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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to wonder if Jamie oliver has lost touch with reality

171 replies

ThatVikRinA22 · 14/05/2011 11:08

dont get me wrong, i am a massive fan of his 30 minute meals,

but last week i went to do the cod dish - £10.20 on the fish alone

just been to get meat to do the Sunday roast one - fillet of beef for 4 people would have been £20 for 4 people - for the meat alone

the woman in Tesco behind the fish counter said "he is a pain in the arse and thinks everyone is a millionaire".

a few weeks ago i would have said not, but looking at the prices for some of the meals....he argues that convenience food is just as expensive. it bleeding well is not! its not half as nice i admit but aibu in thinking that he has lost touch with what normal everyday people can afford?

OP posts:

LDNmummy · 14/05/2011 11:11

He lost touch a loooong time ago IMO. Never liked him much as a personality anyway.

NettoSuperstar · 14/05/2011 11:11

I love his MOF book, but think he's turned into a knobber since then.

I read on here once that he makes his 'people' have brainstorming sessions to attempt to get him a knighthood.

sparkle12mar08 · 14/05/2011 11:13

The thing is the book was never set up as a budget cook book. I don't think he's lost touch as such, but of course he moves in diffewrent circles. What I've taken from the book is mostly inspiration - that if you plan carefully and move quickly you really can have a three course meal on the table in 30 minutes. Really, you can. The Kinda Lemon Cheesecakes and the One Minute Berry Ice Cream are staples in our house now, as is his sweet potato feta chilli mash. And many of the drinks he suggests can be knocked up in seconds but make a really impressive treat at the table.

ZacharyQuack · 14/05/2011 11:13

I guess the problem is that cheap meat usually needs long slow cooking. And there's a limit to the number of things that can be cooked in 30 mins but are inexpensive. And he has a cookbook to fill.

BitOfFun · 14/05/2011 11:13

Really, Netto? That's hilarious

bronze · 14/05/2011 11:16

Must be true then

dawntigga · 14/05/2011 11:22

Thirty minute meals are for those times you need to whip up something spectacular quickly - it isn't every day eating. I don't know anyone who has 3 courses for normal food.

LovesTheRissottoTiggaxx

bustersmummy · 14/05/2011 11:23

I was wondering how Reality knew Jamie Oliver and how her other half felt about them losing touch......

SpringHeeledJack · 14/05/2011 11:24

'the woman in Tesco behind the fish counter said "he is a pain in the arse and thinks everyone is a millionaire"'

freeandhappy · 14/05/2011 11:25

You have a point. We love 30 min meals cook book. ESP my son and I really like to encourage him. The recipes are fab, easy to follow, delicious and quite quick. if you've done a wildly expensive and time consuming shop beforehand. But we are getting better at doing more nice fresh salsas homemade pesto the filo spinach pie. O god I'm drooling now.

BendyBob · 14/05/2011 11:27

I've thought the same esp when he uses expensive beef cooked v rare. Or duck breasts. That was one of his; I trotted out to get the things and pretty soon changed my mind.

Ok for a special meal for two, but 5 of us? Not likely.

TrillianAstra · 14/05/2011 11:29

Depends what you mean by "reality".

He is very much in touch with the reality that people will buy his books when they promise the moon on a stick.

AlpinePony · 14/05/2011 11:31

Use coley or pacific salmon.

Yab a little bit u. If you want to eat good food it costs, but you don't need to follow it to the absolute letter.

fatlazymummy · 14/05/2011 11:35

IMO jamie Oliver is a bit of a twat. Of course he is out of touch with reality.
I saw one of his recipes called for several different varieties of tomatoes, as if the average person has access to these. No most of us just have to buy what the supermarket sees fit to stock. I also tried to buy some of the fish he recommended, again not stocked by my local supermarket [incidentally the one he gets paid a fortune to promote].
If he really wants to encourage healthy eating and cooking within the population then he should try coming up with a few recipes that don't require gallons of olive oil and a long list of unobtainable ingredients.

MoreBeta · 14/05/2011 11:35

I taught myself to cook about 30 years ago when my Mum bought me Delia Smith's One is Fun! when I went to university. I have Jamie's book as well and comparing the two they do come from a totally different place.

Delia's book you really can do stuff in 30 minutes from fairly ordinary low cost store cupboard and a basic shop ingredients but wth Jamies book it always seems planning and shopping for ingredients is a lot more involved as freeandhappy says. I am not sure that ingredient preparation time is always really included in the 30 minutes either.

That said, I think he works incredibly hard and he deserves his success.

MoreBeta · 14/05/2011 11:37

I always cut back on the olive oil too. It is not totally necessary in most cases and would make me put on weight.

debka · 14/05/2011 11:40

Can't believe I'm saying this but YANBU.

I love Jamie but as others have said you really have to pick and choose his recipes. Agree that the sourcing of the ingredients can be a pain- we don't all have mates who are celebrity greengrocers at Borough Market and we don't all have allotments.

RossettiConfetti · 14/05/2011 11:45

We use this book a lot, but cherry pick from his recipes - we only eat meat 2-3 times a week anyway (cost and health reasons), so I'd often choose the veggie accompaniments/salads instead, mix and match from different recipes.

In Jamie's defence, he does write in the introduction to 30 Minute Meals that they are NOT budget recipes, and some ingredients are decidedly expensive and meant for a treat.

So YABU, I don't think he has necessarily lost touch with reality, it's just that this isn't an average weekly-food-shop kind of cook book.

PS, I agree that his (non alcoholic) drinks are great, always pretty cheap to make and lots of new ideas.

Itsjustafleshwound · 14/05/2011 11:45

His MOF book is a good one and gives lots of ideas to dolly up regular meals and ingredients that are in the cupboard.

Personally I find most cooking books by celebs out of touch - I think there is so much buying into the lifestyle and name that the good cooks who really know how to do it get overlooked ! The thing that really bugs me is when cooks really go all out to sell the lifestyle - witness JO cookware, GR cookware

I don't care that a meal takes 30 minutes to cook or that is is cooked up by JO (or one of his lackys) - is it affordable, is is tasty is my benchmark

microfight · 14/05/2011 11:49

YANBU
The one thing that I can't stand about Jamie's cooking is the amount of olive oil he pours over absolutely everything. I think if he was serving a bowl of olive oil he'd still garnish it with olive oil.

MoreBeta · 14/05/2011 11:49

I think part of the problem is that he is coming from a chef background and not a home cooking background.

I am going on a chef course in the summer and from the introductory reading I have done it clearly requires a totally different mindset frm home cooking. Chefs also have access to all sorts of specalist suppliers that ordinary domestic householders dont have. On top of that, London in itself is a special place with culinary ingredients there you just can't get out in the provinces.

It would make for a boring rather uninspring book though if all it contained was things you can make with mince.

freeandhappy · 14/05/2011 11:49

I did get a few cheapy but nice chopping boards for serving stuff up on tho. Looks nice on the table and we had much nicer than usual Easter Sunday dinner with lots of different stuff done by different sisters. And was fun making it. You can get alot of the stuff in lidl but all the fresh herbs my windowsill all covered with a load of dried up parsley chives and now the mint is dead.

BitOfFun · 14/05/2011 11:50

Microfight

Meglet · 14/05/2011 11:56

The problem is that celeb chefs haven't trudged round an average supermarket, with a strict (low) budget and possibly with children in tow. I'm not a bad cook, but with time / money / work / small kitchen / family constraints I am rather limited in what I can do.

He's good at what he does, and his hearts in the right place though, loved the school dinners and teaching people to cook campaigns. And I love his Italian cookboook

ashamedandconfused · 14/05/2011 12:07

I dont have any of his books or watch his recipe programmes but i still think JO is a saint for how he tackled school dinners, and also the chances he has given kids who would otherwise feel on the scrap heap at 16, through his various schemes.

I thought his school thing was a stupid idea, though, insulting to real teachers who deal with shit from kids day in day out

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