Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think jack Monroes recipe book is pretty shit

240 replies

Itsgonnabeacoldone · 04/12/2017 19:58

Secret santa present and i was interested to have a quick look through, but after 10 mins I've decided it's a waste of space and will be going to the charity shop tomorrow.

She often speaks as if she's doing charity work and helping the poorest people with these. But really who would buy it if you were that poor.

She talks about it being inexpensive as you just need a small amount of this and that but you cant just buy half a teaspoon of a spice. It might be useful if you already have the spices and end up broke, but honestly if you already have a collection of spices you are going to know how to use them.

Lots of the ingredients she says you can't buy from the local corner shop and this is where many poor people have to shop.

Some of her sage advice is to just have one type of oil and vinegar. If you are poor that's exactly what you wouldn't do - your not going to be stocking up on half a dozen different types of vinegar if you are skint. If you are not skint then why on earth would you limit the number of oils or vinegars - they are all used for different things.

I can't see who this book would help, if you have access to cheap ingredients you can make cheap food. It just comes all of as very middle class faux help.

OP posts:
megletthesecond · 04/12/2017 22:27

She gave up her job because she didn't have childcare for night shifts.

And as for expecting her parents to help out. Some don't. I know a couple of families who are well off, active and time rich but they don't help their children out financially or look after their grandchildren.

LineysRunner · 04/12/2017 22:32

Childcare and shifts are a nightmare. Try getting a childminder or babysitter for midnight onwards.

I loved a particular job but the issue was last minute requests to work late, and last minute requests to change shifts. I was a lone parents of two young children (not my choice to be on my own) and their father and my parents chose not to help enable me to stay in that job.

DonkeyOaty · 04/12/2017 22:48

It is okay to say the book is shit.

Not really okay to diss the author and sneer so nastily, OP.

Not cool.

Tobebythesea · 04/12/2017 23:08

I borrowed her first book from the library and tried a few recipes. They weren’t particularly to my taste but the ideas were there and I adapted the recipes and added other ingredients. If I was totally skint, which she was, it is a really helpful book and I wish I had had her recipes when I was a student or when I first moved to London. Nutrious meals on a tight budget.

wonderstuff · 04/12/2017 23:19

I really liked her book, really helped me save money when we were saving up for our house, not exciting, but definitely cheap, healthy and filling. I think she’s really genuine and writes well. She clearly has some significant my issues but has achieved so much. I think some people are offended by her highlighting genuine poverty. I’m sure she’s been a life line for many.

NoSquirrels · 04/12/2017 23:22

seems like the self inflicted "poverty" is a million miles away from actual poverty that people have in this country and just her hook to become kinda famous

No, I think you'll find it was very real, no more food in the house poverty.

Look, there are a million accusations you could throw at Jack Monroe, but the ones you've chosen are unjust and sneery.

Her first book says quite clearly that spices are expensive, but if you buy one jar per month, then they last for ages and after a while you have 3 or 4 that will do for loads of recipes. That you can build up your storecupboard gradually. The "one oil" thing is useful, because if you're not used to cooking from scratch and the recipe says "olive oil", perhaps you're not confident enough to realise that actually any oil will do in a pinch.

There are things she's said/done that I have thought hmmm - money management certainly seems to be an issue for her. But all of your points in this thread seem to show you haven't actually understood her message about cooking at all, and perhaps you just can't understand the experience of poverty she is coming from. Self-inflicted or not, we could all do with remembering that no one is immune from hard times, and some people are there without the skills to weather it successfully.

AgainReally · 04/12/2017 23:41

I like her recipes and they do work for being skint as fuck.

Hulder I wondered about autism too tbh. Speaking as an autistic woman with autistic children she does seem to tick a lot of boxes.

ButchyRestingFace · 05/12/2017 00:12

She's a she now, apparently.

Someone needs to update their Wiki page then.

Maybe their publicist, who appears to be posting on this thread? Grin

TotemIcePole · 05/12/2017 00:24

Well Im intrigued to get the recipe book now & try it out.

Sugarcoma · 05/12/2017 00:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CheeriosEverywhere · 05/12/2017 00:41

but just flicking through it you don't ever think oh I must try that or I've never thought of that

You might not, but you're very silly to assume others won't. You come across as far more patronising about "the poor" than she does.

LineysRunner · 05/12/2017 00:42

Jack Monroe doesn't control her own wiki entry. I asked her on her AMA. And she was truthful In her response (I checked).

Welshmaenad · 05/12/2017 00:42

@Sugarcoma she didn't actually, she used Seddons.

And no, I'm not her publicist, I just read the coverage.

wonderstuff · 05/12/2017 00:46

She had money when she sued Hopkins, she didn’t when she wrote bootstrap - people’s luck changes, she has been poor and advocates for poor people. I really don’t get why that’s hard to understand? Not everyone stays in the same financial position forever.

endehors · 05/12/2017 00:51

No, she didn't have money before the book. She talked (that I can remember) in the foreword about going hungry so her child could eat, not being able to heat the house, and selling possessions.

BitOfFun · 05/12/2017 00:54

Well, this is mean...

HuskyMcClusky · 05/12/2017 00:55

My toes are still curled from when she posted her "Here I am, ask me anything" thread and loads of us had no clue who she was.

Yes, I remember how utterly disingenuous that was.

I live in Australia and not on a ‘bootstrap’, and even I knew who she was.

LineysRunner · 05/12/2017 00:58

She only did the AMA because people on MN kept banging on about her iirc

laudanum · 05/12/2017 01:10

I'm totally fine thank you to anyone asking. :D

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 05/12/2017 01:11

Some of the food is quite nice but nothing special.

The costs are a total lie since most of them don’t have anywhere near enough calories to sustain an adult

I don't have her book but those were my thoughts exactly about the recipes in her Guardian column- not terribly interesting and would need more to make a meal.

JingsMahBucket · 05/12/2017 01:31

Jeez, this a particularly nasty thread, OP.

Cupoteap · 05/12/2017 05:34

think that sums it all up, just seems like the self inflicted "poverty" is a million miles away from actual poverty that people have in this country and just her hook to become kinda famous.

Wow - she wasn't the right kind of poor.

And this attitude is how people rights and benefits are allowed to be taken away. Who do you think chooses to not be able to eat or to not have enough to be able to feed your child?

How do you work a rotation of shifts like the fire service with a child as a single parent if you have no support network?

Her blog started as a way of letting out what she and her son were going through. It's not a hook to get famous. It's real. Real doesn't mean perfect.

hesterton · 05/12/2017 06:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

picklemepopcorn · 05/12/2017 07:06

I really don't understand why some people on here are so spiteful about her- she doesn't seem to have earned it in my view. She tries to live with integrity. Yes, she is opinionated- and why not? You don't have to agree with her.

TovaGoldCoin · 05/12/2017 07:09

Aah, she's not the silent, doe-eyed deserving poor.... Remind me who they are again?