An Italian chef has weighed in on Brooklyn Beckham’s cooking skills, after the aspiring chef posted a photograph of himself making a pasta sauce with a rather unusual addition.
Beckham, 24, shared the picture on Instagram, which showed him cooking a pasta sauce with a red wine cork floating inside the pot alongside the other ingredients.
The bizarre cooking technique left many followers confused. Beckham later posted a screenshot of a Google result explaining the wine cork, with text that read: “The addition of wine corks added to the cooking liquid ensures a more tender dish.”
The sentence originates from an article on Naples Daily News, written by food columnist Doris Reynolds. She wrote that she had found recipes for cooking octopus that included wine corks.
“More research ensued and we found information that the addition of wine corks added to the cooking liquid ensured a more tender dish,” Reynolds said in her 2016 column.
“Experts have argued about this method but most chefs and those who regularly prepare squid and octopus swear that there are enzymes in the corks that insure a more palatable dish.”
But Italian chef Barbara Pollastrini has said that the cooking method will not do anything to tenderise meat.
She told Insider: “The problem is that people trust this food influencer and are without any knowledge.
“The only way to have a fantastic ragu is to cook it for at least three hours. This is the only way to have soft meat.”
She added that there is “no evidence” that cooking octopus with a wine cork makes any different to its texture either.
“The real reason the fishermen of the South put corks in their enormous pots where the octopus was cooked to be sold on the street is that the cork was attached to a string to which the octopus was tied while cooking,” Pollastrini explained.
Beckham has previously been criticised for his cooking choices during his journey towards becoming a professional chef, his latest in a string of career ventures.
Recently, he faced backlash for using truffle in another pasta dish, as truffle is a premium ingredient sold at high prices, and was accused of being “out of touch” with his followers.
