Food news antipasto

June 20, 2021 by
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Delia Smith is Britain’s bestselling cookery writer, whose books have sold over 21 million copies worldwide. Delia’s first job as a cookery writer was for the Daily Mirror in 1969 – numerous phenomenal best sellers and television series followed including Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course in 1978 and Delia’s Christmas, Summer & Winter Collections in the 1990s. The indefatigable Smith recently celebrated her 80th birthday, and The Telegraph explains how the “queen of home cooking” has shaped the world of food.

During the early days of the pandemic, people flocked once again to no knead bread recipes, just as they had done nearly 20 years earlier when the technique became popular. Although Jim Lahey has often been credited with developing the technique, it predates his 2006 recipe in The New York Times that became a sensation. In 1999, Suzanne Dunaway penned a cookbook titled No Need to Knead: Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes, which explored no-knead breads in depth. There are even earlier examples of such recipes. So why is Lahey given all the credit? Dayna Evans explores the reasons why the recipe’s lineage is complicated.

As restaurants begin to reopen in many areas, people are flocking back, excited to be able to dine out with friends and family. Even though customers are clamoring for seats, restaurateurs are finding that their staff is not as eager to return. The reasons for this vary by individual, but a few common themes have emerged and one of the biggest is that employees do not want to face the terrible working conditions and low pay that they experienced pre-pandemic. How can we, as consumers, help this situation? Jay Rayner has a suggestion: we need to start paying more for our meals.

In the US, many of us are experiencing heat waves and unrelenting drought so we have cool foods like ice cream on our minds. But in Australia and New Zealand, warming thoughts abound as the countries transition into winter. To that end, Australian Gourmet Traveller offers 23 great recipes for warm chocolate desserts sure to satisfy your dessert cravings and keep you toasty.

Rice is a staple food for many different cultures and plays a significant role in cultural identity. James Beard Award winner Michael Twitty talks to chef and writer Therese Nelson about his latest book that dives into the subject, Rice, and the role the grain plays in the cuisine and history of the American South. “When we are being divided by forces that want us to see humanity in a hierarchy, we need to be reminded of how the universality of rice as culture can bring us together,” Twitty says.

Category: Antipasto
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4 Comments

  • Pamsy  on  June 21, 2021

    Nobody can beat Delia for me. I have more of her books than any other author and they are very well used! My copy of The Complete Cookery Course is held together with sellotape and has a broken spine and splattered pages but I wouldn’t swap it for a new one. I can remember when it was published along with the accompanying BBC TV series, it seemed revolutionary compared to what had gone before. My favourite book is the Summer Collection (which I cooked from last night). The recipes and photography are an absolute joy.
    Currently, we are in the middle of a house move and are living temporarily in Norwich, 3 minutes walk from Norwich City Football Club and Delia’s Restaurant. Since it re-opened after the lockdown we have been fortnightly for dinner. The menu changes every couple of months and follows a seasonal theme, with all the dishes taken from her cookbooks. For me, this is absolute heaven!
    Happy 80th birthday Delia.

  • averythingcooks  on  June 21, 2021

    Jay Raynor’s article on staff working conditions & menu prices was an interesting & timely read and I whole heartedly agree with him re; something has to be done. I recall a TV segment a few years ago (sorry, no idea which show) that took a typical restaurant plate ( a steak dinner) and divided its menu price into a pie graph with wedges representing various costs…the actual food, kitchen & service staff wages (a disturbingly small piece of the pie), hydro, natural gas/propane, water bill, non-food items (ie toilet paper, cleaning supplies etc) , rent, commercial property taxes, insurance, loss & breakage (cutlery, china, glasses) , liquor licensing fees, advertising, various professional cleaning services, food waste and of course the actual profit to the owners (or…why bother??). There may have been more that I can’t remember but the idea was that when a diner says “I can make this at home for way less money”….of course you can! I’ve heard that comment too many times while dining out with friends and try to refrain from explaining why it really is a nonsensical thing to say when you are sitting in the restaurant, Some people argue that “the owners make their profits on bar prices” but this too was factored in and that argument just fell flat. Tips also come up (often from notoriously cheap tippers!) and it helps to remember that lower menu prices do not mean the staff work any less hard than their peers at the pricey places, but tips based on % of the bill obviously go down.

    Raynor also wonders (as do I) about the earnings of some of the patrons complaining about the menu prices and the actual earnings of those providing the service. I wonder how frequent patrons will respond if restaurants do as he suggests re: raising menu prices to provide better working conditions for staff. As Raynor said (and I agreed), if people want their pre-pandemic restaurant lifestyle to come back, clearly something needs to be done.

  • whitewoods  on  June 21, 2021

    As usual, I love everything that averythingcooks wrote. I think you must have a good (i.e. sensible) head on your shoulders. I’ve actually never heard a restaurant customer state that they could make a dish at home for way less money. Obviously, that’s a ridiculous sentiment–I like OF COURSE YOU CAN! as a response to that.

    The only thing close to this that I’ve ever heard before was how when I was a kid my aunt always hated it (rolled her eyes) if I wanted to order pasta at a restaurant. She just felt that the markup on pasta had to be greater than all other foods, and most of the time she would encourage us (but not force us) to order something else.

    My aunt also believed that you leave a minimum 15% tip no matter how atrocious the service–because everyone deserves to make a living and she knew how extremely low the salaries for wait staff were. She didn’t feel it was her place to deny someone the wages they depend upon.

  • averythingcooks  on  June 22, 2021

    Hello whitewoods…thank you very much for the nice compliment! And your comments re: your memories of your aunt remind me very much of my mother 🙂

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