Jay Rayner Guardian essay: what he's learned during the lockdown

[Smithy]

This essay made me laugh. Cookbooks are great, pastry is easy.... I think he nailed what's so wonderful about restaurants. His discussion about the value of cookbooks and of his kitchen remodeling was fun. I fear I recognized a bit of myself in his comments about ambition vs. reality. 😄

[gfweb]

8 minutes ago, Smithy said:

This essay made me laugh. Cookbooks are great, pastry is easy.... I think he nailed what's so wonderful about restaurants. His discussion about the value of cookbooks and of his kitchen remodeling was fun. I fear I recognized a bit of myself in his comments about ambition vs. reality. 😄

Nice piece indeed.

I smiled at his realization  that having a plancha in one's kitchen seems like a great thing but isn't much. When we bought our house years ago there was a big old restaurant Vulcan stove with a plancha. I used it once when I needed a million pancakes to come out at the same time. The rest of the time dishes dried on it.  Cooking for 2 or 4 can be done in a pan that heats up fast (unlike a plancha). A restaurant needs a plancha and has a guy to clean it too, but not me. It did look cool though.

 

After the vax we've gone out to eat again. Restaurant selection has narrowed but not because they've closed as much as I'm not going to a place that cooks the same as me.  We'll go to various Asian places, a great local place with a super chef/owner, and the place that fries stuff.

[Smithy]

2 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Nice piece indeed.

I smiled at his realization  that having a plancha in one's kitchen seems like a great thing but isn't much. When we bought our house years ago there was a big old restaurant Vulcan stove with a plancha. I used it once when I needed a million pancakes to come out at the same time. The rest of the time dishes dried on it.  Cooking for 2 or 4 can be done in a pan that heats up fast (unlike a plancha). A restaurant needs a plancha and has a guy to clean it too, but not me. It did look cool though.

 

After the vax we've gone out to eat again. Restaurant selection has narrowed but not because they've closed as much as I'm not going to a place that cooks the same as me.  We'll go to various Asian places, a great local place with a super chef/owner, and the place that fries stuff.

 

The plancha made me laugh aloud in self-recognition. We have never had such an appliance, new or old, but I've lusted after the concept and I imagine I'd have exactly the same experience as yours. I gave away to my DIL the oversized electric heavy-duty electric skillet that I'd bought for party purposes because it sat unused. She cooks for crowds. My version of a crowd these days is 6 dinner guests.

 

I have much the same feeling about restaurants. i miss the swishy restaurant experience but my husband doesn't, so we so far settle (post-vaccinations) for places that can cook things we can't or I won't.

[liuzhou]

What amused me most was all the idiots in the comments who didn't realise that the reference to the "17m-wide stove" was deliberate hyperbole!

[Alex]

11 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

What amused me most was all the idiots in the comments who didn't realise that the reference to the "17m-wide stove" was deliberate hyperbole!

 

I loved misterwu's replies to the clueless ones:

 

Quote

Comment: 17 metres, actually 17 metres - where do you live that a kitchen can accommodate something this size, about the length, back to front, of my entire house?

Reply: I believe he lives somewhere where people understand the concept of using hyperbole for comic effect. Clearly a very, very long way from you.

Quote

Comment: A seventeen metre wide stove?? Really?

Reply: 

Jesus fucking wept.

Hyperbole.
For.
Comic.
Effect.

This stuff really isn't difficult.

 

[weinoo]

He hit the nail on the head for me about what we miss most. Whether or not I can cook the same food (usually better) at home, and now get the same ingredients (usually better), it is the restaurant as a night's entertainment. (When not doing something pre or post the restaurant, that is).

 

Quote

There’s a lot about cooking and eating at home that I’ve enjoyed during this period. The mark of it will stay with me for ever. But I can’t pretend. I’m gagging to pull a chair up to a table, order a cold drink, settle back and listen to the chatter of strangers. My relationship with restaurants remains robust.

 

Or pull up a stool to a bar, which is often our preferred method of restaurant dining.

 

The last "concert" we saw before lockdown and everything stopped: Jay Rayner, shilling his book in a one-man show.