“Butter is love. You don’t skimp on love.” A remark by Mojmir Šiftar on MasterChef that gave me pause. I watch MasterChef. Alongside Trezor, it’s the only programme I follow regularly. I’ll admit it, I find it interesting to watch contestants, who in most cases aren’t top-level chefs, create dishes and combine flavours. But one thing keeps surprising me. The amount of butter they use when cooking.
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Butter in the pan, butter in the sauce, butter in the mash. Just when I think there’s enough, they add another hefty knob. The judges are delighted. Because butter is love. And you don’t skimp on love. It makes me wonder whether there’s something I don’t fully understand. Has butter become a health food in recent years and did I somehow miss the news?
As far as I know, butter contains around 50 per cent saturated fat, excessive consumption of which raises LDL cholesterol and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. The World Health Organization recommends that saturated fats account for no more than ten per cent of daily energy intake. At an average daily calorie intake, 100 grams of butter exceeds that limit by more than twice.
Of course, I understand that MasterChef isn’t a programme about healthy eating. I understand that butter improves the flavour, texture and richness of a dish. But I’m still fascinated by how adding huge quantities of butter has become almost synonymous with fine dining. As if a dish simply can’t be good without an extra knob of butter.
On the one hand, we wonder at the rise in cardiovascular disease and discuss the importance of healthy eating, while on television we eagerly watch half a pack of butter disappear into mashed potato. But I’m vegan. So what would I know about butter, right?
Perhaps MasterChef should set a challenge in which contestants have to cook a top-level dish without butter and cream. Let’s see how much culinary creativity remains once the easiest shortcut to flavour is gone. Because if butter is love and you don’t skimp on love, then apparently you need to love your cardiologist very much too.