Britain is in even more trouble than we thought, judging by Mary Berry's new cooking show. Calum Henderson samples it.
Mary Berry, the television personality formerly known as "the Queen of Baking", has had a change of title. Arise, "the Queen of Home Cooking", which is how she was introduced on Britain's Best Home Cook, the BBC's baffling attempt at recreating the magic of The Great British Bake Off following its great 2017 network shift.
The far broader culinary scope doesn't do the format many favours. Contestant Trevor, a farmer who self-described as "an ingredients-led cook", laid out the show's biggest flaw during Wednesday night's series premiere when he couldn't decide whether to make a pecan pie or a chicken korma for a dish in which nuts were supposed to be the star ingredient.
His eventual korma, served with potatoes instead of rice, mingled uneasily with Chinese egg noodles, a butter chicken and three different types of swiss roll on the judging table. You shudder to think what that kind of medley would do to a judge's guts – Berry had the right idea, tasting only the tiniest forkful of each.