to think that Nigella has lost the plot?

[Lottapianos]

I love her - she is a terrific cook, she's completely gorgeous and has a real zest for life. Up until now I had always thought she was a bit bonkers in a campy fun sort of way. But I have just watched her cook chocolate fusilli with butterscotch sauce because 'sometimes you come in from work and just can't decide whether to have chocolate or pasta for dinner - so why not have both!'



I can handle a lot of wankery and pretentiousness and off the wall stuff around food but even I have my limits. In fact, this whole Nigellissima series has been mad - hardly any of the dishes had anything Italian about them. Will stick with her 'Kitchen' book which I adore and read for fun

[dylanthedragon]

Nigellaplease thanks for the recommendation. I'll give that one a go.

I think the problem for me is that she takes a long time building up to a recipe that then turns out to be pretty basic. Like the chocolate pasta - when I first saw it, i got quite excited about the thought of making chocolate pasta but it turns out to be "open bag and boil shop bought pasta".

Saying that, at 38 weeks pregnant and surviving mostly on cornflakes and gaviscon, if she was to turn up at the door and offer to cook me dinner, she could do as much finger-liking, pretentious chat as she wanted!

[NigellaPleaseComeDineWithMe]

It did make a vat full - I added some Cavalo Nero to it and didn't do the beans as there was plenty there!! The pasta was 2 for £2.50 at sainsbos so quite reasonable to do.

Plenty of pepper and fresh parmesan too. And veggie GF of DS2 liked it too.

[PoppyAmex]

Yes, she has become slightly bizarre but can I just say the liquorice pudding is unbelievably good.

I've made it four times in a week

[Katisha]

That liquorice pudding made me feel quite ill! But then I don't like liquorice. And I was somewhat aghast at all the cornflour gloop in it.

[CockyPants]

Leave her kids out of it??!!!
NL forfeited their right to privacy etc when she chose to parade them on TV to enable her to make money.
If she does not want to expose them to adverse comment then she should not allow them to appear on her show.
Standing by fugly comment, to be taken in context with the rest of my earlier post.

[squoosh]

You think their appearing in a few fleeting scenes in their mother's shows makes them a fair target for 'fugly' comments?

Stop being so cunty.

[Lottapianos]

So her kids appear briefly in some of her programs. She's hardly doing it for the money - she's rich enough already and I can't imagine many people tune in just to gawp at her kids. So what? They are fair game for any sort of abuse that people fancy throwing at them?

Why do some people just rub their hands with glee at every opportunity to be nasty?

[GetOrfAKAMrsUsainBolt]

If you feel so strongly that NL forfeited her children's privacy, well why don't you say 'NL is a complete ratbag for parading her kids on telly for years'.

Unless you feel rather big and clever calling a couple of adolescent kids ugly and then 'standing by' such comments when you are called on it.

What a ghastly person you sound.

[wordfactory]

You keep telling yourself that cocky.

You are well within your rights to be vile about children because their mother allowed them to be photographed. You have no responsibility at all to behave like a decent adult. None!!!

[ClippedPhoenix]

I wonder what she gets up to in that larder of hers

[iseenodust]

I watch Nigella like I flick through Hello in the hairdressers. It's a bit of glossy fun that I don't inhabit . However, I think she has a sense of humour and doesn't expect us to take it all too seriously. If you watched 'til near the end last night there was a most unflattering side-on shot as she bent forward in the blue dress. As the credits rolled there were repeated shots of her struggling to open the fridge making it clear it's not her own.

[YouSeveredHead]

It's very interesting to watch her first series now and compare which bits of her look the same

[JoJoCK]

I felt physically sick watching nigella make and eat that recipe, ugh!

[HazeltheMcWitch]

I dont get all this hate. Or 'shade' as my niece would say. Why when discussing whether she has become a parody, do we need to slag off her kids/weight/figure/ageing??

One of the (many) things I love about Nigella is her honesty: she's clear that it is NOT her fridge, isn't her house. She has always lauded the team behind her, incl. nanny, housekeeper, home economist and food stylist (latter 2 obvs for the professional side).

I also love her intelligence, and they way she feels no need to play it down.

[squoosh]

What does a home economist do on a cookery show exactly? I was wondering this last night. Do they road test the recipes to see if any tweakings need to be made?

[ButternutSquish]

No, Pierpressure, she definately said she 'couldn't be asked' to do something or the other. I remember thinking at the time it was a very un-Nigella thing to say and that maybe she was being 'down wif de kidz' or the like.

I just didn't like the concept of a cooking show which wasn't about cooking. Buying anti-pasti and putting it on a plate is not cooking IMHO

[HazeltheMcWitch]

Ahem, not that sure, but I assume that they work out the quantities of recipes, and finesse the recipes, testing etc for books. And then on the show? Dunno, act like a sous chef?

[bamboostalks]

Really horrible to mention her kids. What if one of them googles and stumbles across that? Not necessary. They look very nice to me anyway.

[janelikesjam]

I remember, many moons ago, when she was a journalist, a good one as far as I remember. Isn't she sick of cooking now? Its been done, done, done. We don't need any more chefs or cookery programmes! My advice: get a new career Ms Lawson....

I did a muesil recipe of hers once - it was incredibly delicious and nutritious. But her cookbook recipes can look a bit OTT to me - too dairy or complicated or weird or basic. Chocolate pasta - give me a break!

I don't have anything personal for or against her - though a tad jealous of her "fabulous" life ...

[WilsonFrickett]

Home Ecs on cooking shows essentially do all of the cooking. So if there's say, a recipe in three parts, they'll need a few versions of the food at that point. Say, I don't know, making a pavlova. They'll need fruit uncut, food for the presenter to cut on camera, then a batch of pre-cut fruit which the home ec will do. Then they'll have separated eggs, eggs that the presenter will separate, eggs that the presenter will whisk, ready whisked eggs, etc etc.

Food often goes funny under heat and light, presenters make mistakes, there's problems with sound and cameras, etc - so the home ec will make sure there's a steady stream of food at the right stage, iyswim.

[HazeltheMcWitch]

Ah, thanks, WilsonFrickett ! Are you one, then, are you in the field?

[WilsonFrickett]

I used to work in TV production Hazel

On a book, home ecs do all the testing and measuring and stuff, and sometimes they will also be credited on a show for that job, but it's unusual. Sometimes Home Ecs on shows are credited as food stylists too...

[WilsonFrickett]

Pressed post too soon - but it's unusual to have a food economist to 'test' recipes on a show because they're almost always based on an existing book now.

[squoosh]

Now that's interesting. I saw 'home economist' on the credits and was picturing a broad hipped, middle aged woman called Mrs O'Brien showing Nigella how to make an apple crumble.

I only lasted one Home Economics lesson.

[squoosh]

So depending on which celeb chef you're working for you'd be working like the clappers having to churn stuff out for every time they messed up.