Delia Smith has declared that the cookbook is dead and she will not be writing another.

Printed recipes are pointless now that we can browse the web, she said.

“There is not the need now to keep books. I think there are far too many of them, actually,” she said.

Speaking at Buckingham Palace after she was made a Companion of Honour for services to cookery, Smith lamented the current food scene.

“Cooking has become very poncy, very chefy - if I get one more plate put in front of me with six dots of sauce on it, I will go mad,” she said.

“I can’t do it, I just can’t do it. The joy, years ago, of going to a really special restaurant and having a really special mea, has gone.

“It is very hard to find one that isn’t trying to be theatre on a plate… I don’t like it at all.”

Smith also expressed fears that children are consuming too much sugar. The fact that the UK is now the most overweight country in Europe is "very distressing", she said.

"When you go into a supermarket you see yards and yards of chocolate bars and sweets, and children are going past it.