Jack Monroe #137 NarcLife by Bootstrap Crook

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I want to compare Jack to Meera Sodha for a minute based on comments about the Linda Mc debacle. She isn't vegan or vegetarian, but she writes a vegan column in the Guardian and has written a couple of highly acclaimed books including East which I've been cooking my way through with fantastic results. Her insta is a delight; she's got a paid partnership with Ocado doing a vegan recipe which has over 39,600 views. I don't think I've ever seen anyone pick her apart or suggest to the Guardian or Ocado that they don't use her because she's not vegan (not saying they haven't) or complain about her. That's because she remains charming, professional, her recipes are delicious and they work and she's never published polemics saying that she's going vegan and that meat is full of violence. Her family were Ugandan Indians so I doubt she had an especially charmed early life. Anyway I highly recommend her body of work.
Just adding to the Meera fandom, East is an excellent cookbook for veggies (and anyone else). Personally I prefer her style of vegetarian cooking which is more focused on traditionally vegetarian cuisine that tastes really good rather than a bunch of disappointing meat substitutes
 
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It is a weird collection of groups who have cancelled her.
Far left
Far right
Chefs
Footballers
Vegans
Scottish Journalists
Us
Quite excited to see who she angers next. I'd like a surprise something like she's made the people of Nauru so angry with a slop recipe they've banned her from the country.
 
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One really awkward thing: go on the Linda McC twitter, and they're constantly engaging with people. Someone gave their sausage rolls an average review and they commented, "Thanks for trying them!"

This is a brand that clearly tries hard to engage in a positive and friendly way with customers, which makes the collab even more disastrous.
 
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Me too. Love her-she does a squash & sweetcorn curry that Iā€™ve made (didnā€™t have squash so just did sweetcorn)-the flavour was insane. I see Linda McCartneyā€™s also used avant garde vegan over on insta-there are so many brilliant young chefs around now-yet itā€™s the same old tit photographed on that sodding marble wrapping paper & dumped in one of her million bowls with Jack. Never looks good & Iā€™ve never had a decent recipe for jack (I bought veganish back when I didnā€™t know what a grifter she is).
Thanks for recommending the curry. Iā€™ve just Googled and it sounds delicious and easy. Going to make that next week for sure.

ā€œWhat are the dumplings made of?ā€ has had me laughing up a lung. The fact that the squiggles canā€™t even tell which bit is the LM product in that photo is hilarious. To be fair, those sausages look like theyā€™ve been warmed through on a radiator and really do look like dumplings.
 
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tbf the duck is really good and if she tries to ruin it I may have to have a massive hissy fit
You mean you're not excited for her 'Come to Bed Canard**'? 'A softy softy softly soft vegan duck breast, flambed in a cold pan with a sliver of atrociously light lard and six dinky cloves of garlic. It's served with seven times reheated curried vegetable fried rice. Serves twelve, or six flooflyflooflebots or one greedy goblin.

**hospital bed
 
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The more I think about the vegan thing...

If I were a vegan food company, I'd see two possible routes. Partner with an established vegan influencer OR if I were explicitly targeting "meat reducers", partner with an influencer who's doing Veganuary. This would potentially have a bit of relatable content too - I would expect them to go over what's easier or harder than they imagined, what challenges they've come up against, etc. At the end of the month a wrap up with lessons learned and so on.

Jack Monroe fits neither of those boxes. She's not a committed vegan, she's not vegan-curious, she's not even doing Veganuary. She was briefly the Most Vegan Vegan Ever To Have Veganed, then quietly ditched it, claiming veganism is a privilege, claiming her doctor told her to eat fish, etc. So she's pissed off the vegans.

But she also can't put up relatable content for "meat reducers", because if I'm finding Veganuary tough, I pop over to her page and she's cooking chicken! And cheap frozen chicken at that.

Maybe some of this could be forgiven if she made appetising meals? But her food looks utterly vile, and doesn't even showcase the product.

All in all, disaster. And that's without even getting into her lack of proofreading and generally slapdash work...
I think itā€™s the low welfare meat thatā€™s the killer. I think the ā€œmeat reducerā€ target market is likely to be people who eat meat occasionally and choose it carefully. They certainly wonā€™t be buying eyelid & hole sausages and are probably pretty repulsed by the idea.
I think it was also news to Linda McC that Jack was dropped by the actual Veganuary as an ambassador due to her stance on meat. That is NOT a good look for a Veganuary campaign, to put it mildly. Iā€™m sure she wouldnā€™t have got the gig if theyā€™d known that.
Also, if Linda McC want to tempt non-vegans to try their products (which presumably they do), they need to be posting recipes which look and sound appealing. Whereas Jackā€™s stuff pretty much always looks revolting. The sausage/kidney bean fiasco is a case in point. It looks like slurry.
I imagine itā€™s a 3-recipe deal so thereā€™s probably one more to come. After that I expect Linda McC will just allow this sorry episode to fade away.
 
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Yes.With Jack I don't think it's the fact she's not vegan or veggie that's making people angry but it's the way she jumped on veganism when it was having a bit of a moment only to dump it later. If she's been upfront from the start and said she wasn't vegan but enjoyed vegan cooking or was looking to cut back on meat there might be have been a bit of grumbling from the more purist online vegans but it wouldn't have gained any traction. It's partly the dishonesty and being taken for mugs by a bandwagon jumper that's the issue. That the recipes themselves look foul and almost no effort has been made just adds insult to injury.
Exactly. Sorry -- Yes, absolutely x

The balls of this article (and the hair - yikes!)

 
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I donā€™t know if this has been posted in these threads as Iā€™m not following religiously but thought it was typically whiney of her. From the Mother Pukka Insta account.
8886BA31-0C82-45C4-BB66-DEB985C876F7.jpeg
 
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Exactly. Sorry -- Yes, absolutely x

The balls of this article (and the hair - yikes!)

Yet no mention of Greek food. Not in the 'family dinners' reminiscing bit, not in the 'things I'm going to cook and buy now' bit.
Oh and black rice? A luxury? duck off, you were with Louisa then you stupid cow.
 
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