How Nigella’s turned us into shopping basket snobs

THERE was a time when the aim of the supermarket shop was simply to feed your family for the best possible price.

But according to a leading food writer, what you put in your trolley now speaks volumes about your status.

A cut of imported meat or a pack of freshly prepared sushi makes you appear well-off, according to expert Mary Gwynn. Meanwhile, a trolley full of white bread and ready meals is a sign a shopper doesn’t care about the quality of their family’s meals.

Miss Gwynn said modern ‘food snobbishness’ means dinner parties – inspired by celebrity chefs such as Nigella Lawson and Jamie oliver – are a way to show off to friends by serving rare or expensive delicacies.

The writer, 57, who has edited food magazines and written three vegetarian cookery books, said: ‘one of the big things that I’ve found is this thing of eating to show off what you serve ... you’re defined by what you buy.

‘Just looking in someone else’s supermarket trolley, you’ll judge them completely. If your trolley was full of processed foods and white bread, what would that say about you?’

Miss Gwynn’s new book, Back In Time For Dinner, accompanies a BBC2 series which tracks the way British eating habits have changed since the Second World War.

Back then, Spam and offal were kitchen staples, whereas modern consumers favour foreign imports such as sushi and chorizo.