Get Women Back In The Kitchen | Food

Date Published:: 06/09/2007

What's up doc?

After spending a day telling her patients to eat less salt and more fresh food, GP Helen Sutherland would go home and eat microwave dinners.

A brush with Gordon Ramsay has made her vow to spend more time taking food out of the fridge than out of the freezer, and give her poor husband a break from the kitchen. Here's her story...

Before the F word I did no cooking whatsoever. My husband did everything and if he was out I'd eat microwave meals.

It all started ten years ago when I made a completely disastrous meal. My parents were coming around for dinner to meet my future in-laws and so it was a pretty big occasion. I took the day off work to ensure I did everything right and I attempted Delia Smith's fish pie. It was absolutely inedible.

GP Helen Sutherland

I suppose it goes back even further to university. We had a cooking rota in my first student house and pretty soon I was taken off the rota for producing such terrible food. I earned the nickname 'peddle' because the running joke was that the peddle bin was the only place worthy of my meals.

Luckily, my husband quite enjoys cooking. But after a while I began to wish I could have more input. I'm a GP, always sitting there lecturing people about healthy eating and avoiding foods full of additives, so I was also feeling like a bit of a hypocrite. And as a mother, I wanted to be able to produce more nutritious meals for my twin boys.

Cooking with Gordon was great. He's an extremely passionate, positive person and his enthusiasm is totally infectious. We made coq au vin and for the first time ever I felt in control in the kitchen. The dish turned out really well and I got a real buzz from seeing people sit down and enjoy eating something I'd produced.

The following evening I held a dinner party. I didn't feel ready to cook everything myself but it was good to be able to help out, and it was fun working with my husband as part of a team. I've since progressed to make a whole dish by myself - fish with grilled peppers and couscous. I'm keeping it simple and learning as I go along.

I guess I epitomise the kind of woman targeted by Gordon's campaign. I certainly know a lot of women who don't cook, and couples where the man is the dominant cook. Women shouldn't be chained to the kitchen for the rest of their lives, but they should remember that cooking can be enjoyable and is a way of taking control of your own health. A lot of women I know have 'come out' as non cookers, and they seem to regret the fact.

My advice for anyone out there like me is just to have a go. Start with something really simple and quick, make it a team effort and cook with your partner, and work with recipes until you're confident enough to throw things together yourself. And most importantly, don't be put off by previous bad experiences.