The UK Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills recently completed a study that looked at 35 recipes published by five UK celebrity chefs — Jamie Oliver, Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay and Nigel Slater. It turns out that while these folks make cooking look simple, their recipes can be difficult to follow. Actually, of the five chefs, only the recipes from the two women chefs were considered overly complicated.
While Gordon Ramsay's recipes were considered "so simple they can be followed by a seven-year-old," Nigella and Delia's were deemed too "chatty."
"[The study] found that 5.2million adults in the UK would be unable to follow Nigella's cooking methods as she uses longer sentences and tends to write in a "chatty" style, mixing in personal observations with her instructions.
"Delia Smith's culinary teaching was also criticised for having too many stages and using measurements confusing for anyone with poor numeracy skills.
"She also sprinkles too many adjectives into her recipes."
The study was intended to highlight the UK Government's adult learning campaign, but actually turned up the fact that the high profile male chefs deliver easier, simpler recipes than their female counterparts.
What do you guys think? Are you familiar with their recipes, do you agree? Also, if the study was conducted on US chefs, do you think the same would be said? Do you think Bobby Flay's recipes would be easier to follow than Giada De Laurentiis's?
Source: Daily Mail
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Emanuela Passeri
I dont think so, Mario Batali and Emeril have difficult recipes to follow, while rachel and paula deens are simple. It depends on the chef
1I agree Caterpillar!!
2I agree too. Just depends on the chef, I love those simple recipes, though!
3I agree with caterpillargirl and think it depends on the chef and his or her training and style, not their gender.
4Like everyone else said-totally depends on the chef.
5*shrugs* As long as there's a regular list of ingredients, I'm good to go! They always say you're supposed to read thruogh a recipe before you do it anyway, and if there happen to be some interesting personal commentary from the person that created the recipe, so much the better.
6It also depends on the cooking method. Salads, baking, and frying are the easiest, while saute can get rather involved and typically requires more experience.
7No, not necessarily...maybe Nigella just wanted a bigger book. But I have all of Sandra Lee's cookbooks and they're very simple and easy to follow.
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