Gratuitous Gushing about River Cottage Everday, Thurs 8pm c4

[Susie]

I'm forced to realise that I should reassess my opinion of HFW(as well as my opinion of Jordan,Jedward,the Cheeky girls,and many others)

OK. Jedward's fan base has now doubled! Group hug to celebrate!

(Joking!!! ).

[grahamhobbs]

Everything he preaches is very commendable, by why is it only 'toffs' that get the chance to present the things like this. He doesn't really live the self-sufficientish life, why not get down to earth people who really live the life. I forget her name, but I loved it when they had that Lancashire lass with her gardening programme based around her own garden and her neighbours, it was so much easier to relate to what she was saying because she lived it.

[Millymollymandy]

Christine somebody? Who appears regularly on the One Show? (no not the one who was presenting it!!) I loved her little old neighbour, he was the icing on the cake. But she was a tad on the over-enthusiastic side which got a bit irritating after a while. I think they ALL get irritating after a while and what is toff about HFW? I don't get this anti middle class thing - I am middle class and proud of it - have been extremely poor at times though including in my childhood but that has absolutely nothing to do with my class, which will never change no matter what my circumstances are. It's a state of mind/upbringing. So there!

[spider8]

Dear oldjerry, you are not alone by any means when it comes to being fed-up (no pun intended!) by the worship of HFW. I am a fan......to a point.......as I love his real food i.e. not a squiggle on a plate that they call a meal and then charge people £50 for, at least he fills the plate with good portions of good grub. Having looked at his River Cottage web site it really is one great big money machine but then again, nobody is forced to go along with it all and buy his stuff. I do like his methods of cooking though, the slap-dash way he cooks echos my efforts only I'm not as good . (I can't stand Jordan either ).

[grahamhobbs]

MMM don't be so touchy, no one said anything about the middle class, although it depends on what you call the middle class. The Tory press seems to think the middle class are those in the top 10%, those earning over £45k a year, whereas surely it's those earning more than the average (about £25k) but less than £45k.
My point was, why only have very well off public school / Oxbridge types presenting these programmes when surely there must be many ordinary people who actually live genuine self-suficientish lives who could not only demonstrate the same things but do it with a touch of reality and real experience.

[MKG]

I know my place ...

(apologies to Ronnie Corbett)

Mike

[oldfella]

Who's HFW? as I got rid of my English sky-box years ago, and don't watch much TV anyway, except when the OH has her Dutch programmes on, if however the programme is anything like some of the English cooking programmes/personalities, which have quite a following in Holland, I really don't feel myself deprived.

"Right Lad under the table, and wait for the missiles coming your way"

[Millymollymandy]

MMM don't be so touchy, no one said anything about the middle class,

I'm not touchy and this whole thread has been anti 'toffs' and the middle class! I wonder what the great unwashed working classes would think if we middle class started slagging them off! It's not just this thread it seems that you can only be self sufficientish these days if you are left wing and working class, then you get some sort of right to slag off anybody from another class who doesn't vote labour. Time to get our own back. SCONE SCONE SCONE (pronounced gone) Oh and I loved Maggie Thatcher too ha ha ha! And what you earn has absolutely NOTHING to do with your class! Is Alan Sugar a 'toff' or 'posh'? I think not!

[Odsox]

I wonder what the great unwashed working classes would think if we middle class started slagging them off!

Umm, oy may be a bit tick, but isn't that a good example of an oxymoron ?

[Millymollymandy]

Dunno, don't know what an oxy whatsit is!

[bonniethomas06]

Oh dear, didn't mean to open a can of worms!

I kinda agree with you though MMM, not sure what class I am - I read the Guaridan, voted LibDem, my dad is a civil servant and I have no money! in fact you could argue that I take home less than someone in a supposedly 'working class' job - I certainly get paid less than my dustbin man pal!

But even when I was living in a bedsit, I was still able to do the things HFW suggested - like go to the farmers market and buy cheap stuff to cook from scratch, even on my crappy 2 hob oven thingy and shoebox freezer! If bothering to put myself to inconvenience on a saturday morning and spending a greater proportion of my disposable income on food so that I can eat properly makes me middle class, then I am guilty as charged!

I think RC (as with being ish) is a state of mind - you don't have to be totally self sufficient and cook a badger with an onion up it's bum in a £10,000 aga to get the gist of it, surely?

[Odsox]

Dunno, don't know what an oxy whatsit is!

Being middle class doesn't require an education then ?

[Susie]

Is the badger with the onion up its bum from the latest Nigella? I bet it'd be delicious with a decent Rioja.

[spider8]

Badger's Bum - sounds like a micro brewery production!

[mockturtle]

I think the oxy watsit is the little stock cube you use to make the sauce that goes with the middle class badger I wonder if HFW knows how controversial?( sorry not good with the spelling) cooking fresh meat and veg apparently is.