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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Entertainment
Karen Antcliff & Siobhan Macdonald

James Martin calls for ban on 'horrendous' cooking ingredient

Celebrity chef James Martin has spoken out against what he calls a 'horrendous' cooking ingredient - and it is a common ingredient most families will have in their fridge at one time or another. However, the TV chef believes the item 'should be banned'.

Calling the item a 'plastic-like' food, James reckons the item that is used throughout the UK on 'bake days' should be axed from shops. He adds that people just aren't aware of the 'dreadful' ingredients it contains.

The former BBC Saturday Kitchen star is known to championed the benefits of full-fat milk, cream and butter. However, it has become clear that margarine is not on his list of favoured ingredients.

READ MORE: Live Aldi Prime Hydration drinks updates as shoppers hit Nottingham shops

Not mincing his words, James said: "Margarine should be banned. It's dreadful, dreadful stuff, it's two elements away from plastic, it's horrendous stuff. It's the ready-made food, it's the packet food, the hidden salt, hidden fat. That's the problem in this country."

He explained: “I’m a farmer’s kid. We’ve always had full-fat milk, butter, and cream. And that’s what we had. There wasn’t such a thing as semi-skimmed milk in our house."

He continued, according to a report in Daily Record, saying: "That’s the problem in this country. It's not the butter in a butter block or butter you put on your toast. It's the fact that not as many people cook in the UK as they do in France or Italy or Spain."

A report in The Sunday Post went on to say that the chef continued: “I’d have buttered white sliced bread and mashed-up banana with a Cadbury Flake on it, press it down, wrap it in cling film. Then you get to lunchtime, and it would sort of look – when it was out the cling film – almost like a tennis ball. It would be all congealed together. But you managed to eat it. Nobody wanted to swap with me, but it was proper.”

James was the face of the BBC's Saturday Kitchen for 10 years before quitting to move to ITV. Since then, James has hosted James Martin's Saturday Morning since 2017 and celebrated its 200th episode in May 2022. He also presents James Martin's American Adventure and the similarly titled French Adventure.

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