"they ate fast food and junk food but had splashed out of a plasma TV."

[ConfusedPixie]

This comment just came up on the radio news, supposedly said by Jamie Oliver about one of the families he was working with in his new TV show.

AIBU to wonder how the fuck what you eat relates to what TV you have?

Surely this just reinforces stereotypes of the people likely to have bad diets through lack of education on the matter? What a bullshit statement.

They became "food technology" and a waste of space!

I left school 14 years ago and didn't learn one useful recipe despite doing food tech through to GSCE level.

no, never.

beans on toast is a staple in our MC, Guardianista household, as are mash and frozen veg. I do have a bottle of balsamic vinegar, though I prefer salad cream, particularly on a jacket potato.

They do make soup later. The fruit lesson is the very first lesson at our school and they move on very quickly. What's sad is that they only get a term of cooking. That's it. In 5 years - a recent post Jamie Oliver campaign compulsory amount actually. The boys love it. As does the Tech teacher, and me when they offer me some to try after class!

I taught myself to cook.

My DS teacher was a right cow,everyone hated her.

She had no understanding how hard it was for some families to afford the ingredients.

I term of cooking in their whole school career and then we wonder why so many people are unable to cook? What hope is there really if they have parents who can't/won't cook and they get 10 weeks cooking time in their whole school career!

see home made soup brilliant lesson. but fruit salad no just no.

I can cook, I don't like cooking much though.

It's a chore for me.

Very true sirzy and the cost of supplying ingredients would most likely stop the families that need help in that area applying for the after school classes - vicious circle.

DD enjoys cooking and although she makes much more of a mess than I would like I'm still keen to get her going on the basics so she can confidently cook instead of me all the time in the future.

I'm not very knowledgable on benefits but am I right thinking there is a sure start payment available to new families (£150?) it would be helpful to supply a cooking basics starter kit of recipes and lists of store cupboard basics and utensils to get families started when they receive the funding, it wouldn't use up a lot to get the basics in.

Just a thought.

The problem with Jamie Oliver is that he's not banging on about everybody eating well.

For some reason Jamie Oliver is convinced that eating badly is a class thing and he likes making voyeuristic shows which essentially say 'Look at all these thick chavs being, lazy, fat and feckless, they spend all their money on iphones and feed their children crap'.

This is generally done so that people like many of those on this thread can clutch their pearls and tut whilst simultaneously feeling better that they only feed their children take away twice a week.

In reality there are people of all classes who eat shite and are fat. I mean, nobody is pointing the turkey twizzler of shame at Eric Pickles now are they?

But Jamie Oliver just has to turn it into a class thing. Because apparently if you are working class and fat you are a lazy ignorant sponger who won't cook nutritious food. If you're a middle class lard arse (e.g. Jamie Oliver) then it's simply middle aged spread or 'living well'.

Anyway, regardless the man's a tosser.

we had to provude ingredients when I was at school. we used to make fairly normal stuff.

Though once we made chilli con carn once. Total novelty in my house, t
it went down a treat, they then proceeded to gave it twice a week for 18 years, home ec therefore has it's draw backs...

I teach at a boys' school and until recently there was nowhere to teach cooking. Unfortunately I think it was pushed out of the curriculum at a time when everyone assumed it was a skill that would just get passed on.
A lot of our students love to cook. It was quite the trend a little while ago to do Come Dine With Me parties - they scored each other and everything!

Incidentally, it doesn't really matter what is cheaper, junk or healthy food.

Some people are always going to choose the unhealthy option no matter what class they are.

So why when you do it when your poor does it become a massive moral issue that shows how feckless you are?

he got picked up on being a tubster when he was in the states didn't he? Don't think he liked that much.

'I mean, nobody is pointing the turkey twizzler of shame at Eric Pickles now are they?'

I just spat tea over the keyboard.
I happen to know Mr Pickles has a big fryup of a morning in the HoC members cafeteria. I saw him once. The intern told me he's there every morning. You'd hardly know to look at him ;-)

I remember cookery classes at school and you'd see every kid including myself going home with half packets of this and that because you didn't use it all in the class. Even 20 something years ago I remember ingredients for cookery classes costing in excess of £5. For example, if you only need a tablespoon of curry powder in the recipe then why do 30plus kids all need to bring their own curry powder in.

Cant schools come up with a better system than this so every child doesn't go home with left over ingredients that many parents on the breadline can ill afford to buy. Surely a home economics teachers could manage to do a communal ingredient list so each child only needs to bring one or two individual ingredients

Sal, because people get defensive and choose to make it that way.

Or, ask parents for donation of £5/£10/£20 a term towards ingredients and then provide them. with a system whereby parents who can't afford it don't pay or just pay what they can afford.

That way there will never been children who can't cook because they haven't been able to get/have forgotten the ingredients.

I still think the goverment should provide money to cover it all but that is never going to happen

im not talking about creating balanced diets, i'm talking about average, able bodied parents of sound mind taking the initiative to learn the basics of how to cook meals that dont involve opening a box emptying it onto a tray and shoving it in the oven/microwave

I am a more than competent cook. I like cooking and I have the money to indulge my hobby and appetite.

If I had little money, I would be able to scale down my efforts to keep my belly from rumbling.

But it wouldn't be very interesting and I don't know what I'd do when the money ran out. I am not going to condemn people for eating cheap takeaways because they don't have the wherewithal to store and cook food or just because they prefer a kebab and chips over beans on toast.

It is obscene for a vastly rich man with a muddled political agenda about his perceived views on work ethic to lecture poor people about their habits yet again.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this is his lazy and offensive MO whenever he has a book and TV programme to flog.

Or can you refer me to something where Jamie Oliver has criticised the nutritional value of a constant diet of that middle class staple, pesto and pasta, or the folly of drinking merlot as opposed to a cup of tea?

She had no understanding how hard it was for some families to afford the ingredients.

Maybe that particular teacher was a cow, but in general I do think teachers understand how hard it it can be to afford ingredients for some families, but their hands are tied. They have a curriculum that they have to deliver, and they can't do that without the ingredients, which their school won't give them money for. So they either pay themselves, or they ask parents to provide for their own children.

Surely a home economics teachers could manage to do a communal ingredient list so each child only needs to bring one or two individual ingredients

Yes, they probably could, but there are reasons why they wouldn't. They often aren't paid for enough hours to coordinate and organise something like that for all their classes on top of the other work they have to do, and you would regularly end up with a whole class being unable to cook to the recipe because one child forgot/was unable to bring their item. Parents would be just as annoyed that their child was forced to rely on someone else be be able to cook properly as they are about having to provide so much in ingredients themselves.

Anyway, regardless the man's a tosser

Agree with the rest of your post too seasicksal

Yet again you've beaten me to it. Cow

btw what are you having to eat tonight? I'm having a little Thai-inspired dish involving chicken, basil and nam pla. And I'm going to eat it on my lap in front of the telly.

What SeaSickSal said.

actually, Jamie knows exactly how fattening wine is - when DH was at works drinks with him he was on the gin & tonic because his doctor had rapped his knuckles over his weight. Though DH just thought he was a really big bloke - not fat, just big. Huge forearms, nearly as big as Ray Mears'.

BrokenSunglasses it's not being defensive when the subject of the thread is a massively rich person who is saying that poor people spend all their money on plasma TVs and feed their kids shit.

As I said before he isn't having a go at Philip Green or Eric Pickles for spending their millions in a way that doesn't prioritze their waistline. Why are the poor the ones that are fair game?

Limited I hate to admit this but I'm having sirloin steak and salad.