Culinary-minded DStv subscribers in Africa seem to be lapping up their daily six-hour dollop of food television on the month-old BBC Food channel.
Little wonder, because when Carlton Food Network’s Taste channel went belly-up earlier this year it seemed to leave a yawning gap that not even one of Antony Worrall Thompson’s sticky puddings could fill.
Taste was like some weird kind of reality TV — so easy to watch, and so satisfying, it seemed like it could go on forever. There was always a wisecracking chef with an open bottle of wine to keep you company in the kitchen, and then our screens went dark, and we actually had to start reading recipes again.
BBC Food, then, seems to have more shows of higher quality than the old channel. There are all the big names in TV cookery, or ‘signature” chefs, such as Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Sophie Grigson, Keith Floyd and Gary Rhodes. The channel runs from 6pm to midnight and this is repeated at 6am the next day and again at noon.
Anyway, the boys at the BBC think they’ve a winning product on their hands — and unlike Taste, have already started selling ads. Famous chefs Worrall Thompson and Kevin Woodford were in South Africa to launch the channel and they got down to some serious cooking at the Hyatt in Rosebank for the channel’s subscribers.
If there had to be an award for using the most olive oil in one meal, these two chefs would win hands down. The audience watched aghast as Worrall Thompson poured almost half a bottle into a pan, flavoured it with garlic, chilli and herbs, and then tossed it into a blender with cannelini beans. It looked wonderful.
Woodford dribbled his olive oil on to, and into, everything. He whipped up a dainty plate of wafer-thin fried potato chips (you can also use beetroot) and flash-fried scallops, glued together with pesto. Worrall Thompson’s main dish was chicken fillets pounded flat and stuffed with a mixture of ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella. The fillets were then rolled up, bound with Parma ham (you can also use bacon), and fried and baked.
The affable Worrall Thompson said he had last visited South Africa about 10 years ago and had judged a cooking competition run by a well-known catering company. He had been told by the organisers that under no circumstances should a black chef win — but he awarded the best-new-chef award to a young Namibian woman.
He said South Africa had excellent shellfish and meat and should have the confidence to cook simply — and not load the dish with sauces.
See the website at href=”http://www.bbcfood.com”>http://www.bbcfood.com