Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef: Going For An English

Monday, 11 June 2007

Going For An English

One of my earliest memories of laughing my head off at a TV food sketch was when the incomparable Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia "went out for an English" in Bombay. Looking at this clip from the BBC series Goodness Gracious Me again after all these years, it's lost none of its biting edge as a brilliantly funny parody of typical Friday night racism in Indian restaurants.

But even "tanked up on lassis", I'd have difficulty swallowing this story in The Times (that's The Times of London, btw, not The Times of India). The unbelievable breaking news is that the voice of the BBC Food Channel and author of the bestselling book Brit Spice, Manju Malhi, is to present a 40-episode cookery series on British food for India’s largest commercial television channel, NDTV. Mrs Malhi hopes to improve the dire reputation of British cuisine in India by teaching viewers how to prepare classic English dishes with local ingredients. Her inventions include spaghetti bolognese (made with soya mince), shepherd's pie (made with lean lamb mince and the exotic vegetable "potato"), bangers and mash (with chicken sausages), roast chicken (with black pepper and chilli spice) and mango crumble dessert. Presumably, subsequent episodes will feature "extra bland scampi" and "gammon with crap on the side".

The only shame is that all this has come too late to be an entry for Fish & Quips. If this isn't an outstanding case of life imitating art, I really don't know what is.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hello - I am going to add your blog to my favorites list - I am in a 10 month certificate program to be an apprentice chef. Yours looks much more demanding! I appreciate your insight & comments.; 6/12/2007 04:50:00 am
ros said...: I remember that clip! I used to love that show, even though some of it was way too close to home for me!

Reading through that list of dishes has got me wondering what the hell we did in Britain (and in Europe in general) before we had the potato!; 6/12/2007 07:54:00 pm
Richard said...: Will Mrs Malhi have recipes for 'the blandest thing on the menu'?!; 6/13/2007 01:31:00 pm
Jeanne said...: Oh that's too funny!! Maybe she can also do a programme on making our national dish of chicken tikka masala - talk about exotic British food!!; 6/13/2007 03:07:00 pm
Chennette said...: I love that show. So funny. Relevant on many levels in Trinidad too!; 6/14/2007 06:29:00 am
dan said...: Thanks Trig. Never fails to amuse.; 6/14/2007 10:30:00 pm
Gary S. Hurd said...: Thanks for mentioning these great comedy sketches. I had never seen them here in the US.; 6/21/2007 06:24:00 pm

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Welcome

I'm Aidan "Trig" Brooks, a 22-yr-old from Hackney in London's East End. I left Westminster Kingsway College with a Professional Chef Diploma in summer

2007 and moved to Spain, where I trained in Barcelona at Carles Abellan's Comerç 24 (which won its first Michelin star) and Martín Beresategui's Lasarte (which won its second Michelin star) and was chef de partie and later Pastry Chef to Paco Morales at the amazing hotel restaurant Ferrero in the Valèncian mountains. This Spring I returned to London as part of the team of celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes, opening East End restaurant Viajante. I'm still working with food, but taking a break from fine dining. Passionately pursuing my life-long ambition to become a top-class chef and, one day, a world-famous restaurateur.

Independence and code of ethics

What's in season in the UK?

Here is this week's UK seasonal food item, courtesy of eat the seasons. This week's seasonal food item is monkfish. This resident of the deep is often described as the ugliest fish in the oceans, though from looking at the beautiful picture below it's hard to see why. Actually, monkfish isn't a fish, but a generic name given to fish from several different genus. The most common is the anglerfish, but the generic term can also refer to angel sharks and sea monks. Whichever variety we are talking about, they should be considered a special treat as all are listed as being unsustainably fished at present. Monkfish has a firm but succulent texture and a slightly sweet flavour and is often compared with seafoods such as lobster and scallops, with which it pairs well to make some luxurious dishes. Monkfish has long featured in Iberian regional dishes, but was almost unknown in the UK until recent years. It now appears on many restaurant menus and is highly sought after by fishing vessels in the waters around SW. England, W. Ireland and W. Scotland. Monkfish is low in calories and a good source of protein. It contains useful amounts of vitamin B3 (aids proper functioning of the metabolic system), potassium (controls the balance of fluids) and selenium (an antioxidant that also helps the immune system). The flesh is sufficiently strong to stand its own against otherwise dominant flavours such as the chorizo, saffron and pimentón typically used with it in Spanish dishes.