To read the Waitrose magazine for comedy relief?

[LexL]

AIBU to get the Waitrose magazine just to have a good laugh at some of the pretentious recipes? DH and I sit down and go through the recipes/articles for 10 minutes while we have a cuppa and end up in mad chuckles every time! It never disappoints. I mentioned it to a colleague at lunch and whilst I was sharing it she looked at me very sternly and said -"you shouldn't get the magazine just to laugh at it, some people really appreciate those recipes. I love their recipes". I felt a bit bad and apologised if I offended her. I asked if she had ever made one of the recipes and she admitted she had never (ironically, I have made a couple of the easier ones). Am I the only one that finds some of the recipes pretentious and therefore, hilarious? I seriously hope not! Maybe I have a weird sense of humour?!

I will caveat this by saying that Waitrose is the only shop walking distance from my home, so I treat it as my corner shop. So I do shop there but only for a few top up items/special offers.

Good for you @LexL for finding the humour and enjoying it! Bit of an aside, but I used to love the Betterware catalogue, had me on fits of laughter for hours at a time, because they assumed no prior knowledge of any of their products: 'scissors-handy for cutting up things' 'bin: ideal for rubbish' and so on...I thought it was hilarious and frankly pitied my flatmate who just didn't get what I was laughing at.
You enjoy yourself, you are not hurting anyone and laughter is good for you!

I once found a great collection of comical ‘serving suggestion’ labels online. Like tinned soup shown in a bowl.

Ooops, we've found the die-hard Waitrose mag/obscure ingredient enclave here... sense of humour not necessary, binned off for more space in the walk-in larder.

Giggling at the pretentious ingredients Waitrose deems essential reveals a degree of either silliness or lack of class that certain MN'ers despise.

What will they think of our hobby - playing 'guess which random and totally unrelated freebie you get if you buy X from the Viking catalogue'.. (I won the last round, DP did not, in even three guesses, figure out that one would obviously get a tin of Quality st if one ordered 26 reams of printer paper).

Ooooh we love this game at work! Our favourites so far have been a novelty flamingo mug and a travel sized ping pong set (which was really just standard size). We didn't reach the order threshold for a "beach themed unisex tshirt" once and we were devastated.

Why? Ffs.

Why not! (Sushimayo is a curiously apt name for participating in this thread btw)

We all have a different sense of humour, and I often find myself laughing at things that weren't intended to be funny. If the person responsible isn't in the room, what's the problem?

I mean who hasn't laughed like a drain at some of the pronouncements of their senior management or HR departments?

Because it's their choice and their right to laugh and make fun of magazine recipes in a free society.

This isn't North Korea.

So that's why. Get it?

I get what you mean but it takes a bit more to make me actually chuckle

I made the tuna steak on a bed of chick peas and tomato last night. It was delicious.
But I used Tesco ingredients and only did it because I bought some yellow sticker tuna, so I’m not sure where that places me in this debate.

Oh for the days when it was Waitrose Food Illustrated!

@riotlady, yes to the hacks! I used to love the "Quick Tips" in TV Quick years ago. A memorable one being making an empty bean can into a pencil holder. Actually quite a good idea now I think about it though...

How have I got to this age never having seen a banana candle?! Thank you 🙏.

Rose harissa. So much poncier than ordinary harissa.

Is it? I buy it in Tesco,to me and family/friends it's a normal ingredient. Mary Berry uses it and she cooks straightforward recipes which are not pretentious at all.
I don't have a Waitrose near me but I thought there were some tasty-looking recipes in that link above.
But if they amuse the OP where's the harm.

To be fair, it’s on special offer at the moment so I’ve stocked up.

Why is an extremely common ingredient in North African/Tunisian cooking poncy? Or indeed appreciating food and ingredients from other cultures?

Laughing at foods just because they’re ‘foreign’ just makes people look parochial and ignorant in my view.

I guarantee that people will be calling ingredients ‘pretentious’ when what they really mean is ‘foreign’ or ‘unfamiliar to my culture’.

And yes, I do think that is pretty classless.

The allergen warnings make me smile: bags of peanuts that “may contain nuts” and hard boiled egg packs that “contains egg”.

Oh come on. It's pretentious in this country. Like it would be pretentious instead of saying 'shampain' (champagne), pronouncing it 'shampagna' because it's a French product so we should say it the French way. Well, no, it's not pronounced that way here, just like Rose Harissa is not a common ingredient here (therefore pretentious). It's not pretentious in other countries but it is here. That's fine and normal. Ground fresh coconut is a basic, cheap ingredient in many countries but here it would be pretentious in a recipe because its not easy to get hold of or expensive.

Does that mean we can’t cook North African recipes in case you think we’re pretentious? I honestly don’t care.

I don’t think anyone’s asking you not to cook what you like or asking you to adopt any sort of attitude.

They’re just laughing at pretension.

Pretentious means trying to make out something to be more impressive / special than it is

So cook what you like - North African is lovely

But it would be pretentious if you were giving out the vibe that you had personally travelled through all of Africa seeking out specific ingredients , living with families to learn their secrets , when in truth it was a standard set of Moroccan flavors that many people have used for decades and a magazine recipe

using "sourced" for "popped into Waitrose" would be pretentious

Being very brand specific "oh I only use Heinz" as though it's morally superior to Aldi beans ( which is a personal taste thing )

Oh of course it's extra virgin oil from the blah blah region of Tuscany - which no one would have noticed because most peoples palates are not that refined

It's pretentious to talk that way before serving - it's not if someone says "oh there is something about this ... "

I rarely bother with the recipes, since they often include one or more ingredients I will have to buy specially, not to mention out of season, flown-in fruit or veg.

I don’t remember which mag it was, but not long ago I saw a recipe for a plum tart - in the depths of winter! FGS, why not include such a recipe in September?

Unless of course it’s just a ploy to get you to buy e.g. Chilean or Californian plums in December, which I suppose must be the case.

I cook from the magazine quite often. I quite like how the recipes are often tailored to the ingredients and quantities that Waitrose sells. It stops having a quarter of a block of cheese or a couple of teaspoons of something left over with no plans to be used. I don't think that's pretentious, it seems quite sensible for what is essentially free marketing.

Well another poster just said Rose Harissa wasn't common here, therefore pretentious.

So you'd laugh at people for using it? Seems a bit childish, no?