Live Webchat with Jamie Oliver this Friday 15th October between 9 and 10 am.

[RachelMumsnet]

We're delighted to announce that Jamie Oliver will be joining us on Mumsnet on Friday 15th October for an early brunch between 9 and 10 am. Jamie's groundbreaking new book Jamie's 30 Minute Meals is now on sale and his TV series of the same name begins tonight on Channel 4 at 5.30pm and runs daily on week days for four weeks. Jamie needs no further introduction to Mumsnetters; you've discussed everything from his School Meals Campaign to his baby name choices. Now's your chance to put your questions to the man himself. If you can't join us next Friday, post your questions to Jamie in advance on this thread.

[BerryLellow]

Wow, he's brave!

Need to think of something constructive...

[Lavitabellissima]

Is Jools a secret mumsnetter?

I've always though she is, another mumsnetter has bear as a middle name for one of her boys thought maybe that's where she picked it up, or Bear Gryllis I suppose.

[BecauseImWorthIt]

I bet he's going to regret his reference to SWMNBN in today's G2!

[LowLevelWhingeing]

Yay Jamie! welcome to the Nest of Vipers!

Really think it's amazing how you have affected social change around healthy eating. Deeply impressive.

Of course, there's a long way to go, so what are your thoughts on where we go from here?

(Btw, the new book is ACE. Very inspiring for someone short on time and energy at the end of a working day. My kids are loving the whole serve yourself thing too.)

[greenlotus]

Hi Jamie

School meals are all well and good but I suspect my children (age 5 & 6) pick and choose from the menu (like they do at home) so they are not getting a balanced meal. For instance today my child says he ate only pasta, sweetcorn and sponge cake from a lovely menu (Leicestershire) with a choice of 3 main courses.

Now if they were at home I'd make them try a bit of everything and chivvy them into eating up their veg - you can hardly expect dinner ladies to do that with 100 kids. The menu is one thing but some of us like to know what our children have actually consumed. At least with packed lunch I can see what comes back in the box.

(Having said that we are all big fans especially of Jamie's Dinners which has a 100% success rate in this house).

[nickstermum]

Hurrah.... Jamie I think you are ACE... although the 'Bear' as a middle name is questionable... each to their own!!

Lovin' the Jamies America.... What inspired you to think you could change America and has change progressed more across schools nationally now?

[phipps]

I am out then so will ask now - do you support your babies head better when you carry him than you did on the first week of his birth; and what did you think of your spokesperson saying you have four children and know how to hold them properly?

[muggglewump]

Jamie, I love your MOF book and Jamie's dinners, I use them all the time.

Do you ever think that folk are put off when you/HFW and the like tell us to buy free range chicken, or buy tons of herbs for a dish, or only locally gown and such, when we all know you can afford it so it;s no hardship to you?

I do cook well, taught myself when DD was born but my budget is very limited. For this reason I prioritise home made, over anything else.
I don't worry about the provenance of the food, just that it's made from scratch so I know (as much as I can ) what is in it, and that DD is brought up around cooking and sees it as the norm, rather than ping dinners.

Would you say that was the right thing to do given the circumstances?

[sethstarkaddersmum]

Hi Jamie, we are big fans in my house (especially my 5yo dd who loves cooking and eating more than anything). The first time I ever roasted a chicken I used one of your recipes from The Naked Chef and my mum who is a pretty decent cook and has roasted 100s of chickens in her time thought it was better than hers - that gave me so much confidence, so thank you for that

My question is, have you ever thought about doing a cooking series for children?
At the moment CBeebies has the dire Big Cook Little Cook as well as the does-the-job-but-not-particularly-inspiring I Can Cook.
When you did those bits of cooking with kids on your Xmas programme last year they worked really well (specially the bit with the funny nephews).
At risk of sounding scarily overenthusiastic (and making everyone else throw up) there is NO tv chef who is as good as you are at getting people to want to cook, and you have a great rapport with kids, and surely the answer to Britain's eating problem is partly to get kids interested in food and keen on cooking?
Please do it!!!!!!

[sethstarkaddersmum]

....and I just told my 5yo dd who is called Laura what I have asked you and she also thinks you should do a series for children, and her question is:

'Do you teach your children to cook brilliant recipes?'

[jonicomelately]

Hello Jamie.

I have to say that I watched Jamie's America with a large degree of admiration. How you managed to win Rod the Dog around was amazing.

How is the girl who was very overweight and had been given seven years to live? I hope she managed to undo some of the damage.

By the way, went to your Liverpool restaurant the other day and it was lovely

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG........



Wow this is great i love Jamie! I really hope people don't bang on about his and Jools name choices its up to them at the end of the day....

Squee!!!!!!

[coolma]

Hey Jamie - I sent you an email a couple of weeks ago, asking if you might be interested in helping promote our social enterprise at Wintercomfort for the Homeless in Cambridge. Have you had any thoughts about that?

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

Oh bum i have just realised im not going to be here, DS is in hospital on Friday.

Ok Jamie i shall ask you now (and then fall over in delight if you answer)

Im am flabbergasted that people get right through to middle age without learing to cook at all and i totally don't get the whole 'i don't have time thing' so its great that you have brought out 30 minute meals.

My question is, was your 'pass it on' campaigne as sucsessful as you would have liked and if not why do you think that was?

Love your work, keep it up!

p.s - your Children are gorgeous! [samile]

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

Oh oh oh, also (sorry i know were only meant to ask one question!)

Jamie, my son has Cystic Fibrosis and is dependant on a high calorie diet, can you give me some ideas of things that are high calorie and high in fat but still contain plenty of nutrients and goodness please.

[AlgebraKnocksItUpANotchBAM]

Yay!

Jamie - is there any plan to have 'Jamie's Kitchen' type places around England? Please say yes! It would be amazing. I'd love to be able to get help and advice on feeding my family cheap healthy food.

And if the scheme did happen in the UK, how would you make sure the people who needed it the most would actually use it?

Loved the School Dinners series and the new American Revolution. It's a relief to see that somebody cares about the health if the nation's kids. :)

[Hulababy]

Ah - I am at work in the mornings!

I have the 30 minute meals book on my Christmas list - already have the rest :) - hoping for new inspiration for after work meals.

My 8y, Mollie, loves JO too and loves to cook, and has enjoyed many of the JO meals. She wants to ask:

What are your children's favourite meals?

[Hulababy]

sethstarkaddersmum Mon 11-Oct-10 17:03:56
....and I just told my 5yo dd who is called Laura what I have asked you and she also thinks you should do a series for children


Great idea - my DD would love that.

[midnightexpress]

Love the new book, Jamie! My mum is in the kitchen making the chicken pie as I write and the chicken satay was scrumptious, but 30 minutes...I think I would have a nervous breakdown if I tried to stick to the 30 minute rule.

Anyhoooo, my question: can you tell us a little about what your foundation is doing with schools and growing food? I love the Edible Schoolyard blog, and it would be so great to see schools like that in this country. So inspiring.

[midnightexpress]

Sorry, meant to link to the edible schoolyard.

[thereistheball]

Hi Jamie - firstly I'd like to congratulate you on all the different projects you've started to improve the world you find around you. Aside from being a great and inspiring cook, I think you deserve credit for tackling the school dinner problem, and for starting 15, and for trying to educate the nation about delicious, healthy food.

My question is about how your empire runs: how do you balance your interests in the books you write, the TV programmes you present and appear on, your two restaurant chains, the cookware you deseign, the magazine you publish, and so on. Running any of these is a full time job. How closely can you be involved with any one project?

[lizziemun]

Will miss you on Friday as have to be at dd1 school, but can I ask if you think that children (including Primary children) should have some form of cookery lessons.

Thankyou

[Pochard]

We enjoy lots of things from the Return of the Naked Chef and gobbled one of the receipes only this week. And congratulations on the birth of your son.

My question is: are you going transfer the very impressive and welcome success you had with campaigning for healthy school meals to hospital food for children, recently reported in the press as being also very unhealthy? (See Guardian 9 October for example)

[SanctiMoanyArse]

Dear Jamie

Congratulations on the birth of your son.

I hugely applaud the efforts you have made to fight for soemthing you beleive in- a trait I admire.

I only wish we were part of the school dinner rules, as my ds's are given such delights as hot dog and chips at their Welsh school but they now take sandwiches so that is solved at least.

When the campaign first started I wrote to you about children with autism who had really restricted diets (very common with autism) and for whom school had achieved real success in tiny, unimaginable baby steps and then the work had been undone becuase the special units were bing forced to cut their special diets out of the day. The rules were great for most chidlren, but there will always be exceptions.

I had a letter from a staff member saying 'all chidlren deserve a good diet'; well yes, that's what people were working towards, but if ti takes six months of feeding your child alternative foods on a crisp then telling them they must eat X and Y now won't cut it. Indeed, I had to get teh council to write in a statement (at a no doubt ridiculous staff cost) that my autistic son was indeed allowed to have squash becuase he has never and would never drink water- he simply spits it.

It's not a question, not really; just soemthing I always wanted to say in response to a pitiful reply really. Schools need to be able to combine an excellent diet as you promote with the needs of the few whose needs are different.