Beware useless gadgets
Food writer Andrew Webb, your very own ghost of Christmas past, has a warning: if you’ve managed to avoid receiving a pointless kitchen gizmo as a gift, congratulations. But be careful you’re not lured into buying one in the January sales
Years ago, I compered some cooking demonstrations at a popular home show. Next to the cookery theatre was an area we nicknamed ‘the corridor of crap’. Each small stall had a chap deftly demonstrating the latest thing to make cooking easy: battery-operated revolving spoons to stir sauces; food bags that would somehow imbue a smoky flavour; and dozens of devices to make chopping veg easier. By the end of the 14-day show there was enough mirepoix to make Escoffier’s sauce espagnole for the five thousand.