Cooking? Get a man to do it, laughs Lette

SAuCy novelist Kathy Lette reveals she’s so bad at cooking that she forces guests to make meals at her own dinner parties.

‘If you’re a hostess you waste your entire evening,’ she tells me.

‘you miss out on all the discourse courses because you’re tethered to the kitchen by your apron strings. you’re not a hostess, you’re a hostage. I hate cooking.

‘With a dinner party the important thing for me is getting the right human ingredients — it’s much more important than the food.’

The 59yearold, who is getting divorced from barrister Geoffrey Robertson, adds: ‘Get everyone sloshed on good champagne and say: “I suppose we should eat?” There’s always someone there who wants to show off what a good cook they are.

‘It’s usually men. Men cooking is like foreplay for females.

‘So I pretend to help for a few minutes and then I gradually step back and they do it all.’