At the touch of a button

FOR those of you who don’t know one end of a grater from another, or who can’t even prepare a salad without burning it, help always seems to be at hand via the remote control.

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With TV schedules these days overrun with flavour-of-the-month chefs, who all insist that we too can be a dab hand in the kitchen, there really is no excuse for turning to those microwave dinners each night.

This new offering should go a long way to persuading many of us to finally fling those ready-made meals in the bin.

Award-winning food writer and chef Simon Hopkinson is bringing all of his know-how to demonstrate how to create restaurant-quality food at home using simple, everyday ingredients. He certainly knows what he’s talking about, drawing on 30 years of experience in the kitchen.

Simon believes that it’s not just about having the best ingredients: it’s how you use what you’ve got that really counts.

In this first edition of the six-part series, Simon has decided to ease us in gently by demonstrating how to make baked pappardelle with pancetta and porcini – it may sound complicated, but it’s a simple and delicious pasta dish.

Also on the menu are scallops in a white butter sauce, coq au vin, his famous salad nicoise and an irresistible sticky toffee pudding to finish.

The chef is clearly excited about fronting his own series and waxed lyrical about the experience recently: “I’m very pleased to be given the opportunity to share my love of cookery. I love to cook and eat well, and nothing gives me more pleasure than preparing good food with great care. If I am with friends, or they are at home with me, I will be in the kitchen and I hope that this series inspires others to enjoy a similar, enthusiastic approach.”

Lancashire-born foodie Hopkinson began his career in the kitchens of Le Normandie, in Birtle, as a 17-year-old, and opened his first restaurant, The Shed, shortly before turning 21. His friendship with famed retailer Terence Conran saw them set up acclaimed eaterie Bibendum together in 1987, where he became head chef.

Simon moved further into the public eye in 1994 when he published his first book, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, co-authored with Lindsey Bareham. In 2005 it was voted Most Useful Cookbook of All Time by Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine – no small praise. In the time between, he decided to concentrate on food writing and hung up his apron at Bibendium.

ALAN TITCHMARSH must sometimes feel like he is living in a dreamland since being plucked from relative obscurity 30 years ago to become a household name, fronting an array of gardening programmes, publishing a string of novels and even landing his own daytime chat show.

In this edition of his latest TV project Love Your Garden, he demonstrates how viewers can create a fantasy world of their own, revealing how to use dressed archways, captivating sculptures and winding pathways to conjure up a spectacular garden.

Charlotte Uhlenbroek is on hand to demonstrate how to attract a variety of birds into the grotto, while Matt James hopes to provide inspiration by visiting a reclamation yard to search for that extraspecial something that will really add some magic to his own plot.

DANGER: Diggers At Work – and the title is a bit of a giveaway – follows employees of a digger hire firm. The opening episode goes behind the scenes at the company, as a Boeing 747 is broken down for scrap, and two drivers help tackle a forest fire.

Meanwhile, a team also creates a fake beach along London’s Regent Street, while one of the office workers receives a driving lesson.