Dear LPG,

I am now a pensioner but would not, at any time during my life, have called myself the perfect cook; in fact I think one of my major triumphs was managing to get my children to adulthood without poisoning them at some point.   I will admit that I have never been a good cook and things have not improved now that I am older.  This is not because I have reached a stage in my life where cooking has become difficult to do.  The truth is that I have always done the minimum needed in the kitchen… we can’t all be perfect at everything!

I am, however a fan of watching cooking competition programmes on the telly while I struggle with the ironing or some other household task, and have nothing but applause for those people who put their cooking skills on show for the entire British public to watch, some of whom are a lot older than me! 

The competitors usually have so little time to complete the challenges, and their ideas can be ingenious and so simple that they can be quite ‘copyable’, even for me, sometimes. 

I can’t help but marvel about the time that they spend just watching things cook in the oven to make sure that they take them out at just the right moment.  When I cook you can be sure that something else will attract my attention and I will get back to the oven just a bit too late;   in fact I wonder how I ever make anything that is edible, though I have been known to be complimented by the odd dinner guest.

…But back to the TV… where all is well until the judging.  I know how that, at this point, I am one of the many that holds my breath as the experts are let loose on beautiful offerings which they proceed to feel, poke, push, squeeze, prod, squash, tear and cut before it even gets as far as their mouth.  We, the viewers, can only see the food not taste it so we rely on what the judges have to say about it but, really and truly, is it not a case of individual taste?  I just think it all boils down to… if I like it I eat it; if not, I don’t.

If I am honest I know there is a balance. 

I think I am a bit jealous of the judges who are paid loads of money just to eat these wonderful meals on telly and judge them, although I do appreciate all the study and work that they have done to be the experts that they are.   And no one forces me to watch the programmes, but I, like so many others, still do. Do you not agree that TV programme makers are very clever?

RJ, Croydon.

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