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Bake Off judge Prue Leith blasts pretentious restaurants for 'lecturing' customers about their food
She's a pillar of British cooking famed for her culinary wisdom and love of simple meals.
Yet when The Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith recently sat down at a pub to enjoy fish and chips she couldn't spot it on the menu.
Instead, it was listed as 'sustainability-certified North Sea halibut loin, coated in tempura-style batter' served with 'Maris Piper potatoes triple-fried in Cotswold Gold corn oil'.
The 85-year-old television cook and presenter hit out at the increasing number of restaurants with pretentious menus which 'lecture' customers about their food.
She accused eateries of 'pandering to foodies' as punters are forced to read 'essays' about where every ingredient in their meals come from.
'Last week, I was in what used to be a good pub and is now a gastro temple,' Dame Prue wrote in The Oldie magazine.
'I ordered 'Sustainability-certified North Sea halibut loin, coated in tempura-style batter made from Hook Norton Ironstone lager and Billy's free-range organic eggs'.
'Served with 'locally grown Maris Piper potatoes, triple-fried in Cotswold Gold corn oil'.'
'Translation: fish and chips.'
The Cordon Bleu-trained chef, who started out in catering before opening a Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill, criticised restaurants with increasingly complicated menus.
'Pandering to foodies, menu-devisers now write essays on every course,' she said.
''Hand-dived Scottish king scallops, daily-picked marsh samphire from the Solway Firth, Arran Victory organic new potatoes' and on and on.
'The night before we got married, my husband-to-be and I went to a Michelin-starred restaurant for an intimate (I hoped romantic) dinner.
'No chance of that. The waiter gave us a lecture on every course; we were handed a map of the location of the restaurant's suppliers and expected to read it.
'And at the end the chef emerged for praise and foodie talk and wouldn't go away.'
Dame Prue also complained about the recent trend of 'influencers' who stand on their chairs in restaurants to take pictures of their food.
'Added to the foodie nonsense is the TikTok nonsense: influencers standing on their chairs to get a photo of their food,' she said.
'A restaurateur friend says that's only the start.
'Young influencers will book a table in a Michelin-starred restaurant and order just one glass of bubbly and one first course between them - just enough to snap each other at the table, in the fancy ladies' room and outside the front door.'
The celebrity chef is also a prolific cookbook writer, columnist and author, publishing cookbooks and novels.
She has enjoyed a 50-year television career which includes judging BBC's Great British Menu, and The Great British Bake Off, replacing Dame Mary Berry when the show moved to Channel 4 in 2017.
