‘She’s not a chef’: ‘With Love, Meghan’ director defends Meghan Markle after her cooking skills boil up backlash

The fifth Netflix project from Camp Sussex has certainly managed to pull in some healthy viewing figures, managing to climb to a spot in Netflix’s top 10. Despite the good numbers, many of those viewers were apparently less than pleased with the content within the show. With Love, Meghan has been bashed relentlessly this past week, with the biggest complaint being that it’s “boring.” 

Another huge complaint was the apparent inauthenticity of it all. For example,Her half-brother claimed that she had never cooked growing up and in an interview with TalkTV joked that the only realistic part was when she was preparing the bath salts.

With Love, Meghan‘s director has defended its star

Director Michael Steed, on the other hand, has claimed to be impressed with the duchess’s cooking skills. In an interview with People he claimed that they never wanted to make her come across as a chef, but rather someone who just loves cooking.

“Her cooking is pretty spot-on… She’s not a chef, and it’s definitely not meant to make it seem like she is, but there’s just a love of cooking that is palpable.”

He makes a good point. It’s ’s a little unfair on Meghan to be expecting Gordon Ramsay-levels of culinary knowledge on display, Markle’s abilities are just fine — you don’t have to be an expert in order to be a good cook. Of course, Meghan has touted her cooking abilities numerous times in the past — allegedly she approached a talent agent with hopes of starting a cooking show in the U.K. prior to her marriage to Harry. Markle had apparently claimed it was one of her ”special talents.”

But skill doesn’t matter. What matters most, at least to Steed, is the duchess’ apparent love for the craft, he claims that the show never tries to present her as some sort of culinary perfectionist, but rather, chooses to focus on the imperfections.

“For me, imperfection is a wonderful thing. It was fun watching her trying to get used to the kitchen, because it’s not her place, so we didn’t hide that fact, and she’s kind of walking and looking for things. I really wanted to embrace and celebrate all of the mistakes and mess and all that good stuff.”

Unfortunately for Steed, not everybody had as much fun watching Markle making mistakes and for all the hate watchers out there, it was just another reason to dislike the duchess. But it’s not over yet, as a second season has already been filmed and is set to drop on Netflix this Fall, will we see an improvement to Markle’s cooking skills? It’s unlikely, but we can live in hope.