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''How to Cheat at Cooking'' is a cookbook by
television chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While televisio ...
Delia Smith Delia Ann Smith (born 18 June 1941) is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. One of the best known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers t ...
, published in 2008 by
Ebury Publishing Ebury Publishing is a division of Penguin Random House, and is a publisher of general non-fiction books in the UK. Ebury was founded in 1961 as a division of Nat Mags and was originally located on Ebury Street in London. It was sold to Centur ...
. It was her first book following her ''How To Cook'' series, and had a television series based on the same recipes on BBC Two. Following publication, Smith was criticised by other chefs due to the use of certain ingredients such as canned minced lamb, and by nutritionists because of the level of salt in some of the recipes. The book increased the sales of several products, described as the "Delia Effect", and has been credited with an increase in the sales of tinned meat over the following two years.


Description

British
television chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While televisio ...
Delia Smith Delia Ann Smith (born 18 June 1941) is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. One of the best known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers t ...
's first published book was entitled ''How to Cheat at Cooking'', published in 1971. This was a guide to how to combine off-the-shelf products to reduce the time and effort needed when creating meals at home. She had temporarily retired for five years after the success of her ''How To Cook'' book series. But she sought to re-create her original book in 2008, including reusing the original title, and hoped to enable people to take shortcuts in recipes. Prior to the book's release, it was predicted that the "Delia effect" would repeat itself on some of the items mentioned in the book. This is where an ingredient or item mentioned by Smith would increase dramatically in sales – it had occurred in 2001 after she promoted
cranberries Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry ...
, and additional sales of 54 million eggs have been credited to the chef after she demonstrated how to boil them on a television show. The media attempted to predict what items might see the effect occur prior to the release of the book; these suggestions included pasta by Fratelli Camisa, spice blends by a company called Seasoned Pioneers, frozen
mashed potato Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a ...
by Aunt Bessie and bouillon powder. Joel Rickett, deputy editor of ''
The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddest ...
'' said that "She names particular products and the supermarkets have been scrambling for the ingredients. It will put huge pressure on producers – there's going to be a pitta bread maker somewhere absolutely besieged." Following the launch of the book, a six-part television series appeared on BBC Two based on the same recipes. A spokesperson for the BBC said that
It's going to be something we've not done before with Delia, showing how to cut corners, but not cut corners on quality or taste. We're also going to show her life beyond the kitchen. It's great that she's coming back and it's showing more of her life than ever before.


Reception

Based on pre-orders alone, the book was ranked at number 2 in the Amazon.co.uk top ten sales list on the Tuesday prior to launch.
Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...
reported needing to order additional deliveries of the book in order to keep up with demand, and
Waterstone's Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...
suggested it was the fastest selling cook book of all time. Smith was relieved by the successful level of sales, saying "you never really know if you're on the right track or not until the public get exposed to it, so because there is a lot of interest I'm very happy." Supermarket chain
ASDA Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...
said that the sales of frozen chargrilled
aubergine Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mo ...
slices had increased by 150% due to the book. Smith responded to criticism about naming specific products by saying, "We debated long and hard whether to mention products but at the end of the day this book is for people who are either in a hurry or are afraid to cook. The more information you can give them the easier it is". She explained that she had never undertaken any paid promotion work of any products, saying that "I've never done any advertising because I feel I am in a position of trust, and that has been very liberating. I'm mindful that if you start getting paid, that is sometimes harder." Fellow chefs objected to the recipes in the book.
Dave Myers David or Dave Myers may refer to: * David Myers (Indiana judge) (1859–1955), Associate Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court * Dave Myers (American football) (1906–1997), American football player for Staten Island Stapletons and Brooklyn Dodges ...
, one half of
The Hairy Bikers The Hairy Bikers are collectively David Myers and Si King. The pair of British celebrity chefs have presented numerous television shows, mostly for the BBC but also for the Good Food channel, that combine cooking with a motorcycling trav ...
, said that he couldn't conceive how the idea was meant to help with saving time, saying "
Why would you want to use a tin of mince to make shepherd's pie when it really doesn't take very long to brown a pack of fresh mince? And if this is about time-saving, why on earth would you want to go round three supermarkets to buy the ingredients? It is slightly mad.
Nutritionists criticised the levels of salt in some of the recipes, but agreed that tinned meat contains similar levels of protein to fresh versions and also keeps the original iron content. The group Consensus Action on Salt and Health, said that the recipe for
carbonara Carbonara () is an Italian pasta dish from Rome made with eggs, hard cheese, cured pork and black pepper. The dish arrived at its modern form, with its current name, in the middle of the 20th century. The cheese is usually Pecorino Romano, ...
contains more than the daily allowance of 6g salt per day because of the use of
Pecorino Romano Pecorino Romano () is a hard, salty Italian cheese, often used for grating, made with sheep's milk. The name "pecorino" simply means "ovine" or "of sheep" in Italian; the name of the cheese, although protected, is a simple description rather t ...
and ready-cooked bacon.


Legacy

In addition to the
Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
following the
financial crisis of 2007–08 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...
, ''How to Cheat at Cooking'' was credited with increased sales to tinned products such as
baked beans Baked beans is a dish traditionally containing white beans that are parboiled and then, in the US, baked in sauce at low temperature for a lengthy period. In the United Kingdom, the dish is sometimes baked, but usually stewed in sauce. Canned ...
and canned meat such as mince within the UK during the following two years.


References

{{reflist, 30em


External links


Delia Online.com
1971 non-fiction books 2008 non-fiction books British cookbooks Ebury Publishing books