Married man and father cooks meal for family

In a remarkable victory of belief over ability, a Teeside man cooked a meal for his family on Saturday.

Speaking from his smoke-damaged council house, Bob Bramall, recounted the details of his culinary heroics. "Well, I'd read last week about a woman putting up a shelf and I'd thought I'd show that us lads can do stuff as well. Plus I was starving like."

Starving, indeed. Mrs Bramall had been stuck in traffic coming home from work, leaving Bob and his three children without their evening meal. When one of his children solemnly informed his that the last penguin biscuit had been consumed, Bob knew it was time to act.

After consultation with his hunger-panged progeny, Bob selected a mouth-watering menu of "chicken nuggets" with a side serving of "chips". The exercise got off to a promising start, with Bob successfully indentifying the freezer from the other kitchen appliances and after a brief tussle he was able to extract the required packages.

Things went slightly downhill though, when a tiny misinterpretation on Bob's part saw him put the oven chips into a conventional chip pan and then place the pan in the oven.

The resultant fire was later described by Bob as "not that bad really", though a neighbour thought it was more of "a blazing inferno". This was when Bob's true mettle began to show. A lesser man might have abandon the meal attempt at this point but not Bob. After the fire-crews had dampened it down, Bob made a truly heroic twenty-yard walk to the chip shop and purchased four fish suppers.

We caught up with a proud Mrs Bramall shortly after her arrival home. "I'm made up I am," she said, delightedly. "Bobs done us proud. All I have to do is repair the damage, repaint the kitchen, clean up the chip papers, cook my own tea and wash all the dishes, then the evenings me own".

Top TV chef, Arnold Smarm, was more circumspect in his praise. He pointed out that Bob had been lucky to survive such an advanced meal attempt uninjured. "I wouldn't recommend hot food for beginners. It's best to stick to non-cooking meals at first. Cheese would be a good starting point, or perhaps bread garnished with butter."

Wise words indeed, but sometimes it takes a man like kitchen pioneer Bob Bramall to remind us all of what we are capable of.