Delia Smith, Author, Chef, and Witch
Delia Smith is a UK chef/personality, and yes, I had to wikipedia her as I had no clue who she was. The most notable part of the entry:
Her television series, Delia’s How to Cook (1998), reportedly led to a 10% rise in egg sales in Britain, and her use of ingredients (such as frozen mash, tinned minced beef and onions as used in her 2008 TV series), or utensils (such as an omelette pan), could cause sell-outs overnight. This phenomenon – the “Delia Effect” – was most recently seen in 2008 after her new book How not to Cheat at Cooking was published. Her fame has meant that her first name has become sufficient to identify her to the public, and the “Delia Effect” has become a commonly used phrase to describe a run on a previously poor-selling product as a result of a high-profile recommendation.[4]
She created a stir in 1998 when she taught viewers how to boil an egg. [5]
I know what you’re thinking, because I’m thinking it too – was she *naked* when she boiled said egg? Were other people naked? Was something really crazy going down?
Apparently not, she just has some crazy-witch-heathen power over viewers – and now she’s struck again, this time with RHUBARBS! She’s paired up with UK grocery store Waitrose, and the rest is history (according to The Telegraph):
She wrote of the recipe on the supermarket’s website: “Rhubarb is just coming into season and at its very best. I have to say that after 40 years of devising crumbles, tarts, trifles and other uses for rhubarb, this season’s offering has narrowly – but positively – claimed the top spot.”
That caused a particularly marked example of the ‘Delia effect’, with Waitrose selling enough of the plant for 61,000 desserts in four days alone, or the same quantity as it usually sells in 12 weeks.
British growers said they simply could not meet the spike in demand.
Much of Britain’s rhubarb is grown in a small area of West Yorkshire between Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds known as the ‘Rhubarb Triangle’.
Early in the year growers ‘force’ it by growing the plant in heated sheds, but there is limited capacity.
Janet Oldroyd, of the Yorkshire Rhubarb Growers’ Association, said this season’s crop had been delayed by cold weather.
She said: “I can’t understand why Waitrose has publicised this rhubarb recipe at a time when it is difficult getting both forced and outdoors-grown rhubarb in the UK.”
She claimed rhubarb treated with gibberellic acid, a naturally occurring and harmless protein used to stimulate growth, did not taste as good.
A Waitrose spokesman said that sales of rhubarb were “so extreme” following the recipe being published online that it had to source from abroad. She said that gibberellic acid made no difference to the taste.
All I can ascertain from this is that Delia Smith is using magic. Her blessing is akin to the Furbie-madness of yesteryear. And in this blessing, the rhubarbs irresponsibly get cursed. She is Mary Poppinsing all over rhubarbs and you never know what could be next… I wonder what she could do for the auto industry? What about publishing?