A seafood risotto recipe produced by celebrity cook Delia Smith as part of her completely impartial tie-up with Waitrose has been sharply criticised by those who have tried to cook it.

These include the team from BBC’s Watchdog, who pronounced it “disgusting” and “horrible” and consumer affairs journalist Harry Wallop, who noted in the Daily Telegraph that the ingredients, bought at Waitrose prices, cost £16, “congealed into a rather nasty and acrid, thick blob of rice, studded with rubbery bits of seafood”, and had his kitchen “smelling like a cheap Marseilles brothel”, a description for which those unfamiliar with such establishments will have to take Mr Wallop’s word.