No culinary war, no sweary saucier: why The Cook and the Chef is still the best food TV
When did we decide making food should be stressful? I believe it was around 2009, when MasterChef Australia took off, with its explosions and tears and plate-throwing; of course we ruthlessly exported it, like the Hemsworths.Along the way, cooking went from being an act of service to an extreme sport.As a result, you can now watch people shout and cry as they decorate a mille-feuille on most of the streamers.Cooking is now a form of combat – there are Cake Wars, Cupcake Wars and Culinary Class Wars – and frequently, pure spectacle.You can make a cake that looks like a lifesize Superman (ahem, Super Mega Cakes) – but, as I said out loud while watching two contestants have a fight about time management, when is someone going to fucking eat something?Most new cooking shows are not really about food at all, but drama.
In my mind, the best are made by people who don’t really want to be on TV – so out with wannabe reality types and, as much I believe both Jamie and Nigella genuinely love food, there is something gratingly artificial about his puppyish enthusiasm and her seductive verbosity, so out with them too,I much prefer the passionate, quiet, awkward types who get roped into doing telly: think Nigel Slater, Simon Hopkinson, Julia Child, Adam Liaw, Kylie Kwong or Nadiya Hussain,And – of course – The Cook and the Chef,It is a 20-year-old show that looks about 40,It was an ABC show, but these days it serves as punctuation for SBS Food to break up 300 episodes of The Cook Up.
God, I love it.It helps that it was filmed on my native soil, in South Australia.It was a balm whenever I felt homesick 16,000km away in London – and it still is, 800km away in Melbourne.But mostly I just love it for being all about the pleasures of cooking.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningSign up to Saved for LaterCatch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tipsafter newsletter promotionMaggie Beer, the cook, would make the pragmatic, homey dishes: she’d bung a chook in the oven or plop down a generous pavlova, and always served up on kitschy farmhouse crockery.
(And verjuice, always verjuice.) Simon Bryant, the chef, ran a hotel kitchen in Adelaide and always dressed in blacks.He had more unconventional tastes: his chicken kiev, for instance, was stuffed with butter and marmalade, then wrapped in caul fat.And he wouldn’t just serve – he’d plate up an artful pile of greens, an elegant line of sauce and a tea towel slung over his shoulder to tidy it all up.I suspect they were initially paired in opposition to one another – the country cook versus the hardened pro – but perhaps due to their natural temperaments, they ended up as a lovingly odd couple.
He was messy, she was messier.He drizzled, she glugged.He loved chilli; she couldn’t bear it.Neither of them liked making desserts.(“I hate following recipes,” Maggie said by way of explanation.
) She frequently forgot to put things in the oven and always apologised for her presentation.“Nonsense, Maggie,” he’d always reply.The Cook and the Chef was made when most Anglo Australians didn’t know what freekeh or verjuice was, or how to handle an eggplant.Their dishes were indulgent but mostly unfussy; the ingredients seemed to come straight from sun-drenched vegetable gardens and orchards around Beer’s territory, the Barossa.(It is the best advertisement South Australia has ever had.
) These two could convert a puritan to the earthly pleasures of a ripe fig, a tomato on the vine, a great balsamic.They were often giggly, giddy with happiness.The Cook and the Chef remains wonderfully instructional.It has taught me how to make good scrambled eggs (fold, don’t scramble – and leave them a lot runnier than you think); how to pick a passionfruit (wrinklier means sweeter); and to stop putting strawberries in the fridge (arrange them side by side on a flat dish so they don’t go mouldy).But it also serves as a delightful palate cleanser if you’ve had enough of people sweating and swearing over food, or celebrity chefs performing versions of themselves.
Pleasingly, SBS’s scatter-gun late airings seem to have a following among the internet’s night owls,A tangential thought: can someone please do a club remix of the banging theme song?The Cook and the Chef is available to stream on SBS on Demand and ABC iView in Australia,For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
Your Guardian sport weekend: WSL kick-off, an England double-header and more
John Brewin, Rob Smyth and Barry Glendenning have all the buildup to Saturday’s football action. They’ll spin through the headlines from overnight as well as previewing England’s World Cup qualifier in Birmingham and full programmes in Leagues One and Two, with team news and breaking stories. As the Women’s Super League gets under way, our correspondent Suzanne Wrack will answer readers’ queries in a Q&A from 11am. Send your thoughts and questions to matchday.live@theguardian
Women’s Rugby World Cup has only one quarter-final spot left to fill but plenty still to play for
After two compelling rounds with high scores, standout displays and even the odd thriller, the group stage of the Women’s Rugby World Cup reaches its crescendo this weekend. On the face of it, there may not seem much still in play with seven of the eight quarter-finalists already decided, but that could not be further from the truth.Pool A is the one group where one of the two qualifiers has not yet been determined, with the USA and Australia in a fascinating battle to join England in the quarter-finals that will play out on Saturday afternoon and evening – and may not be decided until the final kick.For the Eagles, their task in York is simple enough: inflict a third straight defeat upon Samoa, secure a bonus point and rack up enough points to put serious pressure on the Wallaroos. One would expect the States to deliver two of the three requirements without much fuss given how Samoa have fared thus far, but they need a monumental 135-point swing to go their way, too
Abby Dow and England near record territory as Australia search for upset
Red Roses hoping to extend winning streak to 30 games while Wallaroos hunt for spot in quarter-finalsNothing the Red Roses do is boring. Those are the words of the centre Tatyana Heard as England head into their final pool match of the Rugby World Cup with the aim of topping the group and equalling their own world record of consecutive wins. If the heavy favourites come away with a victory against Australia, they will extend their winning streak to 30 games.Their previous 30-match run ended in the 2022 World Cup final defeat, which is the last time they were beaten. Discussions in the buildup to this tournament had been around whether it would be beneficial for England to have lost a game between the World Cups to bank a different experience
Time For Sandals can shine on return to longer trip in Haydock Sprint Cup
Lazzat, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes winner at Royal Ascot in June, is a clear favourite for the Sprint Cup at Haydock on Saturday, but Jerome Reynier’s gelding did not run to the same level when favourite for the Prix Maurice du Gheest last time out and faces a couple of lightly raced, three-year-old fillies, Time For Sandals and Sky Majesty, in his attempt to recapture Group One-winning form.Both fillies have just seven runs in the book, including the Group One Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June when Time For Sandals, a cosy winner, was nearly six lengths in front of Sky Majesty.Sky Majesty improved from Ascot to win a Listed contest and then a Group Three in Ireland on her next two starts, while Time For Sandals was beaten next time up, when dropping back to five furlongs in the King George Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.She struggled for running room a furlong out there, however, and the return to six furlongs on Saturday is very much in her favour too. Both Timeform’s ratings and the Ascot form suggest that Sky Majesty still has something to find with Harry Eustace’s filly and Time For Sandals (3
Geelong beat Brisbane: AFL 2025 second qualifying final – as it happened
Geelong join Collingwood as the preliminary final hosts. Both will be at the MCG. It is the Cats’ 14th preliminary final in 19 seasons and some might argue it is time to give other teams a turn. But those two sides have laid down a marker over the past 27 hours that they are the sides to beat.Prelim hosts are set 🔒#AFLFinals pic
Breakaway R360 league launch dealt blow after World Rugby application withdrawn
Rugby union’s proposed R360 breakaway league has deferred its application for sanctioning by World Rugby until at least next June in a setback for plans to launch next year.An application for official approval that was due to be discussed by the World Rugby Council on 23 September has been withdrawn, raising questions over whether the rebel league will be able to launch next September.Under World Rugby regulations all cross-border competitions must apply to the governing body for sanctioning and satisfy legal requirements regarding player welfare, medical provision, respecting the existing calendar, particularly contractually agreed international windows, as well as providing reassurances over anti-doping compliance.The next opportunity for R360 to make a sanctioning application is June next year, so a delay seems inevitable. Even if approval is granted at that point, setting up a 12-team global competition in three months appears unrealistic
No culinary war, no sweary saucier: why The Cook and the Chef is still the best food TV
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