Delia Smith's Cheats

The woman who taught generations how to cook caused a stir back in 2008 with her ‘cheat’ cookbook, with recipes that called for tinned mince and frozen food ingredients. Now Raymond Blanc has come to her defence.

Remember back in 2008 when Delia Smith faced a barrage of criticism for suggesting that cooks cut corners with her How To Cheat at Cooking book?

The culinary queen who turns 81 this year was lambasted for daring to put convenient ingredients like frozen mashed potato and ready-made pastry in her recipes, when previously she’d insisted that even pepper should be freshly milled at all times.

In the Seventies, Delia Smith taught us all the classics. Is there any kitchen in the country that doesn’t contain a Delia Smith cookery book, corners folded down and splattered with food? The woman is a tour de force – and is as well known for her food as for being the joint majority shareholder of Norwich City F.C.. Her direct, no-nonsense approach to teaching budding home-cooks the basics, has meant generations of people actually know how to whip a meal up (and supermarkets have certainly benefited from the ‘Delia effect’ – any gadget she used in her programmes was almost guaranteed to sell out in store). Smith retired from cooking on telly in 2013, but she’s still going strong sharing her recipes online.

Before it was even published How to Cheat at Cooking went to the top of the bestseller charts. It was Delia's first book in five years and the first episode of the tie-in BBC2 television series attracted 4.1m viewers. There were nationwide shortages of the main ingredients in her controversial ‘cheat’ recipes including all manner of frozen vegetables (especially frozen mashed potato), tinned anchovy fillets, readymade pancakes and tinned minced lamb.

Many felt she had ‘sold out’ - especially at a time when fresh organic ingredients were readily available at the growing numbers of farmers markets. But she defended the book and said it was aimed at busy people and it helped them to create healthy and tasty meals..

"I think I will have performed a great service if I can make it possible for families to sit round and eat a meal together," she said at the time.

"That's my mission."

And it turns out she understood her audience far better than the critics

Now, 13 years later, Raymond Blanc has leapt to Smith’s defence, praising her efforts to “really simplify food”.

“She was heavily criticised for using canned and frozen food in her recipes, but she was absolutely right,” Blanc told the Radio Times.

“Take the frozen pea. First, it’s delicious – all the nutrients are trapped in. Not quite as good as fresh, but nobody wants to pick and pod peas. If it takes two hours, you’re not going to want to eat it.”

But is the celebrated French chef right? Are frozen fruit and vegetables really less nutritious than the fresh variety?

“Frozen fruits and vegetables are as healthy as fresh as they tend to be frozen instantly upon picking them so they keep their nutritional value for longer,” says Holly Zoccolan, nutritional health coach and founder of The Health Zoc.

While nutritionist Rob Hobson says there may be some slight variations between the two: “Frozen fruit and veg are usually processed or blanched to destroy bacteria, which may lead to some loss of nutrients.”

In addition, salt and sugar levels may be “slightly higher in frozen fruit and vegetables in comparison to fresh. It’s important to always check the labels of frozen produce to ensure they have no added sugar, salt or other flavourings.”

How fruit and veg is stored, cooked and eaten can also make a difference.

Zoccolan says: “When fresh vegetables are sat for hours at the grocery store, they slowly lose their nutritional value in comparison to frozen fruit and vegetables which keep fresher for longer.”

So if you’ve got a surplus of fruit or veg you might want to chop and freeze it to preserve the nutrients for later.

Hobson recommends: “Fruits such as apples are best kept in the fridge to ensure they stay fresh for the week. Both the skin and flesh of apples have been shown to contain high levels of polyphenols, specifically flavonoids, which are found in the skin, which is why you should keep the skin on when consuming apples.”

When it comes to meal prep, be careful not to blast or boil vegetables for too long.

“It’s important to ensure that you don’t overcook vegetables so that they keep hold of the nutrients within them,” Zoccolan says. “A light stir fry, gentle simmer or steaming for a short amount of time helps to ensure the vegetables remain high in their mineral and vitamin content.”

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