Too many cooks spoiling the viewing...

Why is it that whenever I switch the TV on nowadays, there is every chance that it'll be a cookery show? What was the trigger that sent this nation of fish and chip munchers into cookery overdrive? In actual fact, we are probably more a nation of curry eaters now anyway... isn't curry the UK's national dish?

Whatever the reason, it still doesn't explain the number of cooks, (I mean chefs) popping up on TV. And they're not just chefs and cooks either... from members of the public trying to win Masterchef 'to fulfil the dream they have had since childhood of owning & running a restaurant...', to Lloyd Grossman hosting and judging his own show, (not to mention making his own sauces for us to buy... where is the cooking in that?!), to Nigella Lawson? Even Sophie Dahl (the celebrated model) is having a go now. I have even seen a food quiz recently... but I didn't stay tuned in to see who won.

So what's going on? According to Reuters, in the UK the average mum relies on only 9 recipes to feed the family. So who benefits from all this 'cooking'? The people who sell all those weird and wonderful ingredients you'd never heard of until last month and now it's the 'must have kitchen cupboard occupant'? What about the books that have been written and that have been bought by people so they know what to do with that marjoram they bought yesterday? How about the people who write the books? Some Australian cook was on TV this morning, (she was making scrambled eggs as I flicked through) and she has written 16! How many recipes does she know?!

Perhaps the real beneficiaries are the people who sell kitchen gadgets. We all have them in the drawer. Something you bought a while back, used once and never since. Or maybe the people who sell kitchens? Surely with all those unused condiments and kitchen equipment etc, the life-expectancies of the cupboards are being shortened through the sheer weight of that unused 'junk' held within?

My advice? If you want it. Save your money. Don't buy that olive stone remover or the (absolutely lethal) mandolin. If you fancy something different or exotic, go out and have a meal cooked by somebody who knows what they are doing. Maybe a curry? You know you will anyway...

And if you still have aspirations of being a chef then do what Gordon Ramsey does. Cook anything. And I mean absolutely anything. Then drizzle it with olive oil... Done!