to be annoyed by Hemsley and Hemsley

[Eachpeachpearplum1985]

Just been watching 'eat well with hemsley and hemsley'. Their thing appears to be cooking healthy, gluten free food and being hip. Tonight they went to a mega fancy shop that stocked ridiculous ingredients like bee pollen at ridiculous prices. They also won't touch refined sugar, instead using maple syrup and date syrup. AIBU to think it would bankrupt you to eat like this and it's completely unnecessary? Sugar is sugar in whatever form no? What harm does gluten do to people who aren't ceoliacs?

I can't fucking stand them/that bloody Ella woman, any of them. I think they have othorexia and its actually a really unhealthy attitude to food.

Even the title of their show annoys me.

Yanbu at all

YANBU, they are irritating and smug in equal measures, but YABU in thinking all sugars are created equal - they have very different glycemic indexes and my body behaves and reacts differently to them.

They bug me too.
I like some of the recipes but I tell you, that farmer selling chicken really saw them coming.

Really annoyed me when they were in the shop and said how refreshing it was not to be bombared by branding. Yeah and paying £££££ for the privilege of scooping some seeds out of a fancy jar.

I managed 5 minutes before having to switch off.

Smugness on (gluten free) toast

We had to turn it over, their presenting is as bland as the sugar free food they cook, they are stunning to look at but even that only kept OH watching for half the program.

YANBU. Food = good. Programme = utter shit. I can't bear their smug faces - and they come across terribly considering I actually have their cookbook - and use it?!

Sugars ARE different, and the proof is in how they make you feel after eating them ('clean' vs. refined). But I really disagree with their overall philosophy - it seems quite restrictive (no grains, no gluten, knowing the provenance of everything they eat) & for some, inaccessible due to cost. Labelling it 'eating well', implying that eating lesser quality meat isn't eating well, for example, is ridiculous & elitist.

But, they have a market.

IMO, Madeleine Shaw is a bit more balanced & less restrictive that the Hemsley sisters & Ella but her You Tube videos are cringeworthy & twee to say the least.

And they keep cooking everything in ghee!!! That's hardly super healthy! Switched off after the third dish was being cooked in the stuff...

Also don't think they're especially talented cooks. Everything is super simple and doesn't require much skill.
I get the sense they're nice and you could have a fun evening eating ghee at their house, but the writing is so winsome and grating.
Hated last week when they suggested kids could be converted away from pasta on to courgetti. KIDS ARE MEANT TO GROW AND EAT THINGS.

Their food looks gorgeous I think....but they are sooo irritating to watch, smug and pretentious and the food is unrealistic for someone on my budget on a day to day basis.

I think you summed it up better than me dozyoldtwonk - restrictive and elitist.

YANBU but... For some, gluten and grains can cause havoc with the old guts, not just coeliacs.

You might like this rant about the Hemsley sisters: angry-chef.com/blog/has-anyone-seen-my-ayurvedic-tongue-scraper

And this more general piece about wellness/clean eating/orthorexia by Ruby Tandoh: www.vice.com/en_uk/read/ruby-tandoh-eat-clean-wellness

The description on the TV guide put me off when the series first started. There are enough posh girls cooking on tv as it is.

Yanbu. The best of their ilk is Madeleine Shaw I think. Her recipes are delicious. I disagree with them all re gluten though. Also they all happen to be young and beautiful; I doubt they'd get half the attention they do if they weren't.

I was annoyed by their smug faces on the advert and couldn't even watch the programme. Glad I don't now!

the angry chef hates them. His is a great blog; read it for next time you find yourself hovering in the gluten free aisle even though you're not coeliac.

YANBU. Smugsville.

I have just had their feta and black bean burgers this evening. I am totally bought into the clean eating thing, have the Hemsley cookbook and use it. But totally agree that their show isn't great.

Most people who go gluten free aren't coeliac or even intolerant, they're doing it to lose weight.

YANBU, OP. The whole 'clean eating' thing is for the most part thinly disguised eating disorders with a side order of conspicuous consumption.

Who the hell are they????

YANBU. What's with all TV chefs being young, posh and pretty? The whole clean eating brigade can do one too.