TV Kaye: My middle class shame... as a mum who couldn’t cook
How culinary guilt drove Scots presenter to master the kitchen
BY her own admission, Kaye Adams – and this is confirmed by her two long-suffering daughters – has always been hopeless in the kitchen.
To the despair of those gathered around the table, the Scots TV presenter routinely served up plates of gloop made with mismatched ingredients and often woefully undercooked or burnt to a crisp.
Yet the star of Loose Women has surprised her family – and herself – by writing her first cookbook.
Called Nadia and Kaye Disaster Chef, it aims to provide foolproof recipes for even the most culinarily-challenged. It also charts a mother’s voyage of discovery.
Ms Adams took the bold step after being taught kitchen skills by another of the Loose Women team, Nadia Sawalha – the actress and presenter who won Celebrity MasterChef in 2007 and is also the book’s co-author.
Ahead of the book’s launch next month, Ms Adams has spoken of what she calls her ‘middle-class shame’ – of being a mother who couldn’t cook.
She told The Scottish Mail on Sunday of the years of torment she inflicted on her family, saying: ‘I’d watch them chewing and chewing, knowing that they were bravely forcing down yet another meal I’d lovingly cooked.’
However, she said things had changed under Ms Sawalha’s guidance. ‘We’ve been friends for so long we can say anything to each other and when it comes to my cooking, Nadia always does,’ said Ms Adams.
‘We hung about in each other’s kitchens, chatting and cooking together and I realised that it’s sheer enjoyment for her and torture for me – and for those eating it, though I often claimed it tasted better than it looked.
‘Nadia chucked practically everything out of my kitchen, bought me a load of new stuff and taught me how to cook from scratch. That’s what this book is all about – I couldn’t cook and, following Nadia’s instructions, now I can.’
The book presumes no previous cooking experience on the part of the reader and starts with the basics, including a list of kitchen utensils. At its simplest it explains how to boil an egg, make cheese sauce and create mashed potato.
The book also provides easy-tofollow recipes – divided into sections with names such as Something Chickeny, Something Fishy, Something Sweet – such as soy salmon with egg-fried rice or sesame stirfried beef.
Ms Adams is best known for her regular appearances on ITV’s Loose Women and her daily show, The Kaye Adams Programme on Radio Scotland. She grew up in Grangemouth and graduated from Edinburgh University with an MA Honours in Economics and Politics. Her longterm partner Ian Campbell is a tennis coach and they live in Glasgow with their two daughters, Charly, 15, and Bonnie, 11.
But despite her accomplishments, she said it was hard for a middleclass mother with children to admit to being a hopeless cook.
She said: “There’s a particular perception that middle-class families eat properly and only less well-off families don’t actually know how to cook, so eat junk as a result. Yet my mum didn’t cook and I’d never learnt how to put a meal together.
‘I’m tremendously proud of my mum as she ran a business with my dad but our kitchen table was where she prepared wage slips, not somewhere she rustled up delicious meals.’
Ms Adams said that when cooking for her own children she had often shouted ‘Dinner’s ready!’ – only to see the girls rush in, ask ‘Did you make it mum?’ and their faces fall when she nodded.
Now, she says that although she’ll never be Nadia, ‘I’ve learned how to cook lovely food and I’ll honestly remember forever when Bonnie said my stir-fried beef was better than Nadia’s.’
‘It’s sheer enjoyment for her and torture for me’
Nadia and Kaye Disaster Chef, by Nadia Sawalha and Kaye Adams, will be released on March 1.