Oops. Not sure how I missed this in the post below but, in the Guardian article that inspired it, MasterChef winner James Nathan comments (on Delia’s cheating):
My one real comment on all this, is that not everyone lives in London, not everyone can drop into their local deli to buy fresh ingredients on their way home from work.
I’ve stayed with friends in the provinces, they both work, they both have two-hour commutes, they have two kids, they have to shop at big supermarkets and they have to buy for a month or so at a time.
You utter utter twat. Yes, head five miles out of London and all you can buy is black pudding and that’s what we stuff our fat kids with. What an absolute utter nob.
“I’ve stayed with friends in the provinces..”
Gosh, really. Have you? What it soooo awful? What were they like? Did they make you eat awful food from those nasty big supermarkets? Wow, you are sooo brave.
James Nathan - Mastertwat
More tales from the Guardian of London folk peering down their noses at the fecking “provinces”. Utter arseholes.
7 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 14, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Pete
While he is coming across as an idiot, he’s not saying you can’t get nice food in ‘the provinces’, he’s saying that his friends don’t have time to buy food. And live in some part of England which he regards as the provinces.
(Probably some part of Bedfordshire, which regards food not made from potatoes as sinning.)
He was also the chef who consistently rated the new Delia recipes the best. This doesn’t mean he’s not an idiot, but I thought it worth pointing out.
March 14, 2008 at 12:53 pm
ourmanwhere
It was the “not everyone lives in London” - as if they are the lucky few.
and the “i’ve been to the provinces” as if he was talking about the new world.
It wasn’t that he was hateful - so much that in really trying to be down with the proles he made himself look an arse.
March 14, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Abby
I moved from London to Norwich four months ago and I’m starving. Thank god for visitors from the Big Smoke and food aid parcels.
Not sure if where I live qualifies as “the provinces” but the quality of food we get here is better, there’s a famers market I can walk to where the food is affordable and local. Although not quite the variety of shops as in London, there’s more than one deli (yes, really!), we have a road full of asian shops (one of which has the biggest display of sweet chilli sauce I’ve ever seen in the window), polish shops, they sell yams in the supermarket and best of all for me, a vegetarian supermarket!
Silly man. But then what can you expect from a tv programme where the presenters both look in need of a good wash?
March 14, 2008 at 2:04 pm
ourmanwhere
The thing is - the Greggs shops, the supermarkets, the frozen food centres - they’re all well established in London. All that stuff they imagine only northerners eat is right there on their doorstep.
Except they live in the own little bistro inhabitting worlds with their own prejudice and ignorance and imagine that kind of thing can only be found in the North.
When they talk about the provinces - they don’t really mean those areas outside of London - they mean people who aren’t white, middle class, guardian reading, media working prats like they are. Everyone they know wouldn’t dream of hanging out with the foreigners, the proles etc etc who don’t eat at Michelin starrred restaurants on a day to day basis.
March 15, 2008 at 12:46 am
wills
I think you might be generalising a little. I live near the “smoke” and am familiar with the media haunts of Muswell Hill and Crouch End in north London. I’ve known a few trendy media types (or knobs if i’m less polite). But they are the minority, I pity them for their class ridden views and pathetically large mortgauges. Many more of us are just trying to get by in and around London, for me its where the most jobs and opportunities are to be found, I certainly don’t stay here for the traffic or house prices.
But… i’m spending a long Easter weekend in Alnwick, I’m looking forward to breathing in a small slice of what i’m missing, I promise to leave my preconceptions at home! If you’ve any must see recommendations in that area, i’d love to have them.
Will.
March 16, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Brian Haworth
Steve.
Deep breath. Slowly out.
Since you’ve come back / been home, your anger level seems to have risen.
Understandably. I”l repeat that: UNDERSTANDABLY.
But, lardass, blogGod, Cookgook, photogreat… hey up.
Stop beating up on irrelevant bollocks. e.g. Southern Media Mafia. your forcing a fight others are already waging.
Find your own fight! Then win it.
And…
By all means beat up on the lyin’ cheatin’ whores and pimps therein…
But, not on the media qua media.
You are so angry since you’ve come home.
I’m SO glad that you are, but so sorry that you are feeling that anger and disgust - again.
(Today, you know the date? You know the significance in Viet Nam… remember Hugh Thompson, Larry C and Glen Andreotti ( I am in contact with Larry Colburn, a great hero)?
Steve… don’t force it. Don’t beat up on life or yourself.
Think best feelings you ever had. Think best trust you ever gave.
Very many people - who are not all immediately classifiable as retarded - care greatly about you.
So, sometimes, one or two of us might want to tell you we care; and that you need to think of another bridge, on another morning, on another lake, in another light, and hold it again in your heart.
clue: it’s red.
Ease up on yourself man.
March 17, 2008 at 8:51 am
ourmanwhere
Wills, you’re right - but it is who the Guardian appear to write for. That is their little world.
As for Alnwick - a lovely town. Then again it was in the papers on Friday with local people queuing around the block to see the new Sainsburys. Honestly.
I am guessing they don’t have a deli.
Brian, the UK winds me - for many reasons. Probably mostly because it is my country and I have a stake in it and I get to feel embarrassed when its bad. I can put problems in developing countries down to culture and circumstance.
The strange thing about the UK now is that there really isn’t too much wrong. Economy is more sound than most - crime isn’t great but we’re packed in here.
We’re pretty lucky in this country. Born lucky. What bugs me most is the newspapers pretending otherwise.