Have you ever tried a recipe from a cooking show?

[Elawin]

I've cooked plenty of James Martin's and Nigel Slater's recipes; their recipes seem to work admirably. I have some of the Hairy Biker's recipes, mainly from their foreign tours, but I can't stand them - the thought of long hair hanging over food quite puts me off. My daughter is a Nigella fan.

 

[Elawin]

..... never ever use detergent on your wok - and I suppose the same thing would apply to your frying pan. you should only ever clean it with warm water. Detergent is the antithesis of flavour. So your pan might give of some smells of whatever you last used it for, that doesn't matter and is probably actually a virtuous thing. But using detergent won't just kill the smell of the last thing you cooked in it. It'll kill the flavour of the next several things you cook in it.

I've only ever washed my small frying pan twice since I bought it, and both times it was because something had been cooked in it which was very pungent and would kill whatever I cooked next. Even then, I've rinsed it out several times before using it again. Otherwise it is never washed but just given a quick wipe with kitchen towel. My friend said she should tell when I had been using it because it smelt like bacon, yet I've very rarely cooked bacon in it and only very occasionally have used oil in it, preferring to dry fry.