Lady Jenkins Apologises.

[DTCwordfan]

Lady Jenkins apologises having declared that one of the principal causes of food poverty was that “poor people do not know how to cook”.

Is she right or wrong about the cooking skills of the UK....?

Secondly 4 million tonnes of food are wasted in this country because customers are so picky. How do we change this? Or how do we divert some of it into the foodbanks - a quarter of it would make a huge difference? Ideas?

[Tilly2]

Jack Monroe was poor. She 'forced' herself to learn to cook. She's not poor now. Good for her.

[BlackadderV]

Years ago you could go to a greengrocer's and buy bruised fruit cheaply. Similarly at the grocer's you could buy broken biscuits.

[DTCwordfan]

Or Bakeries in the 1980s selling off unwanted cakes and bread at 25% after 4.30pm, then donating the rest to old folk homes.....

[gness]

I'm not sure that's always the case, Dunnitall....my mother wasn't a great cook and taught me nothing at all...nothing...actually she was a very poor cook....I had an ulcer by the time I left home.....☺

I'm a really good cook.....I choose not to cook now because it bores the pants off me.... my daughter is the most amazing cook.....nothing processed...everything from scratch.....and brings wonderful recipes from her travels....

But I think some of her enthusiasm comes from our meals being a social occasion....always at the table and together for a catch up chat....no TV on!
That is something I see vanishing in the younger family members...x

[devadolly]

Lady Jenkins should not apologise, there is too much apologising for what needs to be said. Too much food is wasted and too much hard earned cash is spent on rubbish take outs and second rate ready meals, when if one could cook one could make a bucketful of nourishing food for the same or less price.

[dunnitall]

Yep penny specs were apples that had a few dents and marks in them...we ate them no probs....supermarkets are governed by Europe, everything has to be perfect or binned!!! Cut the crrrrapppp and we might get somewhere and people might just know the value of food.

[Mamyalynne]

Oh my local supermarket does sell off reduced goods,often I live on those - but rarely fresh fruit and veg which can make a cheap easy base for a family meal.

[EDDIE51]

Not just poor people it is people in general who do not know how to cook.
The better off just eat out, get takeaways , preprepared or microwave meals.
Few people could make a soup or stew out of left over/misshapen veg and a few scraps of meat. Easy when you know how and very cheap.
How many would think to use a chicken / turkey carcass after carving the meat to make another meal of soup for just a few pence?
How many know how to make a pie at less than a 1/4 of the price of a frozen one?

[BlackadderV]

Given that today many of the major supermarkets stay open as late as 10 p.m., and that most people have a freezer; if I were truly poverty-stricken and had to watch every penny I would do my shopping at 9 p.m. heading straight for the reduced cabinets. Bang it in the freezer and it is frozen in time and space. I actually on a whim did that last weekend; I was passing by the chilled cabinet when I noticed a pack of two fillets of fresh cod reduced from £3.50 to £1 as it was the last best before date. It is now in my freezer for me to consume at my leisure, with no ill effects.

[AlwaysConfused]

Poor people do not know how to cook? Pah. Give them the ingredients (any ingredients) and the equipment and I'm sure they'd prove Jenkins different. We are far too consumed with cooking what we think makes us look and sound clever, following recipes step-by-step, probably designed for chefs, using herbs and spices from far away, because it says so in the recipe. That's 'knowing' how to cook, Is suppose?

[Mamyalynne]

Some people on low income can cook,some can't - same the world over.

[Peter Pedant]

she should hang her head in shame

I thought the gal was gonna say: well of course I dont have to cook because I have the The House of Lords dining room ....

[BlackadderV]

AlwaysC is right, of course. There were only two spices in my childhood home: pepper and mustard.

[jno]

rich people don't know how to cook, that's why they employ staff. Life's too short to stuff a mushroom.

[devadolly]

No, always confused, one does not need to follow complicated recipes from 'designer chefs' the basics are just a mixture of basic ingredients and if it was taught in schools (as it always used to be) no-one would have to spend huge amounts of their GDP providing nourishing meals for themselves and their families. There is very little skill needed to produce a dish of meat/fish/veg for a very small sum of money. Far more use than using it to buy a scratch card.

[PankySmooch]

She's probably right but could've worded it better, she's most likely aiming it at the 'chicken nugget and chips' brigade of mothers.
It's not just poor people though, many of today's teenagers are not going to learn to cook when they spend most of their time eating McDonald's, KFC or having a 'cheeky' Nandos at weekends.

[jourdain2]

I still cut the mould off bread edges and cheese and ignore 'use by' dates (a good sniff has done the job for nearly 60 years). I remember Dad opening a tin of ham sent over from the USA during the war - this was in the early '60s and it was fine. If you go to the local market at the end of the day you can always get fresh veg (not, perhaps, the best-looking) for pence and I've done that many a time, the stall-holders are happy to off-load. I had to do it and I did. I think I may have to do it again, but I'll cope.

I'm not taking a political stance here, just saying that you can eat healthily and well-enough on very little and people seem to have forgotten how to do it. Anyone with even a tiny bit of garden can grow their own, we did - and do. Without a garden you can buy a packet of cress seeds and have fresh greenery on an egg sandwich. I've grown lots of stuff in pots on windowcills.

Heard a lady tonight saying there were 2 potatoes and some onions in her fridge - OK, I'd make potato and onion fritters, never done it but what the heck!

People need educating. In my first year of teaching a little girl wore the same flimsy summer outfit, socks and sandals all Winter, but she told me that they'd got a colour T.V. for Christmas. Not a lot you can do except educate.

Politically, the system of benefits needs sorting out so people are not left with nothing at all for a few weeks until the paperwork catches up. Surplus food needs a system for diverting it to the charities which have direct knowledge of those in need and can cope with it. It's not rocket science.

[PankySmooch]

Well said jourdain, and I bet most people who use food banks have large flatscreen TVs, playsations, mobile phones and probably smoke as well

[BlackadderV]

The main problem with buying stuff just out of date is that the "elf'nsafety" mob will be straight on your back, courtesy of our Brussells masters.

[FrogNog]

My mother was an atrocious cook, yet I can muster something decent. How is that if it's down to upbringing?
I am offended by references to the poor in this context. I'm dirt poor and I work my backside off and pay all my bills.
I have no credit cards and I owe nothing.
It's not the poor who can't cook, it's people who can't cook who can't cook and there are many many chains happy to take that strain, with generous tax incentives (if they pay at all) from the government.
Food is VERY expensive to me. I am regularly in the rugby scrum that is the gang of people waiting at the storeroom door in a supermarket for them to bring the reduced stuff out. They don't do it on the spot anymore in case the worker gets hurt in the fight for the best item.
That's humiliating for me but necessary and I would love for some of you to walk in my shoes for a while.
Food doesn't keep for any length of time anymore because it's already months old when it gets to our shelves. 2 days out of controlled conditions and it's knackered.
Yes, she should apologise, because I see as many Tarquins and Arabellas unable to cook as I do Frogmellas and Dwaynes. They just go to Betty's tearooms instead of Greggs.
I waste as little as possible and I do have a basic store cupboard. I don't have a freezer though so please don't suggest I batch cook. Food has to be made of what can stay fresh at the time.
Now that I'm done being offended at her snottery, I do think that we are losing this skill and it is a shame.
It's no use blaming the curriculum for this. These are home skills and nothing to do with education. Maybe we should set up a network of after school or weekend cooking things for families and blag some sponsorship. That might work.