Delia Smith has raved about a “sensational” fried jam sandwich she’s added to the menu at her Norwich City restaurant.
The legendary British chef, 82, admitted she was skeptical when she first saw the unusual sweet treat on offer at a chain of fish and chip shops in Norfolk.
Speak against The TelegraphDelia explained how she tried the divisive pudding at Eric’s Fish and Chips in the Georgian market town of Holt two years ago.
The sweet treat – which costs £5 – consists of two slices of white bread with Tiptree’s strawberry jam in the middle.
It is then put in the deep fryer before being rolled in sugar and served.
Pictured: Delia Smith pictured in April 2018 during the Sky Bet Championship match between Norwich City and Leeds United at Carrow Road
Pictured: The fried jam sandwich was developed five years ago by Eric Snaith. The legendary chef enjoyed them so much that she now serves them in her own restaurant in Norwich
Delia admitted she wasn’t sure she would like the dessert and said, “[It] sounded so improbable, but was sensational and very different from anything else.’
Eric Snaith – owner of the restaurant chain – said he came up with the “intriguing” pudding five years ago after remembering an old Scouts recipe for fried sandwiches.
When Delia entered their Holt store with friends, Eric said he “assumed she was just being nice” by ordering all the desserts on the menu.
He added, “It’s never been a big seller for us, but when people try it, they love it.”
Following this, Delia made several trips back to Holt and then invited Eric – who is a season ticket holder – to watch a Norwich City game from the director’s box.
The chef and her husband Michael Wynn-Jones have been joint majority shareholders in their beloved football club since 1997.
Moreover, Delia also has its own restaurant called Yellows Bar & Grill. Later she asked Eric if she could put his fried jam sandwiches on the menu there.
Although the chef thought it was “weird” to ask another restaurateur, Eric was flattered by the request.
Pictured: Eric Snaith outside one of his Eric’s Fish and Chips branches. He said he came up with the “intriguing” pudding five years ago after remembering an old Scouts recipe for fried sandwiches.
Talking to the BBCDelia added, “It was so great that we cheekily asked Eric if we could serve it at Yellows Bar and Grill to bring it to town and our customers, like us, love it.”
“The only way we can describe it is ‘think donut, but better’.
Delia announced her retirement from television in 2013, saying that while she’s not ruling out another gig, she feels “a little too old” to do more TV.
In an interview with Platinum magazine, Delia said that while she wasn’t bored with her career, she felt like after 50 years in the industry, all of her recipe ideas had run out.
“It wasn’t that I was bored with it, but I did feel like there was nothing left to give,” she said. “Honestly, when you’ve been making recipes for so many years, it’s all there.
Delia Smith, 82, has enjoyed a four-decade television career before she retired from television for good in 2013. The chef is pictured in 1971
“Recipes cost ten cents and I didn’t see the point of spending my life coming up with more.”
Delia released her first cookbook How to Cheat at Cooking in 1971 and became a household name with her TV cooking shows.
Since then, she has sold more than 21 million copies of her recipe books and her name has become synonymous with home cooking – featuring “Delia” in the Collins English Dictionary in 2001.
The devout Catholic and Norwich City shareholder was once considered so influential on the country’s taste buds that the term “the Delia Effect” appeared in the Collins English Dictionary in 2001 after sales of cranberries quadrupled the day after she featured them on television. used.
She was honored by the late Queen in 2017 and was awarded the Order of the Companions of Honor for her services to cooking.