Nigella's helpless carrot act

[BaylisAndHardon]

Don't get me wrong, I do like Nigella Lawson and her cookery programs, however:

Has anybody else noticed that she pretends not to have proper knife skills and flails around in a sexy, helpless, becarrotted damsel in distress any time she has to chop something?

It reminds me of secondary school when some of the girls would pretend to be ditzy and thick so boys would like them.

It's 2020 fgs.

AIBU?

I have never once looked at Nigella and thought she appears helpless in the kitchen.
Me either.

I like her. She's had a lot of shit to deal with in her life and she deserves all her success AFAIC.
I will say I prefer her books to her telly shows in that she is such a great, witty, knowledgeable writer, and obviously you lose that depth and detail in a different format; but I do like her on telly too.

I missed the bus one! I cannot imagine her waiting for public transport at all !

@RelaisBlu

I like her and admire her beauty but had to laugh in one programme she did where she was purring over her homemade soup whilst drinking it from a flask ON THE BUS! I find it hard to believe she takes the bus anywhere....

I have a journalist friend who has been to her house for dinner and says the food was terrible - Nigella apologised for it, but in a cheerful. unrepentant kind of way (she's always saying you should never apologise for your food)

For what it's worth, the Grillo sisters said they ordered takeaway most of the time.

She is highly intelligent and not poor so I guess she is doing something right!

Love Nigella but i totally agree

For what it's worth, the Grillo sisters said they ordered takeaway most of the time.

I think Saatchi was a miserable sod who didn't like food (or maybe didn't like her cooking for him/others). Didn't they talk about him liking burnt toast and how they had to burn it for him?
It does seem like rough luck for a food-lover to have not one but two husbands who weren't into food. At least John Diamond wasn't an abusive twat though.

I've only read first page and this one. But why on earth start a thread about a woman's knife skills? And then posters basically slagging her off. I mean, we don't comment on men's hammering skills on home improvement programmes? Or whatever? It's so judgemental and unnecessary. I'm usually quite happy to just go along with a gentle little friendly gossip about something but this... it's awful.

She's a lovely, intelligent interesting woman but this new show is an abomination.

I don't normally watch her as all that simpering and side ways looks at the camera I find pathetic. I did watch this week though as I thought the vegetable thing sounded interesting.

In fact it looked vile and then she mashed fish fingers into it! What the? After that she made some dish with banana skins that also looked vile.

DH saw about 1 minute of it and almost fell over laughing at her "sexy" act

@maddiemookins16mum

This is why I prefer Delia, all the creeping downstairs (a couple of hours after eating dinner) in her black silk dressing gown to take half a chocolate cake back to bed wore thin by 2010.

Maybe Delia should try shots like that? Delia, creeping downstairs in a lacy nightie, peeking into the fridge and saucily scoffing a spoonful of steam sponge pudding that was meant to be for the women's golf club dinner on Saturday, jam oozing everywhere and dribbling down her chin. Naughty Delia

She's enjoyable to watch if you switch your brain off. I like her recipes and her chatty style of writing.

It does bother me that she claims that the title "How to be a Domestic Goddess" was not supposed to be taken literally but then she plays it up in every show in a way that borders on male fantasies. I also dislike that she is a product of nepotism.

I have never noticed her knife skills but it would irritate me that she is not refining her craft after making a living in cooking for how many years, especially as poor knife skills can be dangerous and she is on tv.

Still laughing at the chop on a fork comment

@DressingGownofDoom I nearly cried with laughter reading your post
I think Nigella is lovely and I love her new cookery book, she is a very talented writer IMO. I also really enjoy her cookery shows, may be a bit OTT but they make me smile.

I love her books. It would be silly to expect her to chop veg like Jamie/Gordon/Monica do, since she’s never worked in a kitchen.

I assume that her sidekicks do the chopping, and pretty much everything else, for recipe testing for her books. DH and I have roughly the same relationship - I come up with the recipe based on what we have in the house and he cooks it.

@RainingBatsAndFrogs

Has anyone made that banana skin curry she demonstrated the other night?

It looked and sounded utterly revolting.

yes I agree, I was nearly retching watching her chop up the banana skins - I mean, why...! And the fish finger thing looked ugh to me too

Those Grillo sisters, I had forgotten about them. Imagine being friends with a cook and having to chow down on takeaways!
I'd be gutted! 😃
( I loath cooking , but it's a necessary evil)

I wondered if she was getting a new fridge freezer and wanted to cook up all the jars and bits from the back

@the80sweregreat

Those Grillo sisters, I had forgotten about them. Imagine being friends with a cook and having to chow down on takeaways! I'd be gutted! 😃 ( I loath cooking , but it's a necessary evil)

The picture they painted of Nigella was totally different from the 'domestic goddess' we see on our screens. Even allowing for some scepticism about their account, I do think Nigella is like an actress playing a role in her shows, and that the 'real Nigella' is a completely different person.

It's soft porn, she doesn't take herself too seriously.
She can be who she wants it's a free country, and some women like to be the damsel in distress whatever the year.

IcedPurple I had to look up the Grillo sisters to remind myself who they are!

@Coronacantcope

Why do women have to have it in for other women all the time. Of all the things you could say about Nigella, this seems really petty. I have watched her for years and have never noticed what you're saying.

The whole 'act' is aimed at men isn't it. No reason why women would like it or have to pretend to.

Nope, sorry, won't have her bitched about. I like her, she's relaxing to watch, she chats, her food is beautiful. I think the act she puts on is a bit like 'dumb blonde' Dolly Parton saying i'm not dumb, I'm also not blonde. She's performing.

Also she has been through a lot in her life and is still creating and producing, I find her inspiring.

The picture they painted of Nigella was totally different from the 'domestic goddess' we see on our screens. Even allowing for some scepticism about their account, I do think Nigella is like an actress playing a role in her shows, and that the 'real Nigella' is a completely different person.

I think it's more likely that she wasn't her normal self while with Charles Saatchi.

Come back Delia all is forgiven.

@IntermittentParps

The picture they painted of Nigella was totally different from the 'domestic goddess' we see on our screens. Even allowing for some scepticism about their account, I do think Nigella is like an actress playing a role in her shows, and that the 'real Nigella' is a completely different person.

I think it's more likely that she wasn't her normal self while with Charles Saatchi.

Yes, that's possible. But if you look at her early TV series, she came across very differently. Much more reserved, with none of the 'sexy' act. It was more of a straightforward Delia-esque cooking show. The voluptous domestic goddess who made sexual innuendos while glancing seductively at the cameras came later. It seems contrived to me.