Most people make terrible food and can't actually cook.

[ImNotEntirelySureAboutThat]

They can't.

I read such horrors on food threads.

Either courgettes and mushrooms mixed in a worthy mushy horror.

OR jars, and packets.

Horrible. So. Much. Horrible. Foood.

Bringing out some real anger in the pp annoyed with British food.

its great to get this anger out, especially about those brown beige blobs of yorkshires

I’m never really sure what people mean when they talk about “British food”, but I don’t think either the people ranting about it or the OP are looking for anything more than a wind-up thrrad

BiasedBinding I’ve wanted to get it of my chest for some time about yorkshires, over rated nonsense 👍🏻

Most people aren’t professional chefs.

A lot of people just throw together something reasonably quick and tasty that they know their families will eat.

And many people (I include myself here) aren’t foodies. I just don’t care enough about cooking to worry about whether I’m ‘great’ at it or not.

OP this is my Winter Solstice menu - would you like to talk shit critique it for me? I'm happy to answer questions on the cooking techniques used. If I were being critical

Menu Winter Solstice

Canapé
Cherry tomato served with mozzarella and basil
why in December ? Neither tomato nor basil are seasonal - lovely but surely more appropriate to a summer menu, I would do a mushroom pate
Soup
Courgette and coriander soup with a swirl of crème fraiche
Bread roll
Ditto courgette is a summer vegetable surely a winter soup like beetroot or carrot would be better
Fish
Swordfish in a lightly spiced tomato sauce
Hmm Swordfish is a bit 2005, have you heard of sustainability? Mussels are much greener and at the peak of their season just now eg: at the end of December

Salad
Asparagus wrapped in pancetta served with a lemon mayonnaise
Again aspragras in December - why ? There are so many lovely Winter salads.

Main course
Chicken and mushroom creamy casserole
Green vegetable medley
Where are my carbs ? I would hope that the medley is mainly brassicas rather than peas and beans which have been either frozen or air freighted.
Savory
Crispy pancakes with garlic mushrooms
Double mushrooms ?
Dessert
Lemon cheesecake
Could you make it more interesting with perhaps other citrus particularly clementine which is bang on seasonal lemon is a bit generic isn't it ?
Cheese
Selection of cheeses with biscuits

Fruit and nuts
Selection of fresh fruit served with nuts

Fine but I would make sure the cheese was British and the fresh fruit was not air freighted African grapes but perhaps fresh figs and British pears.

I reckon start your own thread, your important points will get lost in this goady nonsense

I serve my friends sausages mash and peas with an instant gravy

😁

I think anyone can cook, as in anyone can follow a recipe and it depends also on how you define "cooking well".
I cook food I know my family will eat and rarely use jars of pasta sauce etc, but when pushed for time I have been known to. I make a pasta sauce with mushrooms, carrots, courgettes, onion, garlic, tinned toms (yeah I know, I know but fresh are tasteless at this time of year) veg stock cube (should I have made my own stock? Idk) dash of balsamic (should I have gone to Modena myself?) tsp sugar (couldn't find any fresh sugar canes anywhere), s & p, dried oregano and fresh basil near the end of cooking.
Would I define that as "cooking well"? My family enjoy it, I know what's in it, not rubbish from a jar, easy to cook, simple ingredients etc BUT it's not Masterchef. My family wouldn't want quadruple cooked chips, pan-fried triple-aged ham hock with a honey glaze on a bed of mushroom infused semolina and a raspberry jus so I wouldn't cook it. I'm sure I could cook it though. But then anyone can follow a recipe as I said earlier. Some recipes I've tried and not enjoyed but I think that's down to the recipe and me not enjoying the flavour combination etc People cook what they want to eat.
I appreciate not everyone can make pastry though and to not know how to avoid a soggy bottom is bad. Like a pp poster pointed out, I'm always a bit surprised on CDWM that the contestants don't know basic foods considering they're on the show to show off their cooking!
Some people have no interest in cooking and don't read recipe books for fun and inspiration.

Joyous 🤣

that’s a very sweeping statement, although most people are probably average cooks at best.
myself, dd and dh can all cook fairly well. But I am rubbish at things like curry so I don’t bother making it as it’s never right. Dd can make them though.
due to dietary needs atm I cook from scratch every day. It’s time consuming though if you work f/t or are just busy w young kids.
i have a couple of friends who can cook well, but a family member who thinks they’re a great cook is awful!
My DM wasn’t a great cook, unfortunately. Edible, but very boring. She was better at baking (as am I).

I hate cooking but if I have to I'll use lovely fresh ingredients and make it taste lovely.

I’m just curious about courgette and mushroom being singled out in the OP. I mean, they are in that category if veg that can be utterly delicious or revolting depending on what you do with them.

But, if I were going to complain about terrible food (as seek in TikTok!), it wouldn’t be on the basis that there are vegetables in there (even if they’re not well cooked). Those aren’t the horrifying recipes. 🤣

I'm not the OP and I'm sure that my thoughts won't be as worthy as theirs but I think your menu all sounds delicious. I'm surprised by the amount of summer foods though. For winter solstice I'd have expected more winter veg and hearty food rather than asparagus and courgettes, for example. But as I love asparagus and courgettes it is definitely an observation not a criticism!

Foodie means you really enjoy food it doesn't mean you have to be an excellent cook

I know, but most 'foodies' also boast about being good cooks 🙄

OP I agree with you and I’m one of those who can’t cook. I wish I could, I love trying new things but I was never taught how to cook (my mum is worse than me).

I now do Hello Fresh / Gusto and that’s the nicest food I’ve ever been able to make at home because they supply the ingredients and do step by step instructions.

As someone who can cook, what’s your thoughts on Hello Fresh / Gusto? I grew up on microwave meals so I think they’re amazing but realise not everyone would think that way 🤣

I think this poster is clearly a Troll and most probably employed by the Sun newspaper judging by the mundane posts

I'm reminded of the don't hug me I'm scared healthy eating episode

All these fancy, show-offy foods, clogging the body with unnecessary detail!

@sashh I would be very dissappointed if I was expecting a Winter Solstice Menu and was given yours. There is not much to celebrate winter in your choices and I guess it is based on a lot of imported food - please think of the food miles!

The Winter Solstice menu is more interesting than the op ;

I agree do more local, winter menu. It could be really nice

I am going to agree. I went to a friend's once and they have a lot of money. Food was poorly cooked and not great yet they can afford it. How do people who don't work and have loads of money not feed themselves properly?? They eat out loads. They must know what good food is surely? Why don't they replicate that at home?

Meh, an awful lot of people can't cook very well, I would agree. Most? I think that very much depends where you live and what the dominant food culture is. It's Greek and Turkish Cypriot round here, with side servings of Kurdish and Georgian, Hungarian and increasingly, South American. There's some pretty good food going on in the kitchens on my street.
I can nip over the road to Yasar Halim and buy enormous armful of purslane, dill, mountain herbs, chard as well as the more usual parsley and coriander etc..At this time of year the shelves of mushrooms are overflowing with incredible varieties and and it all goes out so quickly there's a guy permanently replenishing stock. At the back of the shop the butcher sells mainly lamb, but all of it, including eyebally heads, brains in their little individual trays and lights and lungs. That produce is going somewhere, and I suggest it's going to people who know how to cook.
Having said that, directly opposite is an Iceland, with ranked arrays of pre-formed reconstituted Space Invader flavour oven chips and fifty kinds of frozen chicken. There's not much overlap in customer use, but I shop and cook from both according to the occasion. 🤷‍♀️

I’ve seen too many thanksgiving side dishes on my social media this week to have any faith in humanity. I see your soggy courgettes OP and raise you a sweet potato pie topped with mini marshmallows.

there is more to thanksgiving food than marshmallows which not everyone uses, I think the dish you are referring to is sweet potatoes and pecan casserole , it’s really delicious and I had it without marshmallows,
Americans do know how to cook a turkey , and make fabulous desserts On thanks giving.

I’m told I’m a good cook by others regularly. Equally I also am a home cook not a chef and generally make stuff my family will eat.
really interesting to hear the opinion that we are an island nation with no fish culture other than fish and chips, I kinda felt the same visiting NZ, boring plain food.
Suppose the UK has picked up food culture from many other places due to our colonial history but yeah traditional British food is def a bit boring but can be nice!

Also the snobbery about American food in the uk is weird. American’s make stuff taste good, surely that’s the aim of food!