The new Aga generation

Spring has sprung – an overused but timely phrase considering the lovely weather we’ve been enjoying of late.
It’s one of life’s great little gifts to start seeing a stretch in the evening, having a bright morning to wake up to and some colour in the burgeoning buds. It’s at times like this, as we bask in the glow of global warming, that I wish I lived in the countryside full-time. Whether by the sea or surrounded by green fields, as long as I’m removed from cars, footpaths and bus stops I’m a happy camper.
It’s also at times like this I wish I was Jenny Bristow. Visions of her cooking lemon meringues and mouth watering chicken dishes in her perfect country kitchen take me right back to my childhood and the formation of my dream that I too could one day own an aga cooker and have an island in my kitchen (I’m still dreaming in case you’re wondering.)
She always got it right did our Jenny. There was a freshness to her recipes, a rise in her soufflés and a spring in her chickens as she cooked local and seasonal food, all served up in those dishes your granny used to hit you for using - they are exclusively for visitors don’t you know (even though I technically was a visitor, but anyway).
Modern cookery shows just don’t have that sort of quality. It’s all kitsch kitchens with little dolly birds dressed in faux vintage polka dots and heavily made faces with dark red lips droning on about organic pigeon or some such random creature. They look like they’ve barely ever eaten a dinner, let alone cooked one.
Their hair’s always perfect and their flour never spills as they dance around their penthouse apartments decked out in the most modern of ‘vintage’ furnishings. So original, and all so the same.
And I don’t know about you but I don’t have a little French market of a Saturday to jaunt down to and pick up some specially sourced bree – more like some extra mature from Tescos.
No, Jenny’s perfect kitchen was more attainable, as were her ingredients. How bizarre that shows like Jenny’s are now out of foodie fashion and it’s seen as some sort of conscious lifestyle choice nowadays to eat locally and seasonally – surely that’s the natural order of things, in every sense of the word.
Thanks goodness our schools have taken this on board, with their new Agri-Food challenge for Key Stage 3 pupils. The idea is simple; come up with a two-course meal using fresh, local and seasonal food and win an opportunity to cook it with a professional chef. I am glad an appreciation of the resources around us is on the curriculum and education chiefs have found a way to make their use fun.
It may create another generation of aspirational aga owners, but more importantly it will counteract the deluge of the flavour of the month kitsch cookery that is just junk food by another name.
For further information visit www.nigoodfood.com