I'm sure they are. I'm sure they are scrambling right now to create some type of replacement flagship programme as MK simply does not work.

What is it about the recipes on this show?? So many people try them and they don't seem to work or require the oddest and most difficult to obtain ingredients. Why do they do this? This list goes on, zamphire, chervil "root", etc.

It appears that some of the recipes on the web must be wrong also as when I try them they don't quite "work out" as expected. Best to stick to Contessa's recipes I think.

I certainly hope so. This show is so dreadfully flat. Fix it or cancel it.

Bev, I too have now resorted to my cooking books more and more for inspiration. It used to be the daily dose of GFL chefs would give me enough ideas for the entire week but no longer with the change to the yuppy food programming now on offer every night.

It looks like we may have to add a wing to our houses for the expanded cookbook library thanks to Market Kitchen

ReedW LOL, Ha ha ha (Yuppy food) nail on the head I'd say

I actaully never had thought of that! Yuppies!? Maybe that explains why they picked TPB, Tana and Tebbutt out of the blue??

It also explains why all the "cafe" participants look the same age, have the same dress sense [and weight profile!]

Hmmm, maybe we're divining what their "target audience" is in their mind??? Well it doesn't work because I'm in that target and absolutely hate the show!

At a minimum can we please get the recipes back where they are interesting and do-able with ingredients we can find?

"Yuppies" ... lol

How about Yuppie-ware - plastic sealable containers in every shape and size under the sun and especially made for storing Yuppie-Tuppie food in?

Perhaps we will see the return of Yuppie-Ware parties?

All meet at TPB place - bring a bottle of 19 something - from your own wine cellar of course!

Very very funny gastrosurf! I could just visualise the party at TPB's palace! When will this nightmare of a programme finally end??

No doubt the Hare hotpot would be the main course!

I'm looking forward to the Stirrup Cup and Grouse pastie recipes, which will go down so jolly well on Boxing Day!

Tally Ho!!!

"Could you be so kind as to switch off that flashing blue light - it's frightening my horse!"

Have none of actually cooked or eaten Hare? I cannot believe it, it is such an age old ingredient and can always be obtained (tho not from supermarkets, you need a proper food suplier)

I didn't see this sort of outrage or jokes when River Cottage gave recipes for Hare or Puffball mushrooms.

Nope, never hare. I would imagine you could substitute rabbit for the hare. I actually don't mind the occassional odd ingredient, it adds some sorely-needed interest to the programme.

What has been so aggravating, though, is the total reliance lately on such weird fare. A couple weeks ago there was hardly anything I saw on the show that could be cooked by going to the supermarket.

It was a complete overdose.

I don't know what they are trying to do with this programme, it's all over the place. They seem to be gyrating from one extreme to the other, perhaps to get viewers, who knows.

But even their recent surge of "name" chefs has left everything as flat as ever. It's the format, if they don't chnge that none of these insipid twekas will help.

"A proper food suplier" (sic)?

Hare Lamping?

Yes, I did inquire where I might find a Hare and was more than horrified by what I found out.

And what about the other weirdness lately? Do you know where you can buy deep fried bees, per chance?

And the wonderful marinated snake. Yum.

I have no idea what "proper" means in this context. Presumably where all of us shop on a daily basis isn't "proper"

My, my!!

As a child I often ate hare, rabbit, and various game, as my mother's family were from the country - in deepest Gloucestershire.

But if you ask for hare in ASDA, I suspect they would give you a funny look and call for security!

What on earth did you find out that would horrify you posset?

And yet ANOTHER episode with foie gras! Jeez, they use that ingredient more often than salt!

I find it very peculiar that they are using this ingredient so much...it's unhealthy, not a common ingredient in home cooking and incredibly expensive. Once in a while would make some sense but last night there was another episode here where they we using it [in adundance]

And hare, who knows? I've never seen it here - anywhere - by any supplier.

This show gyrates among aggravating, boring to just plain silly from episode to episode.

Hare is found in the UK/Europe and the recipe is aimed at the UK/European audience. In the same way, we in the UK would have difficulty in getting yabbies or Balmain Bugs if a recipe called for them.

I agree that foie gras has featured too often recently. What it demonstrates to me is no real thought being put in by the production company, in relation to the range of dishes shown to viewers. However, I don't agree that the show is 'just plain silly' - in the main, the content is informative and I enjoy the showcasing of the guest cooks.

regards
jan

As someone who shops in a supermarket (shame on you!! - I know) Market Kitchen food is: 'of another world'.

Just watched an episode where they lowered their standards enough to allow a bottle of £3.99 wine to cross their lips! AND even admitted it was drinkable!

I just wonder how they come up with such ingredients - do they perhaps sit round in a circle at the end of the day and ask each other to think of a food they have eaten regularly? Hence, Oysters, Foie Gras, Hare, Grouse, Eel, etc, etc.

No doubt this kind of fare, and the preparation of it, goes down well in Windsor.

"One can watch the chappies cooking it without actually having to go down to the kitchens!"

Ridiculous!

I've just asked my butler to turn the wretched program orff!

Both hare and eel are cheap - why the implication that this is just for toffs? Presumably you wouldn't class sea bass as 'toffs food' - and that's more expensive than oysters!

sounds like unreachable ingredients to me??

My servant typed this by the way

Depends how interested in trying out the recipes you are I guess.

I'm sure your servant will know how and where to catch a hare - it's instinct!

we could get into the whole (I support what ingredients are local to my area) but that's another topic and I'll get slatted for posting on this thread, I don't watch MK so I only comment on other peoples posts,

However I do believe that MK is alienating alot of UKTV FOOD viewers, and this is really why there is alot of strong posts coming through,

i'm looking forward to Saturday Kitchen tomorrow, hopefully I will learn something which is useful to me and have a giggle to

jannymac

What I have written in relation to such foods, is that they are: "of another world", i.e. they are mainly country fare, and now-a-days, (talking UK here) they are not the kind of foods that most people live on.

I don't know what such foods cost, and I'm not minded to find out, because having eaten such foods when I was younger, I don't recall anything particularly 'special' about such ingredients.

The point I was making, was that it seems to me that the design of market Kitchen is pitched at a minority audience - if the kinds of foods being cooked are anything to go by, that is.

It may be that the idea is to give a "window" on how a minority of people in the UK live, rather than to engage the 'average cook' in the preparation of such foods. There is a 'class' element to such foods and the lifestyle that goes with them - which is not just about how much money you have.

It could also be that the idea is to educate the masses in the ways of "good food". However, if that is the case, then there is the dimension of 'healthy eating' to consider, and if any heed is to be taken of the most recent reports on what foods to avoid, or eat in moderation, (no more than 500g of red meat per week for example) then the 'educative' aspect is somewhat suspect in the quality of advice being given.

It doesn't take a sociologist to work out the relationship between MK fare and some of the presenters. Which I suspect has more to do with how the program is designed than anything else.

What I really wonder about is how the scheme of things was worked out: were the producers approached by someone on behalf of the presenters, and did they then design a program around those presenters?

Or, did the producers sit down and think about what kind of show would appeal to both 'foodie' and mainstream TV audiences?

Most of what I see on MK suggests it must surely have been the former.

Take a program like Ready Steady Cook as an example of what I'm getting at: the theme is to find innovative ways of cooking 'everyday food' in interesting ways and within a short space of time. I think such a theme is one that the majority of people can relate to, which has made the program popular with a wide audience over many years.

With MK, is there really someone, somewhere, deluded enough to think that increasing numbers of people will put pressure on TESCO and ASDA to stock grouse, hare and foie gras? No doubt that would bring the price down!

But actually what I'm saying is not about the costs of such foods, but rather that they are the fare of a minority subculture. It may well be that consumption of such fare is emulated in some of the more expensive eating houses in London - London was recently identified as the most expensive capital in the world to eat, and it was reported that food snobbery was rife.

Market Kitchen makes a rather precocious and pretentious attempt at being classy, but unfortunately falls flat on its face time and time again.

Now I must dash as I need to give my butler the shopping list for his trip to TESCO – he does love foraging amongst the shelves and sees their constant shifting around of foods from aisle to aisle as a real challenge.

toodle-oo

Oh Gastrosurf, that was a jolly good read, well done, your right of course, MK is perhaps a show that is trying to up the culture of UKTV FOOD, trouble is most of the loyal UKTV FOOD viewers are from a different breed and therefore havn't the time for TPB etc, I would rather a show that taught me how to use left overs, what to do with everyday items in the cupboard (sorry pantry) different ways to cook chicken, fish, steak, items I can afford and feed an extremly picky family with,
MK doesn't do this, also I think you have to like the presenters (whick I don't)

Guys, i think the point is that MK with its star chefs etc is aspirational, just like Formula 1 pushes the boundaries of car technology which eventually filters down into normal cars, so MK sets the bar high, at an ideal standard which should give home cooks more confidence to emulate (if only in part)..err..i think..Reg