Jamie Oliver sharing a recipe that doesn’t come from South Essex is not a sin or racism. Food is food and the wider range we can try the better our lives are.

But “authentic” seems to be such a ridiculous concept to me. Like the produce in Bologna is exactly the same as what is available in Venice, let alone in a specific supermarket or kitchen, or the skills and tastes of the cook. My food is nice (in a few peoples’ opinions) because I put things I like in it regardless of the recipe that inspired me.

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It’s meaningless, but adulteration of food is terrible. To be clear, I don’t think adding aniseed to a ragu is adulteration; I think adding modified starch and hydrolysed oils to products aimed at children is.

I started writing an article about Ultra Processed Food, but I’ve paused it because it’s such a huge thing. Read Chris Van Tulleken’s Ultra-Processed People as I am now doing for the second time, and I’m risking just writing a synopsis of a book that already exists, so I’m shelving it to look at the primary sources. Although I feel so strongly about it I may need to drop something sooner than that will take. My question was less about whether Ultra-Processed “Food” (UPF) is dangerous and should be controlled, taxed and properly labelled (in a similar way to cigarettes - it’s that bad) and why the Government’s Food Strategy doesn’t include any references to UPFs.

But anyway. “Authentic"

So, I have sucuk. A lovely spicy Turkish lamb and beef sausage and wanted to do something other than fry or grill it (for the avoidance of doubt, if you get one, fry it or grill it before t=you start mucking about with other stuff.

I fancied a lovely bean stew and arguably the Turkish National Dish is kuru fasulye. Kuru Fasulye is a stew of white beans, sometimes but not always flavoured with meat, sometimes with tomatoes.

I found versions without meat, with lamb cubes and beef stock (not sure why not lamb stock) and some with sucuk.

Lovely.

So, it has meat or it doesn’t; it has tomatoes or it doesn’t; it has spices, peppers, chillis or it doesn’t. Don’t start me on herbs…you guessed it - it may or may not have them.

I love this! This is a love-letter to “authenticity” in its way. Stay with me...

This is how it should be. Just don’t use that word “authentic”

I remember watching Antonio Carluccio eating “authentic” bolognese in Bologna. For clarity, I wasn’t there - when I say I saw him, I am not claiming more intimacy between me and Big Tony than owning a TV licence - it was on that funny rectangle in the corner.

It was a really large pan with lots and lots of tomatoes. There was then a big tray of beef and pork mince. It wasn’t browned, just poured into the ton of tomatoes and cooked for hours. He suggested you could, if you weren’t a purist, allowed to add a little bit of garlic and maybe, but he was not at all sure, just maybe a bit of oregano. But the feeling was that if you did that you were weak and maybe should feel a little bit grubby for doing it.

Or do the one on his website. Butter, pancetta, stock, celery, carrot, onions, browned mince, wine, stock…

… or do the one on my website.

This is not calling out one of my heroes, it’s just to illustrate the pointlessness of claiming “authenticity” for almost anything related to food.

Interesterised vegetable oil is not food so it is not authentic, however you use it, but “authentic” is bollocks so look at a range of recipes and get ideas from them all and put your spin on it.

I did butter beans (really not authentic, and please don’t liken it to Gigantes from Greece which are big white kidney beans, not butter beans), sucuk which is sort of fair enough, not tomatoes but some tomato puree, onions, garlic and lamb stock. Bloody lovely. Served with cabbage cooked with garlic and fennugreek and a chicken leg roasted with a bit of sumac and salt.