Once the BBC crumbles, brought down by a toxic blend of taxpayer acrimony and misplaced hubris, it’s hard to predict what will become of Gregg Wallace.
Will anyone else hire him? Not if Eat Well for Less (BBC1, 8pm, 29 January) is anything to go by, because although it offered a family of four three quick and simple (if obvious) pieces of advice to cut down on their grocery bill (swap brands for own label, stick to a weekly meals plan and only buy what you need to make them), it ruined things by paying Gregg and sidekick Chris Bavin to arse around for a full hour dumbing everything down.
Take dad, a keen amateur chef, who complained the weekly plan made him feel like a “leashed animal.” Gregg assured him he could have a free day to get creative. The dad suggested using “what we’ve got in the cupboards” to experiment with. “Mate… that is genius!” replied Gregg, reinforcing fears the bar had been set woefully low. And it got lower when the genius produced some minced beef and Gregg revealed his ambitious vision of the culinary alchemy that could take place, giving him two options: “Spag bol or meatballs.”
By not keeping their cupboards overflowing, and buying value ranges, the family saved £74 a week on groceries. “It’s the pay rise I never had,” said dad. “And it’s limitless!” cried out Bavin. It’s not, obviously, but never mind. That moment, all hyperbole over sense, encapsulated the idiocy of a show that taught us nothing we don’t already know. And there are two more episodes to come.
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