Why can't British people cook, despite all the bloodty cookery programmes, magazines and cookbooks?

[moondog]

Yes, I know one or two MNers will come on all huffy about how fabulous they are at cooking but generally speaking we don't have a bloody clue do we?

I know hundreds of people from all different kinds of backgrounds and could count on one hand those who can put a decent meal together.
Why???

I love cooking, to the point i dropped out of school at 15 to work full time in a restaurant (illegal i know but so worth it) i have spent the last 10 years creating recipes, tweaking them and trialing things.
I have my Kitchen set up in a way so that i know i can go in there on any day at any time and have something to make.
My store cupboard is plentiful with pluses and Pasta and tinned things and my Fridge is full of decent Dairy and Meat products.

My freezer is a combo of home cooked meals frozen in person sized portions frozen flat on a tray so i can stack hundreds up for times when i haven't got even 10 mins to cook.

Cooking is most of my world, i have vast amounts of Cookbooks and read them like other people do novels, most of them have little notes marked down in pencil by me,

My pried and joy is a signed very old copy of a Marguerite pattern book handed down through the family i am the 4th generation to have it.

I will be honest when i say i don't understand people who claim they don't know how to cook, anyone that can read a cook book can cook.
The same with the time issue, anyone can spend an hour bulk cooking things to freeze, then you always have home cooked nutritious meals.

'Question of priorities I suppose. Cooking and preparing/buying food is single most important domestic issue chez Moondog.'

But why should people be lambasted just because they don't have the same priorities as you?

I could say 'well, interacting with my family, talking to them, playing with the children is the single most important issue chez Bumper' and start a thread about people so obsessed with food, shopping and cooking that they are neglecting their families.

(I mean it's not, my single most important issue at the moment is getting some sleep or sitting on my arse mnetting! )

Food is to live, we need basic food to nutritionally help the body thive. People forget this, we need quality, fats, carbs, blar blar etc etc.

Yes, it is the single most important thing in our lives. There is too much emphasis on filling the tum just for the satisfaction.

It seems pretty well a problem with the lack of cooking with all the health problems we are seeing in this country.

and start a thread about people so obsessed with food, shopping and cooking that they are neglecting their families.

Dont make me laugh! the children get involved, its conversation about what ingedients planning (a great skill). Sitting at the table as a family talking about the food.

The day I got home from hospital after the birth of my children I had to feed my family, it wasnt that difficult, even when I was knackered it made no difference.

I felt browbeaten by family meals as a teenager. And I didn't even have to cook them.
My mother was permanently on the edge of a stress / fatigue freak-out partly because we sat down to home-cooked food every night. Dad always said "did anything exciting happen at school today?" and I always said "no." Then we sat over too many spuds till they were all eaten, out of boredom. Everyone was chubby till they left home and no one asked me how I was. Family meals are over-rated in terms of health and communication.
I would rather give my family the odd takeaway and a more relaxed atmosphere then religiously cook every meal from scratch and bang about, tight-lipped and on the edge of exhaustion all the time.

I spent a lot of time watching my mum in the kitchen and she learned from her mum and from cookery evening classes. Mainly I just love food so I am a decent cook because I want enjoy eating. Most people would be if they really cared about it. I'm shit at sewing but I'm sure if I actually tried I'd be OK. You just pick your strengths I guess.

Yes, vezzie. I too had a stressed out working mum who made a home-cooked meal on her return from work. Stress is not conducive to conversations around teh table talking about the food

Its Food Porn thats done it - no, nothing dodgy!

I'm a prime example - hardly cook, more a chop and heat type method goes on in my house - but I have 2 book shelves filled with cookery books, watch saturday kitchen and love a good wander around the farms market. Its the lifestyle! I want Nigellas walk in larder, I want to be Jamie Oliver nipping out to Borough market on my scooter - but I'm not... I'm busy, I have a fussy child, I just want to eat quickly and not think about because I'm overweight, I could go on.

However, tonight I cooked my first ever pot of soup - SUnshone Soup from Nigella's new book, and I'm converted! I will cook more, I might be busy, but we all need to eat, and if I buy prechoped/frozen veg it might just happen. I wont go down the Delia tinned mince route though, thank was just wrong!

The last time I took part in one of these threads I was very defensive of Brits' cooking. But. Since then I've been invited to dinner parties by a number of very lovely friends...I would say three out of six of them can cook well, as can I. The others very generously cooked meals that tasted slightly better than cardboard. So kind of them to cook, and yes they 'can' cook, technically speaking, but in terms of quality I'd say Brits vary massively from house to house.

Titsalina, I disagree that anyone who can read a cookbook can cook. There's far more to it than reading - you have to understand how to treat food: from choosin it in the shop to storage to preparation to when and how to place it in the pan/ what techniques for handling it during cooking, how it should smell, look, feel and taste (or even sound) during the various stages of cooking. And, of course, you need to develop a good palate.

And a love for food and cooking!

Noone is 'lambasted' Bumper.What a foolish thing to say. Do you feel lambasted? If so, it says more about you then me.

Moon you have said something very true here
re 'convenience foods'

'People buy it under the often misguided belief that it is easier and in doing so undermine their own self confidence. Vicious cycle.'

Absolutley. It serves thier purpose to have us beleif it is all terribly complicated and arduous. It isn't. I cooked roast chicken with roast veggies and warm bread tonight.
That was after a very ling day at work and a 120 mile drive.
Prep time was about 15 mins. max and it cooked itself.

Ah, but competitive cooking query: did you bake your own bread

I have.
Tend not to or would be as big as house. Too tempting.

But vezzie you are wrong to connect home-cooked food to family dysfunction. The two are entirely separate entities, but it sounds as though your family experience has made you mistakenly see them as related. Such a shame there was so much tension and sadness in your home.

Watching bb come dine with me and think it proves your point!

When pg i wanted birds custard so bought a packet. When i got it home i found out you had to put and egg and milk in it what is the point? I had bought vanilla flavour cornflour. i made normal custard and the tub is still in the cupboard! Will use to make custard creams one day!

But Speedy, there wasn't in general a lot of tension or sadness - I only remember it around food! Family walks, holidays on beaches, sweeping leaves, playing music, tickling the baby in bed - all idyllic lucky lovely memories tucked away in the brain bank. Dismal tired evenings sitting over martyr food - ugh.
(I play devil's advocate a bit on these threads because actually I love home made food and when relaxed about it, and single, loved cooking - cooked every night, with pleasure, for years, get antsy when separated from a kitchen for too long. But I honestly do think it is only a part of looking after a family, and I think other things are more important, and I think that moaning about the British diet slipexhausteds far too easily into flagellating women, especially not rich women, for not making things out of Elizabeth David books every night. Yes men can cook, but it is never the man on TV who is being asked why his kids eat kebabs. In particular I can't bear the TV shows that humiliate people who can't clean a fish and go into people's houses and sneer because there are baked beans in the cupboard. And - whatever you say - yes it may only take 8 mins to make a tomato sauce and boil spaghetti, but this is NOT easier than a takeaway or a ready meal - same time maybe but not less effort - especially if you have SPD or something else that makes standing or bending down to find the colander difficult, and then you have to wash up as well, and it might cost 50p but if you don't have much money you might be craving the cheap meat in an Iceland curry and tomatoes won't cut it. So stop judging.)

Ah, well then perhaps your family had dysfunctional attitudes towards food? In essence, though you're playing devil's ad, you cheeky monkey, home-cooked food and the sort of family problems you're describing do not go together like birds of a feather. So there.

As for the Brit food thing, I'm sure there are some judgmental comments on here, but it is allowable to say someone does something badly without that being a judgmental comment. So there again.

Cos they don't do proper HE and the lessons now are so simplistic.

My DW was an HE teacher but dropped out of that as getting too techie. DS2 year 9 had a cokker y lesson yesterday - a double lesson to make cookies that should take about 30 mins in all to make. The food booklet they use is just so basic and the same stuff seems to come up each year - dull dull dull!

PS I can cook and most people I know do too.

I'm a very good instinctive cook.I make everything from scratch,especially curries [and I had never tasted curry until I was in my 20's].I have just had pumpkin ginger and chilli soup for lunch,have been baking all morning and will be cooking and freezing home grown veg all afternoon.I don't know anyone who can't cook,but one or two who don't like cooking.

My mother hated cooking and still does,but she isn't a bad cook,just unenthusiastic.

Food is Fuel in the UK. I can'T cook either. Eat to live not live to eat. The Japanese are mad, they're the opposite, like the Italians. They'Re food obsessed.

Although I like the creativity of cooking, I do like that part. But I just don't see food as a priority. I know that's bad, but I do think it's cultural. I was reading "Among the Bohemians", a non-fiction book, and it described the food and eating habits of the British artists and writers at the turn of the century. Very interesting.

Who are not cooking at home with fresh ingredients? Do you know if not then long term health issues to family? Why are you not cooking fresh because.....

In the SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS since this thread was started most of the posters probably are cooking now.

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