‘Turning down her smut setting’: how Nigella Lawson is cleaning up her recipes
Last week, the TV cook announced she was axing the word ‘slut’ from her recipe for Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly
Nigella Lawson was the first television cook to make food sexy, said Constance Watson in the Daily Mail. She’s almost as well known for her glamorous image, innuendos and double entendres – “I’m smearing Nigella seeds all over my cheek but I feel I’m entitled”; “I love having an implement in each hand” – as she is for her recipes. But the author of How To Be A Domestic Goddess has come over “all coy” lately.
Last week, she announced she was axing the word “slut” from her recipe for Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly, replacing it with “ruby”. The word, she explained, had “taken on a coarser, more cruel connotation” she wasn’t happy with. It follows her decision earlier this year to rename her Slut’s Spaghetti (a version of spaghetti alla puttanesca, which translates as prostitute’s pasta) as Slattern’s Spaghetti.
If Nigella feels she needs to do this in light of today’s sensitivities, that’s her choice, said Polly Vernon in The Times. It’s a shame though. A word is “only as cruel as the person dispensing it intends”. I’ve always loved the word “slut” as an affectionate term of abuse for those who let standards drop.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The brilliant journalist Katharine Whitehorn celebrated her own sluttishness in a 1963 column dedicated to “all those who have ever changed their stockings in a taxi, brushed their hair with someone else’s nailbrush or safety-pinned a hem”. I, for one, will continue to make slut’s spaghetti – “or at least I would, if I ever cooked”.
I’m all for “saucy banter” as a rule, said Rowan Pelling in The Daily Telegraph, but in this case Nigella is “right to turn down her smut setting”. Firstly, because the word “slut”, whatever its origins, is today mostly used as “a sexual slur and has scant humour when wielded by a man”. And secondly, because Nigella’s “flirty, spoonlicking” shtick has, like some of her more outrageous recipes, become “a slightly over-rich confection”.
The end of a recent programme in which she raided her own fridge clad only in a robe veered into full-on self-parody. It would be good if she dialled back the arch innuendo and played more “to her other strengths: wit, wisdom and the kind of strength that derives from overcoming adversity”.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Empty-nest boomers aren't selling their big homes
Speed Read Most Americans 60 and older do not intend to move, according to a recent survey
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump's first criminal trial starts with jury picks
Speed Read The former president faces charges related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How will Israel respond to Iran's direct attack?
Speed Read Iran’s weekend attack on Israel could escalate into a wider Middle East war
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Rowan Beaird recommends 6 compelling books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 spacious homes with great rec rooms
Feature Featuring a suspended fireplace in Arizona and a marine-themed home in Maine
By The Week Published
-
Recipe: gnocchi di spinaci (spinach gnocchi)
The Week Recommends Forget the potatoes for this gnocchi made of the 'classic combination' of spinach and ricotta
By The Week UK Published
-
Stephen Graham Jones' 6 scary books with deeper meanings
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Stephen King, Sara Gran, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 stylish homes on the top floor
Feature Featuring a 1925 art deco high-rise in San Francisco and a factory-turned-home in Los Angeles
By The Week US Published
-
The Anxious Generation: US psychologist Jonathan Haidt's 'urgent and essential' new book
The Week Recommends Haidt calls out 'the Great Rewiring of Childhood' phenomenon
By The Week UK Published
-
Robot Dreams: 'utterly charming' animated feature is 'laced with comedy'
the week recommends The film follows the relationship between a lonely dog and the robot he builds for company
By The Week UK Published
-
A Taste of Honey: 'wonderful' revival remains 'vital and relevant'
The Week Recommends The 'period-perfect' production features a 'universally excellent cast'
By The Week UK Published