Delia Smith admits she's 'behind the times' with global cuisines in London's trendy food scene - and claims Gen Z cooks 'don't know a good pork chop' Delia Smith admitted she is behind the times with modern cuisine READ MORE: Norwich City owner Delia Smith admits she is 'saddened' by lack of apology from rivals Ipswich after a can was thrown at her car and supporters chanted 'scum' at her before last month's derby By Alice Wade Published: 12:26, 18 August 2024 | Updated: 12:28, 18 August 2024 e-mail View comments She was once a pioneer of cooking on television, but national treasure Delia Smith has admitted she feels somewhat left behind by the modern dining scene in the UK. The former chef, 83, has revealed she feels 'a bit behind the times' with the cuisine of today - but took a swipe at cooks and foodies in generations below her, saying she feels 'sorry that a lot of young people don't know what a good pork chop is like'. The cookbook author of 24 publications revealed her concern over the future of the culinary scene in the UK and the decline of the TV cook in an interview with The Sunday Times .
Delia - who puts much of her focus these days into Norwich City FC as its co-owner -admitted that her favourite cuisines were British and Italian and has no idea what to make of the plethora of international food that fills the capital. 'When I sit in the back of a taxi in London and see all these new restaurants — hundreds of them — I think, 'I don't know anything about that kind of food.' Delia pictured at the height of her career in TV cookery.
In an interview with The Times , the celebrity cook admitted she is 'a bit behind the times' with modern cuisine but feels 'sorry that a lot of young people don't know what a good pork chop is like' The former chef, 83, pictured celebrating a win for Norwrich city in 2021. She revealed a number of home truths during her interview with The Times, expressing uncertainty over the changing of cooking times 'My favourite food is Italian and then British. I think I'm a bit behind the times,' she said.
The 83-year-old said her favourite London restaurants are an award-winning European venue, Noble Rot, and Quo Vadis, a private members club which offers an a luxury all-British dining experience. As well as being uncertain about the abundance of new food, Delia admitted she can no longer bear to watch cookery television and is glad to have now have a backseat. She previously said she never watches popular British cooking shows Masterchef or the Great British Bake Off but is glad to see others still carrying the torch - and shouted out Mary Berry, in particular.
'We'd got into a horrible cheffy rut, and she came along and suddenly we had a home cook again. She did the country a real service. But I do also think, thank God I don't have to do that any more.
I don't want to be chugging away.' Delia also credited Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, and Prue Leith as being TV foodies who have her respect in the industry. It's not the first time the former chef has spoken out against the rise of modern cooking.
Delia pictured with a fresh cake. The 83-year-old said her favourite London restaurants are an award-winning European venue, Noble Rot, and Quo Vadis, a private member's club which offers an a luxury all-British dining experience Delia previously had a column for the Evening Standard, pictured. She previously admitted she never watches popular British cooking shows Masterchef or Great British Bake Off but is glad to see others still carrying the torch Delia Smith pictured at 32-years-old in 1973.
She said her favourite kinds of cuisine are British and Italian Delia pictured in 2013. The celebrity foodie previously said that food is now a 'theatre on a plate', exclaiming that she did not 'like it at all' In 2017 , when Delia was made Order of the Companions of Honour at Buckingham Palace, she gave a speech revealing that she found modern food 'poncey' and 'chefy'. The celebrity foodie said food now was just 'theatre on a plate', exclaiming that she did not 'like it at all'.
'If I get one more plate put in front of me with six dots of sauce on it, I will go mad,' she added. Further, the chef said that food was suffering as a result of mass production. 'Now people just want to tear out the breasts of chickens and ducks, they don't want the rest,' she said.
The no-nonsense cook has also previously renounced vegan diets, telling the Financial Times that something in her believed that it was 'wrong'. 'Everything within me tells me that [veganism is] wrong,' she told the Financial Times. 'If people just want to eat vegetables – and some people do – that's fine.
But don't say you're helping the planet, because you're not. Full stop.' In the same interview, Delia reiterated her dislike for trending foods, dismissing ingredients she have 'never heard of' such as chipotle and siracha.
The chef expressed several fears for the future of the world, veganism included, though didn't offer a reason for her dislike. Delia has offered her cooking wisdom to generations since her first television appearance in the early 70s. The TV chef's book, Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course, has been the third highest-selling book on The Times and Sunday Times Best Seller list for the last 50 years.
People from across the UK have were how cooking has changed since the 1970s, after watching Delia Smith's Cookery Course (pictured) on BBC iPlayer, during the 2021 lockdown Delia shared a selection of recipes (pictured) in her cooking show, while urging viewers to take tips from 'poorer' countries for dishes such as lentil rissoles with tomato sauce Despite her dislike for food favoured by younger generations , the same can't be said for their opinion of her as youngsters across the world turned to Delia's traditional cooking techniques during Covid lockdowns. Delia Smith's Cookery Course, which is avaialble on iPlayer, has attracted a new generation of viewers intrigued by how much things have changed in the past 50 years, as well as picking up tips that have stood the test of time. Despite her damning verdict on veganism, Delia's TV show now proves modern with one episode revealing a substitute for meat.
In the show, the Woking-born chef advises using lentils as a subsitute for meat, which she said would only become more costly, and introduced viewers to delicacies such as houmous. It's sparked a lively thread on Mumsnet, where cooks discussed their memories from the time, with many saying that they rarely ate cuisine from other countries and that meat was only for special occasions because it was too expensive. In an episode about pulses, Delia describes beans and lentils as 'the future', saying: 'If you're eating a balanced diet, pulses can offer you the same amount of protein as meat at a fraction of the cost.
'They're going to play a very important in our diet in the future because meat is becoming more expensive and also becoming much more scarce. 'We can take a tip from some of the poorer countries in the world who do really delicious recipes with pulses.' Share or comment on this article: Delia Smith admits she's 'behind the times' with global cuisines in London's trendy food scene - and claims Gen Z cooks 'don't know a good pork chop' e-mail Add comment.
