The cookbook has had its day, declares Delia

Rare is the household without one of her recipe bibles on the shelf, but Delia Smith has declared that the cookbook is dead.

Printed recipes are pointless now that we can browse the web, she said. “There is not the need now to keep books. I think there are far too many of them, actually.”

Speaking at Buckingham Palace after she was made a Companion of Honour, Smith added: “Cooking has become very poncy, very chefy – if I get one more plate put in front of me with six dots of sauce on it, I will go mad,” she said. “The joy, years ago, of going to a really special restaurant and having a really special meal, has gone.”