For decades Delia Smith was the voice of common sense in the kitchen, teaching those who had forgotten how to boil an egg or make breadcrumbs. Now she has emerged as a lone voice against today’s trends, standing up for the struggling single mother, the Kenyan farmer and those who simply like tasty food. She has gone non-organic.

Brushing aside the concerns of the environment lobby and the bandwagon on which her fellow celebrity chefs are piled, she told the Radio 4 Today programme: “I don’t do organic.” She went on to say that, in her view, the taste of food mattered more than how it was produced.

In what is likely to strike a chord with consumers who refuse to shell out for free-range, organic, corn-fed chicken, she also insisted that cut-price, battery-reared animals were a crucial source of nutrition for the poor. While admitting that she lacked the knowledge to get into the “politics” of production or how “green” products were, she said: “I have put in my book ‘use free-range’. But I’m aware we still have a lot of poverty, particularly among children in this country, and that is a disgrace. Somehow or other we have got to make sure everybody gets enough nutritious food to eat.”

Smith, whose latest book, How to Cheat at Cooking, urges busy people to buy tinned food and ready-grated cheese, also declared that she loves freshly shelled peas flown in from Kenya and was aware that the poor farmers in the developing world depended on their harvests being flown to countries such as Britain.

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I wouldn’t buy intensively produced meat or fish because I know too much

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BACKGROUND

• Official: organic really is better

• Shades of green food

• Never mind organic, feel the food print

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“If the whole world goes organic, the state of the Third World will be twice as bad as it is at the moment and I’m much more interested in people getting enough to eat,” said Smith, 66.

Asked about “food miles”, she said: “I’m sorry about the planet and the problem of emissions but I’m also conscious there are people in Kenya getting employment and money to bring up their children from that produce.”

She added: “If I go into a shop and I want to buy some beautiful fresh beetroot, I will go for whatever looks best. If it is organic I might buy it, if it isn’t I will buy that.”

She told The Times: “I am against battery farming but I still think what we have to do is try to educate people on how to get the same nutrients from battery chickens in another way. We must try to find a way of educating people if they don’t have the money on how give their children the protein they need. We can’t just say, ‘buy organic’, when people can’t afford it. We have got to be able to give people alternatives. There is enough means to feed the planet but two thirds of the world lives below the poverty line.”

Sales of organic, free-range chickens soared after television programmes made by Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall showed disturbing scenes of battery-farm chickens being slaughtered. Yesterday it appeared that Smith was alone in her stand. British chefs called by The Times said that they would continue to promote organic food.

Aldo Zilli, who owns four restaurants in London, said: “Delia Smith is right that organic food is expensive, but if people can afford it then I would prefer they bought it. Generally, organic food is better for us. I tend to use organic food all the time, especially when I’m feeding my children.”

At The River Café in West London, one of the head chefs said that buying peas shipped in from Africa was crazy. Joseph Trivelli said: “You should buy food produced locally if you can. I normally buy organic but I appreciate that when you’re on a low income it’s hard to know what to do. The price of organic food needs to come down.”

Antonio Carluccio, co-founder of Carluccio’s, backed Smith’s pragmatic approach. “She is completely right that sometimes non-organic food tastes better than organic food. People should buy food because it’s good, not just because it’s organic. Organic food may be a good thing but if I find something that’s more tasty, I buy it.”

Recipe for success

— How to Cheat at Cooking, Delia Smith’s first book in four years, was published yesterday. It had topped Amazon’s bestsellers chart all week on pre-orders alone

— She left school at 16 without any qualifications and tried hairdressing, being a shop assistant and working for a travel agency, before getting a job in a tiny restaurant called The Singing Chef in Paddington aged 21

— She says that her boyfriend’s claims that his previous girlfriend was a better cook convinced her to learn how to cook

— In 1969 she became the cookery writer for the Daily Mirror’s new magazine. There she met her future husband, Michael Wynn Jones, who was deputy editor. Three years later she started writing for the Evening Standard and was subsequently given a column in the Radio Times

— Her television career began in 1973 with BBC series Family Fare, which ran until 1975. This was followed by Delia’s Cookery Course, backed up by various books. Her aim was to bring viewers back to the basics of cookery, with easy-to-follow books filled with tested recipes

— Delia Smith’s Summer Collection and her Winter Collection followed and, in 1998, the How to Cook series was broadcast, teaching basic skills to a new generation In November 1996 she became director of Norwich City FC. She recently sold her publishing company, New Crane Ltd, but will continue to consult and write for Sainsbury’s Magazine

— She runs food and wine workshops from her cookery school at Norwich football ground

Source: uktv Food

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