Save our Chefs: supermarkets grab yet more

The supermarkets and food manufacturers are set to grab yet more of the UK food business, this time furthering their attack on the struggling hospitality sector. Another range of 'indulgent' ready meals has launched recently with promises of a 'restaurant quality experience at home'.

The company talks of its two 'kitchen sites' when in fact one is a 'food production campus' (according to its architect) in Somerset and the other a London outpost, 'Where chefs are busily rustling up cement-mixer-size vats of spiced chicken, salmon and bechamel sauce', according to The Guardian. Every dish is 'finished by hand', but have Chef hands been involved throughout its making, from the initial preparation of the ingredients onwards?

With the general growth in the ready meal market and its lists of set dishes, pretty soon we won't know what 'good' tastes like, or what it means to explore new tastes, new menus and shared dining experiences.

Independent Chefs are creative, spontaneous and well trained. They work hard to create dining delight. Lose them and, like all special trades, they are lost for ever. As with great musicians, there are a few celebrity Chefs and a few thousand hard working, skilled Chefs running amazing independent businesses. Good Chefs ask their guests, 'What did it taste like?' rather than promote how cheap a meal is, how fast you can microwave it, how convenient it is.

Bland 'supermarket dining' experiences drenched in advertising and smothered in marketing just don't cut it with me. Turn over the packet of many ready meals to see an extensive list of ingredients and a long shelf life. There is also often excessive packaging, despite environmental claims.

Sharing food that someone has prepared fresh and by hand, demonstrating their skills and careful thought about the menu, using truly sustainable natural ingredients is something to be cherished. It is not something to be brought down to the level of, and associated with, a plastic tray on a supermarket shelf.