Whether it is out of pure passion or absolute necessity, in this time of self-quarantine, more and more people are cooking at home, and to help people save more time in the kitchen and spend more quality time with their families, Netflix serves up Nadiya's Time to Eat.
The show is hosted by Chef Nadiya Hussain, the season 6 winner of The Great British Bake-off. In each episode, Nadiya shares every trick in the cookbook, from re-purposing leftovers to using prepackaged ingredients to making extra and freezing it so short-on-time and stressed-out families can focus on family time and sitting at the table rather than slaving in the kitchen. She encourages overworked and overwhelmed moms and dads that there is no shame in using canned potatoes, frozen peas or bananas instead of apples, if it means feeding their families good food faster and having more time for more important things.
In co-production with the BBC, Netflix unwrapped all seven episodes of season 1 on Wednesday. Each episode, the exceptionally lovely and likeable Nadiya cooks up three impressive, yet easy-to-make dishes in her kitchen, revealing countless time-saving and stress-relieving kitchen hacks with each step, like adding hot water to beef jerky to re-hydrate and heat it. She is all about fast fare without compromising flavor. Beyond a basic stand-and-stir, she also visits the factories and farms to explore how some of her favorite shortcut ingredients are made, like syrup, yogurt and Marmite. In Dirty Jobs style, she works the line at Heinz factory canning baked beans, picks and packages mushrooms, and operates a crane at a salmon farm.
In the first episode, "Recipes in a Rush," she makes meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, like zesty marmalade haddock for dinner and peanut butter and jelly tray pancake for breakfast. For kids like hers who want pancakes for breakfast everyday, this oven-baked pancake recipe proved way easier than standing at the stove flipping flapjacks and allows for pancakes on a random Wednesday morning before school. At the conclusion of each recipe, large graphics display the prep and bake times, making it easy to follow along. Upon finishing her lunch recipe of crispy fried egg rolls with mushrooms and raving about her love of mushrooms, she visits a foodie funghi grower in Somerset, which produces 100,000 packages a day. After learning about the intensive growing process and struggling to pick and package them, she shares her homespun egg rolls with the workers. In addition to going to Somerset, Nadiya travels to Kent to assist Kim, a working mom, who is having a rough go of balancing her family life with her 9-to-5 job in London and launching a new business. Rather than relying on expensive precooked meals from the grocery store, Nadiya gives Kim a hands-on lesson in how to make customized, homemade instant noodle soups, which can be stored, cooked, and eaten in individualized mason jars. In other words, its easy for her and fun for her kids. The recipes in each episode are all connected via a theme such as, in the second episode, "Baking Made Easy." Nadiya focuses on sweet and savory baking and makes banana tatin, beef wellington and the easiest loaf of bread ever.
In the show open and official trailer released by Netflix on YouTube, Nadiya shares, “These days, we all seem to be rushed off of our feet. To be honest, cooking can sometimes feel like a chore that eats into quality time with the ones we love. But, no matter what I'm juggling, I still want to feed my family delicious food. So, to make more space for the things that really matter, I’ve stopped feeling guilty about taking shortcuts, and I’ve started to embrace every cheat in the book.”
Nadiya, who identifies as British Bangladeshi, whisked her way to fame in 2015, when she won season 6 of BBC's The Great British Bake-Off, which is also available on Netflix. The original airing of the season 6 finale episode in the UK was watched by nearly 15-million people, and Nadiya was by far the fan favorite. She amassed a large and loyal social media following, known as the "Nadiyators." Her fans not only responded to her showstopping desserts, but also her unforgettable facial expressions. Further, her appearance and success on the show was a key step in shifting stereotypes about the Muslim community in England and embracing cultural diversity. Following her win, she hosted BBC's travelogue The Chronicles of Nadiya, where she traveled to Bangladesh to explore her culture's culinary traditions, as well as Nadiya's Food Adventure and Nadiya's Family Favourites. In addition to her television success, she authored several books, including multiple cookbooks, children's books, an ongoing series of novels, and a memoir, entitled Finding My Voice, which tackles her heartbreaking experiences with abuse, anxiety, panic attacks and PTSD, along with her poetry and personal recipes. Beyond her culinary abilities, she is a proud representative of the British Muslim community and, in 2017, was named one of BBC News' 100 Women and Debrett's 500 most influential people in the UK. In 2018, Nadiya launched her own collection of home goods and cookware in collaboration with BlissHome.
Nadiya's Time To Eat mixes with the existing collection of culinary shows that Netflix offers, like Chef's Table, Ugly Delicious, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (which guest stars Seth Rogen and other celebs), and the more comedic Nailed It. Netflix's expanding library of feasts for the eyes helps keep people glued to Netflix, and (at least during a pandemic) keeps people cooking. A chef, wife, mother of three, and multi-hyphenate business woman, Nadiya knows about the struggles of juggling family life and maximizing the meaningful moments. With Netflix's airing of Nadiya's Time to Eat, U.S. audiences will not only have the opportunity to learn how she manages and makes the time, but also why she won over England.
Source: YouTube