I’ve been watching a Channel 4 programme about tricks of the trade in the restaurant business. It seems that not all restaurant food is prepared in house, and these capitalists buy stuff like cheesecake for £1 a portion and sell to us for £4 a portion.
Well fancy that! The next thing will be restaurants charging £3 for beer that we can buy in Budgens for £1 or coffee shops charging us £2 for a skinny Americano that we can make at home 10 times over from a jar of Instant.
The show has a presenter who reminded me of Keith Lemon’s girlfriend. She hosts a dinner party at home and instead of cooking herself she buys everything ready-made and serves it up, then at the end she reveals to her guests what she`s done and they just nod and carry on talking about the weather.
She then reveals she paid £3 per portion – although some restaurants charge £12, and they nod and talk about their holiday plans.
Well I for one am astonished, £3 a portion ! Bring it on I say. The last time I cooked pork belly following a recipe it took 4 hours of my life, half the pans in my kitchen, then the rest for veg and dipping sauces. It demanded small amounts of spices I didn’t have, so I had to buy large amounts, plus plasters for burnt fingers after taking the crackling off.
Mind you I saved 50p a portion which I shall use to invest in vegetable seeds, compost and a home brew kit, oh, and scissore – cutting my own will pay for this year’s holiday.