Last nights cooking shows on BBC2 provided a wonderful contrast of styles.

The ever so slightly over complex science as espoused by Heston Blumenthal (he of The Fat Duck and weird flavour ice cream fame) and Rick Stein from Padstow and Food Heroes and the Keep it (reasonably) Simple Stupid school.

Heston was searching for the recipe for the perfect roast chicken.   Crispy skin on the outside yet moist and tender on the inside.   He blanched it, iced it, dried it, slow cooked it and incinerated it by accident in a bin full of fat in the car park.   I can't recall the final steps to perfection - I had lapsed into a coma.

Half an hour earlier Rick was scouring the UK for perfect fresh foodstuffs - and advising on the best way to cook them.   He covered turkey and chicken and showed us his way of cooking the perfect roast bird for Christmas.   Very nice too.

Then he shared Escoffier's recipe for chicken:

Place the chicken in a medium hot oven and roast until cooked.

Eat your heart out Heston.