Why are British women such shit cooks??

[moondog]

I mix with a lot of different people.
Over the years, the women I know who can cook could be counted on one hand (and my mother and sister are two of those.)

Seriously, people haven't got a fucking clue about even the most basic stuff.On the rare occasion I am even invited to eat in someone else's house it is usually inedible slop.

And yet,the tv has nothing but cookery programmes on it,Gordon Ramsey is a househole name and the bookshops burst with glossy tomes that make the best seller list.

Seriously, any ideas???

Lazycow: "Maybe this is because we live in a small flat and my time spent cooking makes me feel as if I'm isolated from my family & friends instead of in a nice kitchen with the family nearby/in the garden etc."

I have a fairly biggish kitchen and sadly the only way I can cook is if dh shelters me from ds and dd. Otherwise it is trying to cook and do 100 toilet stops, baby who cries if put on the floor, or children pulling apart the cupboards to look for chocolate. So it is still fairly isolating, at least until dcs grow up.

morningpaper, I wish I could get away with benign neglect cooking, but it does not happen!

Ah yes bluesshoes- there is all that too with ds.

I have to be honest however and say I've never liked cooking that much, I think the fact is you either enjoy cooking or you don't.

It depends on whether you like food. Whether food is important to you. Many people jusy eat to survive. The guy who sits next to me at work is not really interested and will eat anything quick and easy. Even my nephew seems to just graze and is not a big eater. That is fine. Everything about food is a big part of my life.
But if food is not that important to you, the idea of cooking would fill you with dred.

LOLOL at the sara lee cake
i LOVED htat as a student

I am a brilliant cook. It is my observation that the skill of the cook is inversely proportionate to the number of gadgets they own. I don't do gadgets. I whisk with a balloon whisk, make bread by hand, puree soup in a manual moulin legumes. I have a friend who has every kitchen gadget know to man and every cookbook ever published. Her kitchen looks impressive but she never cooks in it.... what is that all about?

I cannot get away with benign neglect cooking either. That is why DD spends literally hours stood on a kitchen chair. Even if DH is home and prepared to play princesses she will still come and stand on the chair.

'home all day' Cod?
You must be joking.
I have a full time job, a business and study for an MSc.
I don't sit around at home all day wittering on about 'sparkly gel eyeliner'.
You want to do some paid work my girl.It would do you good.

Yes Caroline very true.
Shit cook own crap like 'highball glasses' and electric vegetable steamers.

so mmondog how did you manage to arrive at school with tortilla wrapped in foil when you should have been at work?

I can cook! My mum and sister can both cook. Both of my best friends can cook!

Britsh cuisine is shit, that's the problem.

I had an Italian friend at uni who had been an au pair for an English family before she did her degree. She was telling me one day how much she hated the food they gave her and trying to decribe this truly disgusting meal they had given her...'It was brown tasteless meat and lots of overcooked vegetables and this thick brown salty sauce all over it...' Ah, the great British Sunday Roast!

Oooh! I like this thread! DH's family are Arabic and all the women can cook - we are talking mahoosive feasts that feed a minimum of 20 people...its amazing...but then the even the standard kitchens/fridges over there are bigger than in English houses and a lot of people have maids to help them out...they also don't finish work (if they work!) so close to the kids bed time! Its all about the British work/life balance imo!

Moondog - LOL @ electric veg steamer. Last night on the phone one of my best friends said she would like to make her own lasagne but can't because she doesn't have a pasta maker. I tried to explain that there was a lot of middle ground between owning a pasta making machine and buying ready made lasagne ready-made from M&S. Deaf ears.

British cusine is shit bollocks it is!!! British cusine cooked properly is some fo hte best in the world. Jsut cos your mate got given overcooked crap with fake gravey doesnt mean that British food is crap. I got served overcooked watery pasta the other day with a tasteless tomatoy sauce. So does that mean all Italian food si crap??? No I dont think so.

British and Irish food is soem of the best in the world and its about tiem people realised it.

Quite agree tarantula! Good food is only good food if it's cooked well. Even the very best ingredients can be spoiled.

A really good Sunday roast can be superb.

to the OP (didn't read the thread), I think I'm a crap cook, I'm British and I hate cooking.

Very, very little profit in people buying basic ingredients and cooking from scratch.
Ready meal? loads of profit margin there.

in the times I've been in Italy I've watched a lot of Italian TV and it is packed with adverts from a slightly Italianised Findus' Crispy Pancake etc. They are working hard to reclaim Italian culture from its tiresome promotion of real cooking.

Hurrah, Tarantula!

Bozza,it's called flexitime.

Noone said British food is shit Tarantula.
It's fantastic I agree. I don't think anything beats for example a Sunday roast followed by a good old fashined pud and something like Stilton.

Trouble is, very few of know how to do it properly.
I had the worst Sunday lunch of my life the other day (although at least the woman tried). Grey claggy gravy,a joint of meat that had literally steamed rather than roasted and was then massacred with an electric knife (ownership of which deserves immediate incarceration) within 5 mins of leaving the oven and over bolide frozen veg.

Twas grim.

lol lol SSsandy.I applaud your honesty.

Is it all of us then? According to my ex it was just me...

I get reminded of him every time I see this on A.C. so had better click on 'ignore'!

Some people find cooking a bore and a chore. Personally, I like cooking, but I don't blame those who reach foer the 'Chicken Tonight' after a long, hard day (and I do occasionally have a good snigger at women who spend their days making jam and boring on about their latest wonderful recipe. Not interested, sorry!). Food nazis annoy me. If people like eating pot noodle, let them get on with it. I enjoy good literature and good wine, but I don't give a toss if others like Blue Nun and Jeffrey Archer. And I disagree about English food. I think it is a terribly dull cuisine. There are only a handful of things I think we do well.

Ooh I can cook, but have had it drilled into me from my half French mother and French grandmother about quality of ingredients and patience wrt cooking.

Did a coq au vin once (onions and mushrooms cooked separately, then added) and it took 3 freakin hours!

Only read the OP and only answering as the title bugs me, I am a fantastic cook!!!!