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Pretentious - moi?
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Catriona Wells Friday 20 August 2010 |
Following Jim Cook's article, Missing the in-flight meal? a reader sent me a selection of menus from BA's first class service. I am not knocking BA, but a few of these reminded me of a line from an old Fawlty Towers episode "Pretentious - moi?".
Why is it that everything we do these days, from highfalutin job titles to restaurant menus has to use fancy words to describe generally ordinary things?
I did like the sound of warm mousseline of Sussex chicken stuffed with freshly harvested walnuts. But, having checked on the Internet, I find that walnuts should be dried for at least three weeks after harvest to remove the poisonous tannin!
My favourite image was that conjured up by the Canon of English lamb imprisoned in a pastry cage with a plume of French Bar-le-Duc. Total nonsense I am sure, but sheer poetry.
Back to earth, I remember a very early boyfriend taking me out for a Chicken in a Basket. I wonder if that relationship would have better flourished had the dish (not him) been called Poulet au Wicker d'Anglais.
Continuing the chicken theme, my fiance Marcus barbecued a chicken over the weekend. He has one of these big American gas barbeques and a contraption that holds a chicken upright with a beer can stuffed up its rear end.
The liquid in the can boils and keeps the inside of the chicken moist whilst the outside is gorgeously browned. I know it sounds stupid and typical of boys and their toys but, annoyingly, it does actually work.
Marcus' cooking is influenced more by what is close to hand than any innate culinary skill. I am not sure exactly what went into the beer can, but I believe it was a mixture of beer, Coca-Cola, soy sauce, left-over grapefruit juice and brown sugar.
Being the infuriating male that he is, it turned out extraordinarily well.
I am just left to ponder how this garnish extraordinaire might have been described on a menu.
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Carly Knight, Southwold 23 August 2010, 08:58AM | |
I could not agree with you more! All these fancy words for ordinary things, its like you need a degree these days to read a menu. | |
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Thank you Catriona, You made me smile after a bad day at work. | |
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Brendan Kelly, Dublin 26 August 2010, 10:12AM | |
Yes, funny article but I have one of these Weber chicken stands and it really does work. Even I, as a poor male, can make a very tasty meal. | |
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This article is very amusing, but very true. I especially like Catriona's account of her boyfriend Marcus's recipe of what went into the chicken's rear end! | |
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Justin George 7 September 2010, 01:55PM | |
I am a regular user of Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class back and forth to the USA and Hong Kong. They have an extremely good menu which gets the mix just about right. I like well presented food but I too dislike pretentious names for simple things. It cannot be easy to get this right and keep all of the customers satisfied but Virgin (and I have used most of the airlines in my time) do it better than most. | |
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Jane, Margate 21 October 2010, 12:50PM | |
I enjoyed your article and have to agreethat so often dishes are described in such a pretensious manner. I think if you go to a top class restaurant then fair enough but on board a flight I really don't think it necessary. | |
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Rosie, Kent 28 November 2010, 09:39AM | |
I have notcied that the food on long haul flights is considerably better than short haul. Also my dad has also cooked the meal that Catriona described and in the recipe book it was simply known as 'beer butt chicken'. | |
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