Review of Nigella Express-Conor's Bandon Blog

[Nigella Express](http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/nigellaexpress_index.shtml)

_<span class="summary">After the Christmas debacle I didn't think Nigella Lawson could sink any lower. I was wrong.</span>_

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I decided last Christmas that I was never again watching or buying anything that Nigella Lawson did after her horrendous TV series. The fake family scenes recorded during the summer were just ridiculous.

But I’m a sucker for punishment and just finished watching an episode of her new series which is all about cooking quickly, a theme which has been done a thousand times. Oh how I wish I’d watched the rest of “Crisis At Jimmy’s Farm” instead.

There is just one word to describe this series - “fake”. From the getting out of bed to the frankly objectionable scenes with her poor children, nothing about it is real.

Whoever advises her, whoever produced this and whoever directed it need to find new careers because this rubbish is one step below Big Brother.

As someone who is currently grossly overweight I will also happily comment on her weight. A huge part of her popularity has been the come-hither nonsense and hair flicking. I’m sorry but that just doesn’t work any more when you are heading into Demis Roussos Kaftan territory.

But what about the food? A mix of good and bad. I object to any show which is about cooking and uses Thai curry pastes. What is the difference between using them and saying “empty a jar of Dolmio Bolognese sauce over the mince”?

The steak and white bean mash was a variation on an Avoca recipe we use all the time. The Avoca one is nicer but I’d still recommend what Nigella did.

I liked the idea of the chickpeas and rocket with chorizo and scallops as it includes a lot of things I like but when it was dished up it looked terribly dry. Caroline Bibliocook’s chickpea, spinach, tomato and chorizo dish is far superior and we use it all the time. Caroline’s dish is also great for feeding veggies as you just cook off the chorizo separately.

Dreadful dreadful TV but with the possibility of an acceptable spin-off book where the food can sing and the claptrap is minimised.

<span>Rated <span class="rating">2</span>/5 on <span class="dtreviewed">Sep 11 2007</span> by <span class="reviewer vcard"><span class="fn">Conor O'Neill</span></span></span>

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