Well Ms Lamb has certainly enlivened the show, hasn't she!? I would reckon that people that did not like Jeni Barnett will not like Amanda and those that miss the good 'ole days will like Amanda's television style.
An interesting concept to put on a professional television presenter for a host rather than an inept, awkward foodie, isn't it? Revolutionary.
Here ya go, meerkat! [link]
Well, did you catch that episode with the monkfish competitive cook-off (God how I hate those stupid competitions)?
The guest chef made a beautiful looking sashimi dish but Matt Tebbutt took a bread knife (?!) to his fish and tore it to shreds? You'd think with all the highly edited taping of this show they'd have redone that one!! From the comments on this board it's clear that a lot of tape is left on the cutting room floor - especially asking the audience about the teaste of the dishes!
And why oh why does the "faux cafe" now applaud the guest chef's dish just before the commercial break?? Are they now an official TV audience and not cafe patrons?? It's embarrassing.
Tiresome fodder.
Calm down La Isla!! Technically, I don't know if you are really accurate in your description. Baklava has a long evolution covering thousands of years to the current pastry we love today.
The Assyrians are credited with first putting together a few layers of thin bread dough with chopped nuts in between layers soaking in some honey and baked it in their primitive wood burning ovens sometime around the 8th century BCE.
This earliest known version of baklava was baked only on special occasions. In fact, historically baklava was considered a food for the rich until mid-19th century. Even today in Turkey there is a common saying "I am not rich enough to eat baklava and boerek every day".
There were so many interctions that it would be hard to credit any one nationality to baklava, but if you are thinking of the modern version with filo, then it is most likely Greek as they developed "phyllo".
Obviously, Greek seamen and merchants traveling east to Mesopotamia soon discovered the delights of the original "Baklava" eaten by the Assyrians abd broguht it back to athens. But clearly the Greeks' major contribution to the development of this pastry is the creation of a dough technique that made it possible to roll it as thin as a leaf, compared to the rough, bread-like texture of the Assyrian dough. In fact, the name "Phyllo" was coined by Greeks, which means "leaf" in the Greek language.
In a relatively short time, in every kitchen of wealthy households in the region, trays of baklava were being baked for all kinds of special occasions from the 3rd Century B.C. onwards. The Armenians, as their Kingdom was located on ancient Spice and Silk Routes, integrated for the first time the cinnamon and cloves into the texture of baklava.
Then, the Arabs introduced the cardamon and rose water. The taste changed in subtle nuances as the recipe started crossing borders and evolving into a rich, complex dish.
To the north of its Assyrian birthplace, baklava was being baked and served in the palaces of the ancient Persian kingdom. To the west, it was baked in the kitchens of the wealthy Roman mansions, and then in the kitchens of the Byzantine Empire until the fall of the latter in 1453 A.D.
The Ottomans embraced the dish as it was certainly suited to the wealthy, requiring much labour and expesive ingredients.
After the invasion of Constantinople, for four hundred years from 16th Century on, until the decline of Ottoman Empire in 19th Century, the kitchens of Imperial Ottoman Palace in Constantinople became the ultimate culinary hub of the empire. Her is where baklava reached its zenith.
Towards the end of 19th Century, small pastry-shops started to appear in Constantinople and in major Provincial capitals of the empire to cater the middle class, but the Ottoman Palace have always remained the top culinary "academy" of the Empire, until its end in 1923
All that being said, though, considering the introduction of phyllo I think the conclusion should be the Assyrians created the concept, the Greeks gave us the dish we know today and the Turks elevated it to a high art by introducing culinary technique to its creation.
