Well the internet is so slow today, the uploading of photographs for a step by step gnocchi lesson is just not going to happen!
So, I though I would tackle this thought provoking question.
I love watching MasterChef, the UK version (I have only seen the Australian version once of twice and was not so taken with the style, it does not seem to have that real competitive streak).
We have been watching this week as the competition heats up with only a handful of contestants left. Of course, like anyone watching football or gameshows we have all the moves and answers as the contestants struggle through. Giving our oh so professional opinions on their efforts! Can you imagine being in that studio kitchen knowing there are millions of people sitting at home critisising every slice, dice or stir you make?
Unfortunately, for them, this week the loosers have been so obvious, that even Jim, has said 'they have to be the one to go'. Tuesday evening was a test of classic European cuisines - Spanish, Italian and French. The contestants spent the day with one of three specialist chefs and then had to return to the kitchen to give their own interpretation. The ones who chose the Spanish and Italian were great - I could have licked the television screen (if I was that way inclined!). But I was so disappointed with the French offerings. I know there is lots of stress and pressure to perform but how can you mess up French cuisine, especially when you have just spent the day learning the basics. Instead of chosing to do something simple and perfect 2 contestants chose to do patisserie neither of which worked at all - if I had been Greg or John I would have booted them both out. I mean, have you ever had banana and milk chocolate together in France?
So last night they all had a go at making the best of the produce of Scotland - some great food, no puddings and not a haggis in sight! But the one who got the boot was the poor Scottish lass whose tart fell apart so she could not even present it, and whose beef was not cooked properly (personally we both though the whisky and fish combination would be the one to go but he has done some very nice food up to this point). Next challenge was off to Cumbria to cook lunch for 20 in a barn using the produce from the estate and forraged from the surrounding fields and woodlands. All completely yummy. We have to wait to see tonight who leaves but our money is on the very sweet little Japanese girl with goggly fish eyes but she does tend to put too much of a Japanese twist on everything. In the process of making her brownies, which features absolutely nothing from the produce offered she managed to get herself covered from head to toe with chocolate and at the end looked like a child who had been playing in a mud puddle.
I have not made my final choice in this group yet but I must confess on more than one series I have picked the winner with 4-5 episodes to go! (I also used be very good at picking the murderer in the first half hour of an Agatha Christie movie).
Several people have said to me over the years 'Oh you should go on MasterChef'. After watching the stress and pressure these people go through, no thanks! They are all good, some great cooks and I am sure, although they go off saying how much fun they have had, it takes some courage to get back in the kitchen after having your food critisised by some of the best in the business.
I also hate time pressure in the kitchen (any other place I am better with a deadline), this is my relaxation time and I treasure every minute. I love slow cooking, as you know from my 24 hour Boeff Bourgignon.
For now family and friends are my favourite customers and they are happy to wait for their food. The thought has often crossed my mind of having my own cafe but I have always said it would be fashioned around a place that my friend Remi took myself and a couple of friends during a visit to Paris. From the outside it was an old terraced house, I dont even think there was a sign board. Inside, it was nothing fancy but it the tiny room was packed. Menu? A choice of 2 items on a black board and a jug of house wine! My friend Kathy had the vegetarian option, the rest of us had the house specialty which I am not going to attempt to spell! It was the intestines stuffed with all sorts of delicious bits and it was soooo good! I probably would not have many customers either here or in Australia dishing up intestines but a couple of choices which I had spent the day cooking, no flustering in the kitchen at the alst minute but being able to enjoy serving and chatting with whoever came through the door that evening - no bookings of course, just come and take your chances and like all good cafes in France, if you have to wait, you just have to wait - and people do, sometimes with lines going out the door and down the street even in the winter - a sure sigh of fantastic food!
Hopefully the internet will be better tomorrow and we can dream of Butternut gnocchi with burnt butter and crispy sage.
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