delicious - March 2013

'delicious' is a magazine that has never really caught my attention when browsing the shelves especially in comparison to magazines such as BBC GoodFood.  It is one of those magazines that you find in caterers reception areas, not that I hang out in many, eagerly awaiting a quick thumb through before a meeting. 

The front cover is encouraging with a very tempting picture of rhubarb and apple crumble and a few headlines to grab your attention. 

Ok, let's get the bad bits out of the way first....

The Ugly: 

Delicious Date - An interesting idea but not really sure the article actually delivers anything of value either on the love front or for the restaurant itself. Apart from pictures of the two diners there were no pictures or really helpful information on the food being served. A complete flop in my opinion! Men cooking in the kitchen was interesting and it was good to see dads preparing meals rather than pulling something out of the freezer. However, why not focus on young people cooking and getting an understanding of food.

The Bad: 

Layout - Articles have far too much text to keep the reader engaged. I enjoy reading books however, when it comes to reading a magazine I need to feel involved, enthused and blown away by the ideas that are being conveyed. 
Not slowly bored to death by text!  

A picture tells a thousand words!

Take the 'Champagne Luxuries on a Lemonade Budget' article, for example, a great opportunity to show off some brilliant produce with dazzling pictures  you'd think. 

But no we just have paragraph after paragraph of text.  Obviously, the editor decided to keep in line with the article title and blow the budget on something else. 



The Good: 

Recipes - Firstly, top marks for all the vegetarian recipes and this is coming from a household that are strictly carnivorous. Finding good vegetarian recipe ideas is always a problem and this magazine seems to have an abundance of them.  

Hot desserts, especially comfort food such as crumble, also feature highly on our weekly menus. So, Cracking Crumble by Donal Skehan, is apparently the next big star of food, But, sorry to say I've not heard of him until now.  He does however make a welcome change and it's good to see somebody under the age of 50 that's not wrinkled, hairy or speaking with a heavy French accent. Oops, bring on the hate mail! I've not attempted the recipe yet but before all the rhubarb disappears off the shelves I will have to give it a go as it looks really unctuous.

Veal used to feature on my menus every month but following all the controversy back in the 80's it soon disappeared and I haven't eaten it since. However, having read the 'special report' and input from chef and 2010 Master Chef winner, Dhruv Baker, made me think that I would like to try veal again. 

The 'Useful Guide' did exactly what it said on the tin. It was very useful with top tips. For some unknown reason the paper quality and texture changed at this point? How to make the perfect marmalade and expert technique were all helpful and interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed the process of reviewing this magazine and I felt I really got to know it. Recipes do not seem over complicated and there is little reference to TV/Celebrity chefs perhaps making it easier for a newbie chef to relate to. 

But, would I ditch my GoodFood magazine and buy delicious?  Unfortunately, I'm a die hard GoodFood devotee and I can't imagine how delicious is going to tempt me away. Priced at £3.80 per magazine delicious do have an offer on at the moment, 6 issues for £10.99, making it an affordable magazine for your kitchen table. Otherwise visit Lets Subscribe for a host of great discount opportunities!