On the subject of rice...
So first of all, she hasn't got a clue. Different types of rice have different properties. It's actually very helpful for literal food experts to explain that, rather than claiming everything is interchangeable...try making sushi with long grain rice and you'll have a sad little pile of grains and a couple of pieces of fish. And Jack, if your risotto is "soupy", you've put in too much liquid. Where I live, the cheapest and most readily available rice is short-grain. I don't try to make a pilaf from it, because much as I like pilaf, that's just not going to work well.
Think of potatoes: if you've ever tried to mash a waxy potato, or make salad from a floury one, you'll understand. And if you don't realise the reason behind that - because some bleeping idiot on Twitter is saying "everything is interchangeable!" - you may well lose confidence in the kitchen.
Secondly, dismissing all critics as "food snobs" is offensive and ignorant. Risotto is a word with a specific definition, and Italians (and food lovers everywhere) get pissed off by the misuse of the word to describe something that plainly is not risotto. Here, we get annoyed by British people who insist that chorizo belongs in paella. No. Just like if I, as a foreigner, share my recipe for traditional, authentic British fish & chips, based on a tin of tuna, British people would be deeply unimpressed.
The worst thing, though, is that Jack does exactly what she claims to hate. Remember the trifle incident? Jack made an entire Twitter thread sneering at other trifles, and insisting that the One True Trifle is whatever tit her dad dished up. You can't do that and then act like the Italians are unreasonable for defending risotto. You just can't.
PS one of my favourite cookery writers, Makiko Itoh, wrote this about rice. Look at the difference when you have someone who actually cares about their subject... https://justhungry.com/2007/01/looking_at_rice.html
So first of all, she hasn't got a clue. Different types of rice have different properties. It's actually very helpful for literal food experts to explain that, rather than claiming everything is interchangeable...try making sushi with long grain rice and you'll have a sad little pile of grains and a couple of pieces of fish. And Jack, if your risotto is "soupy", you've put in too much liquid. Where I live, the cheapest and most readily available rice is short-grain. I don't try to make a pilaf from it, because much as I like pilaf, that's just not going to work well.
Think of potatoes: if you've ever tried to mash a waxy potato, or make salad from a floury one, you'll understand. And if you don't realise the reason behind that - because some bleeping idiot on Twitter is saying "everything is interchangeable!" - you may well lose confidence in the kitchen.
Secondly, dismissing all critics as "food snobs" is offensive and ignorant. Risotto is a word with a specific definition, and Italians (and food lovers everywhere) get pissed off by the misuse of the word to describe something that plainly is not risotto. Here, we get annoyed by British people who insist that chorizo belongs in paella. No. Just like if I, as a foreigner, share my recipe for traditional, authentic British fish & chips, based on a tin of tuna, British people would be deeply unimpressed.
The worst thing, though, is that Jack does exactly what she claims to hate. Remember the trifle incident? Jack made an entire Twitter thread sneering at other trifles, and insisting that the One True Trifle is whatever tit her dad dished up. You can't do that and then act like the Italians are unreasonable for defending risotto. You just can't.
PS one of my favourite cookery writers, Makiko Itoh, wrote this about rice. Look at the difference when you have someone who actually cares about their subject... https://justhungry.com/2007/01/looking_at_rice.html