Have we really reached the stage where we're too busy to chop our own onions, peel our own potatoes or even brown our own mince? Delia Smith certainly seems to think so, and has just published a book - to be accompanied by a BBC series later this month - suggesting people take a series of unlikely shortcuts en route to very fast food.
In How to Cheat at Cooking, Smith recommends a particular brand of frozen mash, tinned lamb from Marks & Spencer, pre-chopped onions from one source and pre-chopped vegetables from another. All the convenience comes at a cost, however, and while she might believe a package of processed onions is great for time-poor people, it's not so clever for cash-poor ones.
Pre-chopped onions in your local Tesco cost €3.64 per kilo. Loose onions, meanwhile, cost €1.69. The ready-made pancakes Smith recommends are at least four times dearer than homemade ones - and take almost as long to prepare - while the frozen mash which appears in eight different recipes in her book is significantly more expensive than a few potatoes and a knob of butter. Then there is the kilo of grated cheese which costs €4 more than an ungrated kilo block of exactly the same brand.
The higher price of most of her "cheats" has not acted as much of a deterrent; since the book was published last week, the shortcuts she references have been flying off the shelves, with many British supermarkets reportedly struggling to keep up with demand. Sainsbury's sold double its normal amounts of Jus-Rol pastry last week, while requests for Aunt Bessie's frozen mashed potato have increased significantly. The book is already one of the fastest-selling non-fiction titles ever; in the first two days after its publication it sold more than 48,000 copies. It has topped the Amazon bestsellers chart since its release and has proved considerably more popular than last year's bestsellers Nigella Express and Jamie at Home.
Amazon's book manager believes the book has the potential to be one of the biggest sellers of all time, while Waterstone's cookery buyer said the book was "going to be an absolute monster". There has been a backlash, however: a debate has raged on Smith's website and other discussion forums over whether How to Cheat is a stunning return to form - after four years' tending to her other passion, Norwich City football club - or a complete sell-out.
"These recipes don't contain any time-saving or other cheats, but are rather just dishes cobbled together from a variety of packaged, tinned or jar food," writes one poster to an amazon.co.uk forum. "The results are not pleasant and cost considerably more than either a home-cooked version or even a supermarket 'ready meal', so what's the point?"
"The supermarkets will gain far more from this book than those it is supposed to help," writes another. "This book should be called how not to eat," says another. "Tinned mince! Is there anything more revolting? For people who can't cook then they will cook like this anyway. It teaches nothing."
Smith has robustly defended her book and admits the controversy has not come as a complete surprise. In all her recent interviews she has been at pains to insist that her "cheats" are not necessarily the best way for people to cook, simply the most realistic for those without much time on their hands. She says that some of the cheats are "in some ways shocking, because it's such a kind of dated, old-fashioned idea. Tinned mince sounds very weird in this day and age."
BUT SHE INSISTS all the products mentioned have been painstakingly chosen for their high quality and are as good as fresh in nutritional terms. She says that the M&S lamb mince is 75 per cent meat (as opposed to actual meat which is 100 per cent meat, a cynic might say).
"I think I will have performed a great service if I can make it possible for families to sit round and eat a meal together," she said. "That's my mission."
Although Irish Times restaurant critic Tom Doorley is faintly amused by Smith's "two fingered gesture to politically correct food" and says it is "terribly timely", the cheats leave him cold. "Delia seems to be saying that this is the only way people who are short of time can eat well and I find that profoundly depressing. Cooking is one of the most important things you can do and I know that it is time-consuming but it really is time very well spent. Quite apart from anything else, cooking can be very therapeutic."
Doorley says the book "might be okay for people who are not really interested in food, but I think that most people would prefer not to pay so much extra for pre-prepared food when it can be done so easily."
John McKenna, co-author of the Bridgestone Guides, independent guides to Ireland's food culture, shares Doorley's concerns. He calls the book a "retrograde step", and a regrettable one, from a food writer whose influence is, he believes, comparable to Oprah Winfrey.
"Her power is unmatched, so for her to suggest that people hand over control to the food processors is terrible," he says. "She has the power to help change the very poor British diet and I don't think this book will do that."
