Over the past 10 years we have seen how the fast-food revolution has damaged lives and created health problems all over the world.

Now a quiet revolution is taking place. A return to quality simple fresh foods grown locally and cooked in simple yet traditional recipes at home is now becoming the new trend. There have been many food revolutions but I believe this next one will be good for us all.

How did the simple art of home cooking become unfashionable?

The early 1970s saw a rise in the popularity of French cuisine. French cuisine was king and deemed the best. Traditional English and Irish cooks started to lose faith in their own traditional cultural recipes and French recipes began to take sway of the posh dining tables of the elite.

In the late 1980s fast-food began its strident march and spread like a wave to all western and newly wealthy countries bringing in its wake a host of diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes etc. Fast-food restaurants sprang up and the clean and colorfully packaged readymade food made mothers feel that their simple homemade recipes were slightly inferior. With the rise of the television food prepared by chefs suddenly became the in-thing and women began to think that they should be making unique creations with a plethora of ingredients from around the world for great taste. Cooking was no longer the enjoyable and homely activity that it was supposed to be; instead it became competitive, even impossible. Food does not have to be grand to be good.

I remember life on my grandparents’ farm in Ireland where they grew their own fruit and vegetables and kept chickens and cows. All the food was homemade from locally produced ingredients and it tasted delicious. Butter was made in the kitchen and bread was freshly baked everyday. My grandmother made her own yoghurt and butter.

Amazingly my grandmother also had 14 children. The food was delicious but it was simple. It was made from fresh ingredients and traditional recipes handed down from mother to daughter. I learned to cook from watching my grandmother make bread and then serve it fresh from the oven with homemade butter and honey. Farmers and butchers took pride in their work of rearing really healthy animals.

But over time local butchers, fishmongers, bakers and grocers were replaced by larger stores and supermarkets. Supermarkets were looking to buy meat and vegetables at the cheapest possible price and factory farming replaced good animal husbandry. In the past it was normal to cook food as it came into season but now we expect our supermarket to stock an astonishing variety of food, much of which has traveled thousands of miles and has been irradiated to keep it fresh.

Wouldn’t you rather buy a local tomato that has ripened in the sun at half the price of a well-traveled tomato picked green? As I look at the butter in my fridge I see it has come all the way from New Zealand. You have to wonder why we need to bring butter all the way from New Zealand because butter is so easy to make and you need only one ingredient: cream.

But thankfully, we have woken up. Buying cheap mass produced junk food is a phase that is on its way out. We have to remember that good quality local food is as good as anything that is being produced anywhere in the world.

Many people in Europe and America, especially in the countryside, want to buy direct from the source; the farmer or cheese maker. And farmers’ markets are becoming very popular: farmers who could not get a good price from the supermarkets are starting to sell directly to the consumer and customers are now looking for local well-made food.

People want food that looks like food. For example, cheeses locally produced in Somerset look like cheese. In the supermarket you can see cheese that has been texturized, homogenized, preserved and plasticized. People no longer want factory processed food. Small scale producers in the past lost out to factory processed food because it could be produced at low cost. But they are now returning to the time proven art of growing healthy food probably having realized that some skills need to be preserved.

It is very important that we teach the young the joy and art of cooking. Children need to be shown how to do it carefully and well. A home cooked meal contains one very vital ingredient: love. It is so much easier to make a successful cake if you are shown how to do it rather than trying to follow a recipe from a book.

It is also important to give little tips; like when serving little new potatoes, they could garnish them with fresh herbs such as mint or parsley to give them color, and a drizzle of olive oil for added taste.

Women generally do most of the family’s cooking and it is important to keep and pass on old recipes lest they are forgotten to inspire a new generation. It should be a mother’s mission to pass on food knowledge. If we do not show the young how to cook we are giving them the message that they do not need to bother to cook. Kitchens should be a happy peaceful place where we sit to eat and appreciate real food.

Join the new food revolution and be proud to cook simple traditional meals and most importantly preserve these skills.

Healthy Recipe of the Week

My Granny’s Irish Stew

Ingredients

• 8 large lamb cutlets bone removed

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 500g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

• 2 onions chopped and lightly fried in oil

• 150g carrots, chopped

• 2 leeks, sliced

• 50g pearl barley

• 750ml lamb stock

• ¼ of cabbage, sliced

• sea salt

• freshly ground pepper

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. In a large frying pan, heat a tablespoon of the oil over a moderate heat. Add the lamb cutlets, or for a boneless version, cut the eye of the meat from the bones, and fry until brown.

Remove the lamb and place in a large lidded casserole pan, cover with potatoes, onions, leeks, carrots, pearl barley and add seasoning. Add the stock and cook in the oven with the lid on for one hour. Add the cabbage and cook for a further hour adding more stock, if required. Serve piping hot from the oven alone or with rice. I hope you enjoy it!

— Ask Alva

I am a 26-year old, female. I have fine soft hair but since I moved to the Gulf, my hair has started falling every time I wash it. I am scared as my pony tail now looks so thin.

Could you please tell me what I have to do to stop this hair loss as I have tried many cures including putting bone marrow on my scalp but in vain. Amara

Many people notice increased hair fall at different times in their lives and it can be due to more than one reason. There is a natural hair cycle of growing, resting, and shedding. An average person loses up to 100 hairs from their scalp every day.

Hair fall can be due to hormonal changes, for example after giving birth.

Stress; water damage; medical scalp conditions like psoriasis, dandruff etc.; lack of nutritional supplements caused by a low protein diet; medical conditions; chemicals used to color the hair; even processes such as blow drying too often, curling or straightening the hair can all cause hair fall.

A healthy and clean scalp is a must for strong and healthy hair. Make sure you follow a healthy, protein-rich diet and make water your main drink of the day. Eating almonds is also good for your hair. Take daily exercise for a good circulation and to avoid stress.

— Alva

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