I did see that. IMHO, Tebbutt seems almost amatuerish. Too much of the lad I guess.

But did you see the other chef's monkfish sashimi?? It looked absolutely dreamy.

MK seems a bit too brit-O-centric? The ethnic dishes always bring a lot of interest..they should do more of those. Jun Tanaka has been a good add.

Yes, it is "britocentric"...I'd still like them to try expanding their food repertoire to some real BBQ recipes. They can do them out in the Market if they're worried about using a real charcoal BBQ in the studio. It's a whole different genre of cooking that is ignored.

Could you define exactly what British food really is? I note that on Great British Menu they have a real problem with this!

And what is exactly wrong with showing British food (whatever that may be) on a British programme?

Dear BBQFiend,
I endorse your suggestion but with reservation. Purely on a personal level, I have suffered gastro enteritris twice, the incidents were mercifully years apart and occured once in the UK and later in Thailand and after eating BBQ food cooked by amateur cooks in back gardens. I note that Gordon Ramsey considers the home BBQ as the most potentially dangerous place on earth. A tad extreme I would say but he has a point. Over the years I have witnessed my well intentioned and generous friends gleefully throwing lethal preparations on to the coals; foods uncovered & exposed to cross-contamination, hands not washed after handling chicken etc. Most annoyingly any after effects are usually blamed on the chillies! A food thermometer is so cheap and could help avoid many problems.
I would like to see UKTV produce an online food handling course, possibly with input from The Royal Institute of Public Health. Their three day course (usually available at catering colleges) could be adapted into an online download or even into a 'tick the correct box' type of examination. Such a course could be later certified by the above body.

Good point billy2blues. MK could take BBQFiend's well thought-out suggestion and include food-safety-at-the-BBQ as part of the whole agenda!

The greatest crime I always see when BBQing is people using the same forks and tongs with the cooked food that they also used to put the raw food on the grill. It always freaks me out. I always retire ALL the raw utensils and plates to the kitchen after placing the meats on the BBQ.

That brings up a topic that has baffled me recently on tV cooking shows. I was brought up with the notion that pork had to be cooked to 160 degrees "to be sfe"?

Yet constantly on Market Kitchen they say that it is best when pink. Pink is 135 - 140 degrees. And last week it looked almost blood red and a lot of juice coming off and they all ate it without hesitation! To me it was gross.

Has something changed in the last 10 years about pork?

Yes it has Penny Baker, pink pork has been safe for quite a few years now.

Hi, I thought the thing about under cooked pork was the problem with liver fluke which is a possible source (allegedly) of the tape worm. As children in the '50's we were warned about picking watercress out of streams because of the danger from ingesting the small snails that clung to the stems; apparently the snail was part of the tape worm cycle i.e., pig has liver fluke, pig defecates on field and rain washes flukes into streams, pigs then ate watercress and so it went on. Personally I've never seen a pig free enough to graze on wild water plants so perhaps the whole thing is merely conjecture. Although whatever else the rain washed into the streams there can't be anything much more dangerous to compete with the cocktail of lethal pesticides that are sprayed freely onto the land.

Very close Billy! The issue is trichinosis. Pork is well known for being a carrier of trichinosis, which is larval roundworm. These days however farmed pigs very rarely have trichinosis, but it's certainly possible.

Up through at least the 70s, though, you had to assume that pork was trichinosis-laden, just like you have to assume chicken is salmonella-laden today. To counter it, you had to make sure that the meat was heated through to 160F.

Freezing pork also kills the larvae.

There are still 4 or 5 cases of trichinosis a year in the UK and 12 or so in the US, most probably from wild game though rather than undercooked pork. Don't know of any cases here in Oz. It's certainly not going to make me stop eating pork but I think pink pork maybe a risk not worth taking for some people - even if it is just the psychology.

Ah, a topic close to my heart!! Pink pork is certainly more tender and juicy and generally safe - but not 100%!

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Particulalry on the charcoal grill you want your pork DONE. Too many temperature variations on a BBQ!!

I'm glad my kosher upbringing leaves me out of the debate. The thought of worms would certainly make me cook all the "pink" out, whether it dries out the meat or not!!

Ooooo, schmaltz, you don't know what you're missing! You've never had a bacon cheeseburger?

Before entering my new life with mullosks, I was in the meat business and the dangers of undercooked pork were still very much a concern. Even today if you go to government websites on proper handling of pork, there is no room for "pink".

I don't know if it entirely responsible to be promoting "undercooked" pork when the general consumer does not know the provenance of the meat they buy.

Certainly what has been shown on Market Kitchen recently isn't "pink", it's blood red.

Not good.

Wasn't it ole Maggie Thatcher that told us egg yolks had to be cooked rock hard due to "salmonella" or something like that? I can't remember why she was telling us that - maybe the Falklands war or something - but I distinctly remember seeing her on TV saying it. Nonsense.

While I can't advocate the blood red pork like they show on Market Kitchen, the light pink tinge with juice coming off when you slice it is the way to go! Yummm!!!

Twas Edwina Curry of Dippy Egg fame.

Oh God, images of Edwina and an ashen John Majors!! Oh those WERE the days, my friend, I thought they'd never end......

I've just had the thought of him tucking his vest into his underpants and her ripping it out...............................

Oh God, what an image you paint chippy!!

Whatever happened to Edwina? Could she perhaps host Market Kitchen? They've tried everyone else in Britain.

(as long as she's not cooking eggs, please)

Chill out a bit DB!

Visualise this:
Edwina doing the Omlette Challenge.
Well Edwina, a record time of 5hrs.29mins.37.5secs.

Barshedale!

I have been laughing for the last half hour!



You can't argue that it would be safe to eat, can you?

This thread is funny!

What exactly is the point of the SK omelette challenge? A laugh it is, but I'm trying to figure out what it is supposed to prove.

Ermmmmmmmmmm.
No matter how good you are, you can't cook a presentable Omlette in 30secs. or less.
J.M. thinks to himself. I wish this were a commercial channel, this could be a break.
That no matter if you use value or golden goose eggs they still get wasted at a rate of 24 a month.
Some clot in planning thought it's a good idea. He is the producers son by the way.

I have always thought the new Saturday Kitchen show not up to par with the older ones but the Omelette Challenge is just downright silly. It proves nothing except that you can create slop in 20 seconds. Pointless waste of airtime. If I were a chef I certainly wouldn't want to be on the leader board for THAT contest!!

Apparently some uber chefs test applicants for a chefs job by asking them to cook an omelette. Though, as you say, instead of timing 'em with a stopwatch Edwina needed a calendar.

Yes, I saw an episode of Gordon R where he did this as a basic test of cookery skill. Of course he wasn't happy with the result but I remember him testing for the quality of the end product, not how fast someone could make soupy scrambled eggs.