Corrie star criticises TV shows that serve ‘uncookable’ dishes

Actress Maureen Lipman has criticised TV cookery shows for “pandering to” the nation’s obesity crisis by serving up “uncookable food”.

The Coronation Street star, 73, switches off programmes with Nadiya Hussain, Prue Leith and Gordon Ramsay.

“I turn off Bake-Offs, Hairy Bikers, MasterChefs – indeed anything with a hint of a spatula in it,” she told Radio Times magazine.

“The whole country is watching people pan-frying things and all I can think is: What in the name of sanity do you fry in if not a pan? A bucket? A colander? A chamber-pot?

“They’re dribbling stuff over plates like Jackson Pollock on a lost weekend,” she quipped in reference to the paint-splashing artist.

“They’re piling food on top of itself like edible Jenga,” Lipman said of the block stacking game.

“They’re mixing and blending in a machine that won’t go in the dishwasher and takes a week to clean, and for whom?”

The actress said that while TV chefs donned their aprons to cook highly-complex meals, the high street is packed with fast food outlets.

“As far as I can see every shop in the high street of every town is a restaurant or a fast food takeaway, and every store, library, garage and North Face of the Matterhorn outlet has a sideline in sushi, so who is actually doing all this cooking? Other than certain bloggers, Nigella Lawson and career vegans?

“There’s an obesity crisis and television is pandering to it by showing all this uncookable food,” she said.

Actress Maureen Lipton.