Delia: ""I'm not a Great Chef

Hold onto your knives and forks for this one folks... a celebrity chef has said they don`t think they`re a great cook!

In a move more startling than Whittingstall`s hair, Delia Smith has apparently gone on record to declare cooking does no require a great degree of skill. 

Delia, who almost single-handedly invented the TV chef genre through her homely, mumsey delivery and ability to make even beans on toast sound like a work of art, told the Daily Express: "I do not think I`m a great cook.

"Cooking should not be exclusive of `cheffy`. It`s about sitting around the table and having a nice meal.

"It puts everybody off if you have got some very, very top chef saying, `No that is not right`.

"My whole mission is to take away the fear and say `You can do it`."

Delia, 66, brings out a new book on Friday - Delia`s How to Cheat At Cooking.

In the book she gushes about Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson, who she claims make cooking look easy.

She is quoted as saying: "I really love Jamie. He can do no wrong. I also love Nigella. i think they are both really good at helping people with their cooking."

I remember a time when Delia`s `simple` method for making great scrambled eggs had this reporter and his univesity housemates either wretching over a toilet bowl or screaming in disbelief that something so simple could be so hard.

Maybe the grand old lady of the kitchen needs to make way once and for all to those who make our lives easy.