Testing Grandmother's Cooking Claims

Aug 3, 2024

Lecture Notes: Testing Online Claims with Nana's Cooking

Overview

  • The idea of turning leftovers from a grandmother into a three-course meal at a restaurant.
  • A humorous take on whether the grandmother would recognize her own food.

Key Concepts

  • Fascination with Online Claims:
    • People often make bold claims online, particularly after sports events.
    • Examples of comments on social media where individuals boast about their skills, knowing they won't be fact-checked.

The Experiment

  • Identifying a Testable Claim:
    • A comment by a woman named Morgan suggested that her grandmother's cooking could rival restaurant quality.
    • Desire to test this claim by creating a fake restaurant experience.

Gathering Ingredients

  • Raid the Freezer:
    • Morgan agreed to let the presenter raid her grandmother's freezer (Nana Aileen) for cooking ingredients.
    • The freezer contained various unlabelled meals, making it a challenge to identify dishes.
    • Morgan's family had a method to identify food through smell ("pass and sniff").

Cooking Process

  • Preparation of Meals:
    • Meals included various types of Bolognese and mystery meats.
    • A plan was made to transform these leftovers into three high-quality dishes (starter, main, dessert).
    • Restaurant Setup:
      • The fake restaurant was set up at "Jones & Son", a popular East End restaurant.
    • Cooking Teams:
      • Help from chefs Ben and Kush from SortedFood to prepare dishes in under two hours.
      • Focus on creating restaurant-quality dishes from Nana Aileen's leftovers.

Serving the Food

  • Dish Presentation:
    • Starter: Tandoor-smoked chicken tikka pie, using Nana's chicken tikka masala.
    • Main: Slow cooked ragu of short-horned beef, disguised as Bolognese with crispy potato dumplings.
    • Dessert: Macerated summer berries with gelato custard, presented as a fancy dessert.
  • Nana's Reaction:
    • Nana Aileen enjoyed the food without realizing it was her own cooking until the big reveal.

Conclusion and Reveal

  • The Big Reveal:
    • After the meal, the presenter revealed everything eaten was from Nana Aileen's freezer.
    • Gifts for Nana included a £100 gift card to replenish her food and a dining experience at the Ritz.
    • A special cookbook was also presented, containing all the recipes she had made.

Final Thoughts

  • Encouragement for others to be cautious with their online bragging, as they might be put to the test.