Delia Smith has spent her career bringing simple cooking into the homes of millions of Britons, once famously instructing people on the best way to boil an egg. So it’s perhaps not surprising that for the veteran cook and TV presenter the joys of eating out have dissipated due to the culture of modern gastronomy.

Smith, whose no-nonsense cookbooks are still the go-to staple of many a kitchen, was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday for her services to cookery.

Pressed on whether there are any food fads or cooking techniques she disliked, she said: “Cooking has become very poncey, very chefy – if I get one more plate put in front of me with six dots of sauce on it, I will go mad.

“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 meal 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.”

But food writers urged the cook to “get out more”, emphasising that the restaurant scene had changed in the last couple of decades and there had never been a better time to dine casually.

“When I moved to London in the late 1980s there was a choice of good value Indian and Chinese restaurants and, at the other end, stiff dining rooms devoted to nouvelle cuisine. There was very little in between,” said the British food writer and broadcaster Diana Henry. “Pop-ups, supper clubs, casual restaurants, there has never been a time when it’s so easy to eat out casually.”



“There is a problem caused by our modern love of the ‘new’ – well-established restaurants suffer in our Instagram culture, and they shouldn’t. But if you want to eat casually and explore food from all over the world, there has never been a better time,” she said. “Even lunch in Claridge’s was a chicken pie, a salad and a glass of wine.”

Adam Coghlan, London editor of Eater, said: “Delia Smith is an absolute icon – and to dispute her on the subject of food feels a little uneasy. However, to say that all cookery nowadays is chefy and poncey is to ignore the most interesting chefs and the most interesting cookery.”

Delia Smith is made member of the Order of the Companions of Honour. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

“Sadly, I don’t think Delia has looked very hard. There are countless restaurants of note who are reshaping what dining in the UK means, that care much more about ingredients and their preparation than they do about theatre.”

“There are plenty of restaurants that serve good and sometimes great food that is not just theatre on a plate,” added Claudia Roden, a cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist.

Richard Ehrlich, a food writer and restaurant reviewer, said he recognised the type of cooking that Smith was condemning and shared some of her frustrations. “Those artfully composed plates often look a hell of a lot better than they taste,” he said.

“But she’s missing two important points. One is that some of that ‘poncy, chefy’ cooking produces food of exceptional quality. Four examples are The Ledbury and Marianne in Notting Hill, Native in Covent Garden, and even my local Italian restaurant in Kentish Town, Anima e Cuore.

“Second, her complaint was far more legitimate 10 or 20 years ago than it is now. I get the impression that she hasn’t been to any of the places inspired by Spanish, Italian, Middle Eastern or North African cooking, which emphasise bold flavours and relatively simple presentations. Maybe Delia – whom I admire enormously, by the way – needs to get out more. If she can bear it.”

For Eleanor Maidment, food editor of Waitrose Kitchen, special meals are not always “marked by a plate of extraordinarily fussy, highly skilled technical cooking”.

“There’s so much diversity now,” she said. “I think we’ve moved away from fine dining. I want to go and eat lovely casual food that I might not eat at home. Somewhere like favourite local Greek restaurant that’s a hidden gem, and it’s not fancy at all.”

Smith also said the focus of cooking should be on flavoursome ingredients and it was “very distressing” that the UK was now the most overweight country in Europe.

The 76-year-old said she was “deeply, deeply honoured” to receive her CH, and that walking up to collect it from the Queen at the investiture ceremony was “nerve-racking”.

“Over the years I had such a wonderful response from people – in a way their response to what I was trying to do was what spurred me on do it. I think it belongs to them as well,” she said.