Can I just ask: what is with all the tv chefs teaching us how to make sandwiches these days?? Ok, I’m down with Jamie Oliver gunning for bacon sarnie perfection, or the king of all grilled cheese. But the reason I reckon he can get away with it is the lad factor. He presents as a blokes’ bloke, and a hellavalotta blokes can’t cook for toffee, so yeah, maybe they do need their hands holding to bung some eggs and mango chutney on a bit of flat-bread.
But Nigella, Domestic Goddess non-pareil? Rick Stein, with his expertise in fish cookery and depth of knowledge in the realms of Indian Spicing? Yes, the former has never made any bones about using cheats, tricks and shortcuts to maximise flavour… but in her last series, she was slated for pronouncing mashed avo on toast a recipe… and yet, lo and behold, she’s gone and done it again. Her ‘revelation’ of a fried brie, fig and parma ham sandwich… uh, hello? Ham and cheese. Not new. Toasting them, also not new. Fruit with cheese, duh, check out the long and glorious tradition of chutneys!
And Rick! Rick, Rick, Rick. Love him to bits… but, an open sandwich? You really want to use up airspace and time showing us how to strew lettuce, chicken, avo and tomato on pieces of sour-dough?
Nigel Slater does it too, though I’m more inclined to forgive him, as often he’s using the sandwich as a vehicle for transforming leftovers, and it usually does involve a bit of actual, you know, cooking.
Is this a case of the lowest common denominator? Can it be that despite the popularity of cooking shows, and the prevalence of cookbooks on best-seller lists, that viewers have genuinely reached the abysmal nadir of requiring instruction on how to arrange the contents of their fridges on pieces of bread? Or is it precisely the opposite, a symptom of the over-development, the burgeoning, of foodie culture, whereby cookery tv has become SO popular it has literally left itself nothing else to fill all of the minutes and hours that must be allocated to drooling over pots, pans and plates, to satisfy demand?
They also feel the need to tell us how to cut up veg. Mary Berry, Jamie, Gordon F-Word Ramsay, and now Rick too, seem to think that their viewers can’t work out how to tackle a squash, or a red pepper, or an avocado without factoring in a trip to A&E (or the ER, Stateside). Guys? When I want to slice and dice veg, as happens quite frequently, what with being a vegetarian and all, that’s what I do. You’ll know about it on the more rare occasions when my own limbs and other appendages are the target!
Is it just me? Am I just weird for actually watching these people in the hopes that they will show me how to do something new, something I didn’t know how to do, or make, before?
What I Don't Know 