cordless. I love it.

My mother still has the same Le Creuset. I do really like mine I know they’re heavy but I wouldn’t swap them.

The point is you can be a great baker/cook if you have little money, have the social capital behind you/ natural aptitude.
If you dont have these things money to buy better, have better resources and ingredient make it soooo much easier.
In fact delete *baker/cook and insert as relevant

I think your changed circumstances and new utensils have probably just made the experience of cooking nicer for you so you feel more inclined to do it. That's not the same for everyone. For instance I have a giant mixing bowl that belonged to my grandmother. It is ancient. I feel happy using it as it reminds me of baking with her when I was little. I especially enjoy mixing up the Christmas cake in it. The newest, fanciest bowl or mixer in the world couldn't give me that.

I cooked and baked just as well with my shitty thin pans and bargain basement toaster oven as I do now with my copper pans and Neffs. It is less hassle when you can just trust your kit to do its job without having to fuss over it, but the end results the same.

There are definitely chefs whose recipes you’d struggle to make without a very well equipped kitchen, but Jamie and Nigella’s recipes are so basic you don’t need anything remotely fancy. A lot of Jamie’s recipes especially are just peasant food, and often simplified peasant food at that. My grandma made a lot of that stuff with no electricity, and she was the best cook I ever knew.

I am desperately trying to follow what you say your point is, but you're wrapping it up in smuggery that's getting more insufferable with every comment you make.

a bad workman always blames his tools
Iknowim that was one of my late DF's favourite sayings. You've made me feel nostalgic.

I'm just going to say Rachel Koo!

TV chef, tiniest kitchen in the world.

Its nuanced though, isn't it? You can totally cut many corners, you just have to choose the right corners and by how much.

Lots of branded stuff is money for old rope, you do not need le Cruset in any world. Unless you have an Aga, possibly. But buy too cheap that is also money for old rope, thin, breaks, short lasting.

In my experience the "stand ' mixers are harder work to clean and not as good as the hand electric ones which make better cakes in my hands.

Dont forget TV world is not real, not in real time and they can do many takes.

Also I think Jamie is great. His recipes work, my family like them and if you have a bit of experience you can just replace things you dont have.

I get you OP. I used to despair about crappy wardrobes and chests of drawers that sagged under the weight of clothes and broke.
Now I have beautiful solid wood I realise it was because I was only able to afford flat-pack crap.