on being awarded a Bafta
http://www.talktalk.co.uk/news/showb...n-delia/86526/

No tiny cheffy portions from Delia - just good, old fashioned cookery and recipes that work!

Waitrose might have dispensed with her services in favour of Pippa Middleton - but I doubt if any recipe or advice from the latter will clear the supermarket shelves as did Delia time and time again. OG Waitrose.

As the article says - without Delia we might never have seen Jamie Oliver, James Martin, Nigella, Hugh FW and Nigel Slater etc.

Lets not be offensive to Delia.... or add her name to a list of mere TV Cooks. And, if Delia was an influence, the TV Execs would have recruited Professional Chefs....rather than simply indulge mere plebbites of TV Cooks (such as Jamiue Oliver, James Martin, Nigella, HFW, Slater, Antony Worrell Thompson) who are likely to have been employed as a consequence of an X Factor Audition.

AWT once called Delia 'The Volvo of Cooks,' and Gordon Ramsay is quoted as saying "Here we are trying to establish a reputation across the world for this country's food and along comes Delia and tips it out of a can. That hurts."

Who's holding the Bafta gentlemen (sic)

I'm an adventurous cook and when I have the time, inclination and am perhaps entertaining I can arrange a plate of food that would make an excellent still life painting; artistically arranged meat and veg with a trickle of jus etc. but when it comes to dishing up a roast dinner, a cake that always rises and a good old British pud - Delia's the gal.

I wonder just how many tentative cooks have followed her recipes before embarking on something more ambitious.

Some might scoff - but the fact is her recipes work.

I think she's overrated because she was one of the first, similar to the Beatles.

But that is the point and that is why she was awarded the Bafta. She was the first and it was only through her guidance that many viewers became sufficiently confident to be more adventurous.

Of course many of us admire the Michelin starred chefs - both British and International - but let's not deny Delia her place in the annals of tv cooking.

Who else can claim that they wiped the shelves of supermarkets countrywide simply by using an ingredient or a particular gadget?

Not Ramsay, not Michel Roux or Raymond Blanc - nor those we regularly see on Saturday Kitchen; Michael Caines, Tom Kerridge, Glyn Purcell and Atul Kochhar etc.

These are chefs in the full meaning of the word - but they all have much for which to thank Delia - that doyenne of tv cookery.

It's just plain wrong to suggest that all of the above are X-Factor-type TV chefs! You've got things the wrong way round.

I'm not a fan (rather the opposite), but James Martin has been working in professional kitchens from a very young age, way before appearing on TV, and including a stint as head chef at the very well-respected Hotel du Vin (maybe he's even still there?), not to mention his association with the Roux family and their scholarship system. AWT, horrible little man, but has had a string of restaurants. HFW, OK, River Cottage came about through his TV work, but at least he has run a restaurant.

Much as I am a huge fan of Delia's, she has always been a cookery writer and TV personality and has never worked as a chef or run a professional kitchen.

Nigella was robbed!

I am very, very angry!















Not really!

That may well be true but she has taught so many people to cook she deserves credit hugely just for that. I have tried many TV chefs recipes and Delia is the one cook who has never let me down for a dependable recipe.

She is primarily IMO a teacher and I think that is what most of us need when we start cooking.

Another cook who doesn't let me down is Mary Berry and another Grace Mulligan none of whom ran a restaurant.

Actually I am no fan of restaurant food so perhaps that's why I prefer home cooks on TV too.....

Oh, don't get me wrong! I'm a massive fan of Delia's, and completely agree with what you say. I was just pointing out to the FM whose post I was replying to that she is not actually a professional chef, while some of the others they mentioned are.

I don't get the dissing from either side. There are cookery writers / tv hosts, then there are professional chefs who get on telly and there are some inbetween.


I remember watching Boiling Point where Ramsay stuck his nose up at celebrity chefs as this was when he worked in the kitchen every day and it was a serious documentary.
Ramsay is definately now a celebrity chef.

Delia has never claimed to be a chef, she is a cook, a cookery writer and via tv a teacher of basic cookery skills.

She's sold over 21 million books and every recipe in every book has been tested by Delia.

If I'm hosting a posh dinner party I'll call on Michel Roux or Raymond Blanc but if we're talking a basic British menu - nothing beats tried and tested Delia.

When Delia did her How To cook series she was widely condemned by a number of Celebrity Chefs for "dumbing down", until she pointed out that if people are incapable of boiling an egg correctly they are hardly likely to try any recipe in any of their books.

Someone once said people buy cookery books by the likes of Jamie Oliver for show, they buy Delia's books to cook from.

My cookery "training" consisted of two years of Domestic Science" one hour a week when I started Secondary School, the best part of forty years ago, but I can knock up a "Delia", and that's good enough for me!

The 'Hairy Bikers' will be happy, they love her.

I love Delia, so this is very well deserved, she has more than earned her BAFTA.
Her new book is great too.