TV chef: Social media is killing cooking
MASTERCHEF judge Marcus Wareing blames Britain’s obsession with social media for families giving up proper cooking in favour of buying supermarket ready-meals.
Interviewed for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs today, the Michelin-starred chef says he fears people are spending so much time on their smartphones and tablets that it is disrupting eating habits.
‘I sort of blame social media,’ he tells host Lauren Laverne. ‘This wanting to connect to so many people means we lose a lot of time, which means something has to give.
‘Unfortunately, going to a supermarket and picking up a ready-meal is probably one of the easiest things you can do. It’s lazy and we need to slow it down, because it’s not good for the waistline either.’
The father of three, a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals since 2014, believes it is vital that future generations are taught culinary skills.
‘We now, as a nation, need to remind ourselves to teach the next generation how to cook so they don’t consistently pick up those ready-meals,’ he says.
Wareing also talks about his fallout with former friend and boss Gordon Ramsay. ‘I had worked with Gordon for so long, it’s natural to want to step out of the shadow. Unfortunately, we had to fall out to do that because there was never a way in which you could say to him, “I want out.”’
Despite being the author of seven cookbooks, Wareing, 49, admits that he reads only one book a year – and he does that while on holiday.
Desert Island Discs will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 11.15am