Cook It! with Andrew Kay
Hot Dinners
Andrew Kay takes the giant leap from the page to a TV screen near you as Latest TV launches
It’s twenty years since I started writing about restaurants, food and drink, and they have been twenty quite amazing years. I was always a keen cook and I loved eating out in restaurants, especially back in my book publishing days when I had a serious expense account that my art directing colleagues encouraged me to use, hard.
I spent too many afternoons wondering where I was and what I was meant to be doing
Those dining expense account days are pretty much gone, and probably for the better – I spent too many afternoons wondering where I was and what I was meant to be doing back then.
Now I spend my life talking about, eating and cooking food. Good food, for the most part. As a nation we have dug ourselves out of the mire of bad publicity that surrounded English cooking throughout the fifties, sixties and seventies. We had come through a dreadful period for food in the Second World War, with enormous problems getting enough food to those at home and those fighting overseas. Rationing probably put more than a few nails in the coffin of great British cuisine, and it has taken many years to lift the lid on that coffin and remind people that we are not only a nation of great food producers, we are the envy of much of the world for our cheeses and meat products, are also great food lovers, and dare I say it … great cooks. Why else would so many top international chefs choose to work in the UK?
Of course we still have work to do, and the shift to convenience foods that has blighted recent culinary history remains with us. We are a busy race and the idea of ‘fast’ is very appealing. But fast does not have to mean bad, not by any means. Currently my mission is to help people find quick and easy ways to cook for themselves, family and friends.
Too often people say: “It’s okay for you, you don’t have a family to cater for!” And in part that is true – I am cooking for one, much of the time. But hang on one minute, much of the food I prepare would take no longer to prepare if I were making it for four. Same with the shopping; pop one in a basket, or four, or eight even!
My time is now divided between work here in the magazine and work for Latest TV. You may have read about it here on these pages, and as I type I am busy dealing with the pre-production side of recording the next episode of Cook It!
Cook It! is my way of trying to give people real confidence in their own kitchen. With invited chefs and my right hand woman, the lovely Laura Lockington, we prepare tasty and simple meals that can be easily achieved with just a little effort and basic equipment. We spurn expensive gadgets and complex methods, and we keep the ingredients simple and easy to find. Our chefs are given rules, too – no stacking, no drizzling and most definitely no smearing. Cook It! is about hearty home cooking.
We are also cooking with the kids, and each week I ask them to join me in making something simple, tasty and fast – and most importantly something that they will want to eat. So far they have loved everything that we have made, and I hope that they will continue to love it. But if they don’t, then hey, we will learn something too.
In addition we have a weekly spot cooking things that Laura finds on the way in; something seasonal, a glut maybe, or even a bargain – something that has been marked down in your local store. And finally we put together, week on week, a store cupboard of kitchen essentials, from the basics to those special items that give you the opportunity to create those popular international dishes that we so love.
Cook It! is filmed with a live audience, some of whom are invited to join in and cook with our chefs. If you would like to come along to a recording then drop me a line – andrew@thelatest.co.uk – and I will send you details of the schedule. Young and not-so-young alike, all are welcome.
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