I don't know much about food, but I know what I dislike about the tyranny of good taste.
I know, for instance, that cheerios with lashings of tomato sauce will never reach the top of good-food lists written by rude foreign gastronomes who write the rules on these matters.
That's even if you call them finely boiled ground-meat ethnic smallgoods, individually wrapped in dark red tubular casing and served with a fine rich red tomato-based spicy sauce.
That's not good enough for some.
Those types will be quaffing a Spanish longaniza or vegan smallgoods made from tofu, seitan, nuts, pulses, mycoprotein and soya protein.
Either that, or they will be forcing down their gobs masses of organic vegetables they bought from a farmers' market because they like to eat locally, and most importantly, freshly, and they like to wear amusing woollen hats and grind their own coffee beans and talk about "whole foods" and only eat organic meat, and don't keep their noisy children under control, and ride bicycles slowly down the street so it's hard to pass them in your car, and they are doing that on purpose because they are feeling all holier than thou because of their reduced carbon footprint.
And don't get me started on the politics of red wine.
All of the above is why I generally keep away from cooking shows.
But this column is, if nothing else, diverse.
Therefore, this week, I bring you From Spain with Love, which premieres on the Food channel on September 28.
As with other programmes of its ilk, From Spain with Love delves into the world of nice food and fresh vegetables in other countries, items highly valued by people within the food culture.
From Spain with Love, which flickers into being at 7.30pm, is hosted by "gastro-nomad" Annie Sibonney.
Annie is, of course, a food writer and lauded expert on Spanish regional and haute cuisine, who has spent the past five years eating her way through Spain in search of the most memorable meals and ethereal culinary pleasures.
She appears to be Canadian.
Episode one follows the extremely energetic chef to the Basque region, where there are "more cooks per square yard than anywhere else on earth".
Despite the somewhat old-fashioned "no women" rule in the region's gastronomic societies, Annie gets a look from the inside, and oversees the creation of merluza en salsa verde, or hake with lots of garlic and parsley.
And there's more; in future episodes, Annie lurches from Spain's sun-drenched beaches to the rugged Pyrenees, and from the quaint fishing villages of Galicia to cosmopolitan Madrid.
Tasty fare for people who like eating, and not a cheerio in sight.
