Nigella Lawson faced ridicule by social media following her long-awaited comeback to television last night, following a rough couple of years that have seen her private life exposed to the world.

In her new BBC2 series ‘Simply Nigella’, whose first episode was broadcast on Monday night (November 2nd), the celebrity cook was accused of ‘playing it safe’ in her recipes and her tried-and-tested presentational methods of gentle, unsubtle innuendo.

Nigella LawsonNigella Lawson returned to British TV on Monday night

The 55 year old self-styled ‘domestic goddess’, who currently resides in Canada following a messy divorce from ex-husband Charles Saatchi, was mocked in particular for her recipe for avocado on toast. Twitter users seemed to be angry that it was, essentially, just an avocado mashed up and served on spelt bread.

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One viewer ridiculed the dish for being rather middle class and complicated for a breakfast item. “German bread? No. Avocado? No. Dill? No. Lime? No. Breakfast Radish? No. Frosties it is then.”

Much mirth was also triggered by Nigella’s time-honoured use of puns and double-entendre, as she came out with nuggets such as “hard for me to have lamb without cumin” and “I love having an implement in each hand.”

She said on Monday night’s program that was all about “recipes that relax and restore, uplift and enrich. I believe with all my heart that what and how we cook can make us feel better.” The kitchen queen has also recently done a brief media blitz in order to promote her new recipe book, which goes by the same name as the TV program.

Lawson has suffered some damage to her public image in the recent past. In May this year, her cooking competition ‘The Taste’ was cancelled by ABC in the United States because of a significant ratings drop in its third season. In November 2013, in the aftermath of her divorce from Saatchi (during which her ex-husband was photographed in public with his hands around her throat), two of her former assistants went on trial for fraud perpetuated with Lawson’s company’s credit cards.

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