A few weeks ago I came across a new cooking program called Thirty Minute Meals, hosted by a pocket dynamo called Racheal Ray. She was enthusiastic and energetic and her promise was a meal prepared in thirty minutes. That's great, there are always times when we need to get the food on the table in a hurry. In this program Racheal was preparing three tapas style dishes in real time. Over to the fridge she went to retrieve all the ingredients and started to cook.

All was going well and then Racheal moved onto Spanish meatballs, mixing up the mince with all the other ingredients, forming it into small ball shapes and immediately placing them in a hot frying pan. So far so good. Then something happened that greatly troubled me. A cut away. When we returned to the frypan, all the meatballs were nicely browned. I know it doesn't seem like much, but in a show that has a thirty minute slot and the promise is a meal in thirty minutes and the cooking is being done in real time, magically browned meatballs leave me feeling a bit cynical.

I wasn't going to blog about this other than the other day I came across a blog called Everything Racheal Ray run by a women called Madeline. The site is giving Racheal's recipes as well as all the low down on her as well. Nothing wrong there, other cooking celebrities have their own sites, it's just that the site is set up like Madeline is a great fan of Racheals, but when she advises that "All things Racheal Ray can be found here including recipes, news, appearances, upcoming shows and cookbooks.", it sounds like you are a little bit more than a fan. If Racheal Ray is behind the site, come out and say it, nobody will mind.

And please, no more cut aways.