River Cottage Treatment Show 3

Date Published:

07/09/2007

This week, Hugh comes face to face with the takeaway townies – too lazy to cook, shop or even bung something in the microwave!

The gang includes Babs who works as a traffic announcer for a local radio station and between shifts munches on pizza, kebabs and Chinese; Julian’s culinary skills amount to fried egg and toast preferring to use his cookery books to level ladders and Andre, a London taxi driver who prefers to eat his way around the capital and be cooked for by his mum and sister.

Hugh takes them fishing, bonding with the animals on the farm and cooking home made versions of their microwave favourites with his own organic goodies. But when the time comes for the group to help him round up a couple of lambs, and accompany them to slaughter, they find themselves seriously rethinking their relationship with meat.

The group are all fish out of water when it comes to the countryside and Hugh’s aim this week is to persuade them to try their hand at cooking using only the freshest, local and organic ingredients.

But part way through the week, the gang are faced with their old foodie favourites – will they give in to their cravings?

The final chapter of the week sees them running their own organic take-away stall and cooking for hundreds of football fans. Will Hugh have turned them into a team of competent cooks in time for the big day, or will their lack of kitchen skills send them straight for the nearest chippy?

Lisa

Lisa works as a P.A. and is studying for a law degree. At a push the most amount of cooking she thinks she could manage is a fish finger sandwich, so the idea of a take-away is far more appealing - she'll often have a take away every night of the week.

Her food of choice is McDonalds, or any other take-away. When she used to live in London she would have a sausage and egg bap and chicken nuggets for lunch everyday. Even now she’ll grab herself a sausage and egg McMuffin for her breakfast during an average week.

She’s quite a picky eater and she doesn’t like salad or spices - just plain simple food.

She thinks the only thing that would change the way she eats is if she was shown an easy way of cooking something tasty in about 30 mins.

Julian

Julian has a passion for the outdoor life, but doesn’t introduce this into his home life and eating. Cooking just takes too long to fit into his busy life.

He'll have a take-away two or three times a week - either Indian, Chinese or fish and chips. He also tends to pop out to the bakery for a pie or sausage roll about twice a week. If he doesn't have take outs he'll normally have a ready meal, except when his girlfriend comes over and cooks for him.

Julian eats so many take-aways he's on first name terms with the staff at his local Indian take away - they even recognise his voice over the phone.

In the last ten months Julian's only cooked once - a roast dinner for his girlfriend, but he admitted that his mum was on speed dial throughout the whole thing.

He's conscious he's not getting any younger, is a little worried about his health and basically realizes things need to change. Being with his partner Sam has opened his eyes, and he'd love to be able to fully prepare, from scratch, a romantic meal for her.

Bradley

Bradley is 21 years old and can’t be bothered with breakfast. He prefers to get something when he’s out - a meatball or bacon Subway for example. Supper is usually at McDonalds, or else oven chips and a burger or something similar at home.

The last time he had a proper dinner was at his dad’s and he had chicken and chips. He doesn’t know how to cook at all and can only make himself meals as long as it only involves putting stuff in the oven.

Bradley never eats vegetables, in fact he only likes peas but doesn’t really bother with them. He likes fruit, but never buys it preferring crisps instead. He never looks at the labels on his food, and has never considered where any of his food comes from.

He saw a bit of Jamie’s School Dinners once where Jamie was showing what is in chicken nuggets and ‘found that a bit gross'.

Babs

Babs has been a traffic announcer for years, living the unsociable hours of early morning breakfast shows to late afternoon drive time slots. Working for Chiltern FM, away from her weekend homestead, means a world of convenient eating.

From Monday to Thursday she lives in rented accommodation, living off supermarket fare and take-away deliveries. Babs can’t stand shopping. People with trollies stacked high annoy her, and she feels there’s just too much to choose from. Babs feels that 'Mr. Pizza, Mr. Curry and Mr. Chinese make life so much easier'.

Babs says 'I never eat fruit or cook veg myself. At a push I’ll eat two bananas a week, and I know this lifestyle makes me feel sluggish… my real problem is comfort food. You’re in a dark studio trying to come up with new material, feeling exhausted just thinking about new ideas for the show, and suddenly the idea of a pie makes it all better. Inspiration through pastry!'

Andre

Andre thinks he is a lazy eater. He wants it quick and he wants it now! He doesn’t want to spend hours chopping and preparing because that’s what mothers are for. The only home cooked meals he eats are cooked by his mother or other family members.

He feels that cooking is exciting once or twice but I’d rather buy it already done. All this cooking looks sexy on the TV but he wonders how many onions you can chop before it gets boring!

His busy lifestyle means that cooking for himself isn’t really an option. And as a single man in London he doesn't see the point when you can eat cheaply and eat out all the time. He loves food but admits it’s the environment that he lives and works in that has encouraged this fast food, restaurant lifestyle. He will cook sometimes but only if it’s very quick and easy. He has been known to cook some pasta and a jar of sauce and even a curry. But that only involves pouring a jar of curry sauce over the top of some chopped meat.

He doesn’t care were food comes from – 'I don’t mind if my chicken speaks 5 languages, as long as it tastes good.' He’s not overly concerned about what goes into his food either and as long as it tastes good then he’s a happy man.