Cooking Adventures

Whether I’m a stay at home mum or a working girl with a day off, I’m a sucker for daytime TV cooking programs. It’s always a bonus if Angus’ feed coincides with the 2pm Ready Steady Cook hour. In cooking shows there’s a spectrum of talent to choose from. If you own a successful high end restaurant in a capital city you’ve got street cred with me. At the other end of the spectrum are some kitchen cowboys.

Without naming names, the big guy with braces is at the lower end of culinary talent. He seems to do the same dish every day that requires diced onion and carrot in some form of stew. A few weeks ago he did a “Traditional African Stew” (cooked on location in an animal savannah at the zoo) in which the two main ingredients were Madras Indian curry powder and Indonesian Sambal Olek paste. He conceded half way through the process that he might have deviated a little from his claim that it was a traditional African dish.

A new comer on the block has slotted into the 3pm timeslot. His lifeline is probably that it’s a time of day that is bankrupt of any better entertainment. He loves his hair and his shirts. I know this because he’s been confident enough to share his fondness of both in as many words. Sure, he can slice onions fast and fine without looking at his hands but his gourmet talent is thin on the ground. I reckon if you are brave enough to endorse stock powder and pre-prepared foods on national TV you can probably kiss your restaurant chefing career goodbye.

The market forces should be tougher on these guys. Before you start shrinking in your chair about the bulk can of stock powder you have in your pantry, don’t have domestic guilt. It’s not about food snobbery or your prowess in the kitchen. It’s about upstarts claiming to be competent and cutting edge and caring more about their profile than their craft. Well, that's what I think.