food TV

Well, we left 2007 in a haze of Nigella Express, Jamie at Home and Heston Blumenthal. Oh, and Gordon. He’s always on. What’s new for 2008, you ask?

Channel 4 is encouraging us to think before we eat. Interesting, they’re not asking us to think before we watch. Can someone do a documentary on Channel 4? Anyway…

Lovable tree-hugger Hugh of the River Cottage is back on television following his fish book and his fantastic column in the Guardian weekend. (I missed him over Christmas – Angela Hartnett is great, but I love Hugh’s back-to-basics approach.)

His show – Hugh’s Chicken Run – aims to show us just what buying a battery chicken means. The kindly man wants to encourage us – and the supermarkets – to buy free-range. It sounds like this one could get a bit gruesome.

More chicken: Jamie is back (naturally) with Jamie’s Fowl Dinners. Evidently, 9 billion eggs and 900 million chickens are produced every year in the UK. We’re in for another lesson to learn about the different ways of rearing chicken and another debate about the reality of chicken production.

More and more gordo, our gin-soliciting man. In Cook-A-Long-A-Gordon, a one hour special, we’re going to see how to cook quickly without sacrificing anything.

Eat Yourself to Death is another You Are What You Eat without the poo-crazed lady running around. Be prepared to be disgusted by what food can do to you.

In what sounds potentially interesting, The Diet that Time Forgot takes us to Pakistan’s Shimshal people, who are said to eat the healthiest diet in the world. There are no additives, saturated fats or heavily-sugared foods.

The Raw Food Diet goes under the microscope in Health Food Junkies. We learn more about the diet that prohibits eating food that is about 45 degrees C.

What do you think? I myself am likely to check these out initially, but I’m not sure how long I’ll last. I’d rather spend my time in the kitchen…

Nigella Express: delayed

Nigella Express premiered tonight on BBC2 at 8:30pm, just in time for the book by the same name to be published on 6 September.

The PR surrounding Nigella, which has traditionally played up her sexy, sensuous side, is back in action:

Nigella Lawson cooks up fabulous fast food and reveals incredible short cuts and brilliant time-saving ideas, in Nigella Express. She covers every real-life cooking eventuality, from breakfast, lunch and dinner to parties and food on the go. Viewers can hit the kitchen running with these great recipe ideas.

Each episode is different, with some based around one meal and others around themes ranging from "speedy suppers" to "razzle dazzle", delivering recipes with a wow factor for when there’s no time to slave over a hot stove.

With delicious, yet simple, recipes, this is a new generation of fast food that everyone will want to cook and eat.

Delicious - yes. Her recipes are tempting - roasted poussin and sweet potatoes and a salad with wasabi dressing, fried calamari, and caramel chocolate croissants (a glorified bread and butter pudding). But is it really responsible to claim that this is 'food that everyone will want to cook and eat'?

The quick answer: no.

While it may taste nice to douse chicken in oil before roasting, it's completely unnecessary. And the salad for four called for four tablespoons of oil.

I personally love calamari, but it should not be offered as a quick night's meal.

Pork and gnocchi with a creamy mustard sauce sounds really exciting - gnocchi was an inspired choice - and quite special for a night in for one, but eating two pork chops is simply insane - why not eat more vegetables? Or save one pork chop for the next day's lunch.

The final nail - or stone, after these meals - in the coffin was the caramel croissant bread and butter pudding, touted as a main course, no less!

I'm not against indulgence - on special occasions. But these indulgences struck me as unnecessary, even gratuitous. And she took cabs everywhere she went - why not take a walk? or the tube?

I will keep the roasted poussin with a wasabi-dressing salad up my sleeve for a sunny afternoon lunch - it sounds lovely. But I won't use nearly as much oil, and I am confident it will still taste amazing.