Nigella has never been one to skimp on luxurious, high-fat, high-sugar ingredients, and generally I don't have a problem with this. She's the one I turn to for cakes, biscuits, pies and other sumptuous treats. However, last night I caught the second half of her new show and I cringed with disgust at some of her concoctions.

The squid was good, an easy coating, a quick fry and some simple garlic mayonnaise. More than acceptable as a starter or dinner party snack.

The pork chops with gnocchi - what?! - I thought the idea was to give us things that are better than pre-packaged convenience foods. Obviously she wasn't thinking better in a healthy way, as she fried the pork, coated it with cream, boiled the (ready made) gnocchi and coated it with cream. Better in what way exactly? The most negative aspect of convenience foods, for me, is the lack of nutrients, but where were they in Nigella's pork dish? To top it off she tried to look cool by balancing the pork plate on her knee and eating with a fork whilst reading a handful of pretend paperwork. It's a good job the camera turned away before she attempted the chops with the fork alone - not pretty.

As if this wasn't bad enough the show climaxed with Nigella creating a sorry version of a bread and butter pudding using some stale croissants, sugar and... wait for it... more double cream. After chowing down on the first bowl, she them came back in her dressing gown to polish off the rest of the baking dish, topped off with MORE DOUBLE CREAM!

Maybe I should be applauding her for defying the current movement for wholesome, nutritious food, but she wasn't doing anything imaginative enough to fly that flag. She was putting together lazy fodder that wouldn't even make the grade on Ready Steady Cook then taking it to bed with her in a way that conjored up images of Fat Bastard covered in chicken grease. "I'm dead seeeexxxy, look at ma seeexxxy body!"

Labels: cooking