To think that Jamie Oliver is a Goady goady mc judgy pants personified!

[LEMisdisappointed]

judgey much?

It reads like a clip from the daily mail - actually, it probably is!

Now there are people, i have a friend who can make an amazing meal out of apparently nothing (she is italian though!) in ten minutes flat - although she has lots of those ingredients that are expensive to buy in the first place but go a long way,i would never know what to do with them!

I am such a boring cook, i have a small repertoire (sp) of meals that i cook - over and over again, the ingredients in my cupboard are basic because i can't afford capers and porcinni mushrooms etc. I rarely fall back on ready meals and feed my family healthily. But its boring really and i can understand why some people use ready meals - time, money - So yeah, making your own pizza will be cheaper than dominos or tesco fineset but it is not going to be cheaper than icelands £1 pizza is it? Not from scratch, not from the start - yes if you divide the amount of pizzas your flour, cheese, tomato sauce and anything else you want to put on it by 20 it might be cheaper but those ingredients have to be bought in the first place.

See, I would welcome cheap and easy ways to make my meals more exciting and thankfully we are not on the breadline this month, but im not going to watch that smug little bastard telling me how i can just knock out some pucker tucker out of a packet of anchovies and dust from the cupboard!

I have always thought him a smug twat - this confirms it!

You also just know that those who have a reliance on ding dinners, will also have a cupboard full of crap snacks because a ding dinner doesn't fill you up. And if you are going to buy a ding dinner you aren't going to be in the fruit aisle either

No, I don't know that. I'm sure it pleases people to think that from their marble plinths, but I don't know that.

I do know that apples are about 25p each unless you buy the golf-ball sized ones, and then the children need two each, so it's a false economy. Bananas have suddenly become cheaper than apples.

And since when are peppers a substitute for capers? Capers are salty. Button mushrooms are really not very nice (small and bland), though I would agree with finely chopped closed cup, or if you're feeling extravagant, flat mushrooms.

And while we're on food costs, the madness that is lemon curd. 3 different sorts of Tesco's brand lemon curd available (blue-stripe, regular, taste-the-difference), priced at 40p, £1.10, or £1.60. Either the 40p stuff has never actually seen a lemon, or the £1.60 stuff has booked an individual seat in business class for each lemon. Or it's possible that Tesco have one factory with three different labels and they hope people don't notice.

Honey is now a luxury item.

He's a twat.
I get my meat and veg from the market and my tins/dried pasta etc are ASDA smart price (delivered because taking 3 autistic kids to the supermarket isn't a good idea).

Yes I have a flat screen tv. My brother gave it to me when he upgraded to a 50 inch monstrosity.

Yes I have an iPhone. I've been with O2 since 19 hundred and frozen to death so it was a freebie.

Don't be fooled by 'appearances'.

I don't like his tone. And I don't think he would understand the poor in the UK if they bit him on the arse....

that but it is like most people who want to help the poor they have no clue

They are all hypocrites anyway, these sleb chefs - i followed stalked Greg Wallace around tescos once, while he "sourced" his ready meals for one!! i kid you not

I like him.

And I think he's right.

I've just eaten Ferro Roche cake for breakfast. Bet that would piss him off

I think he's right.

I think the next generation of parents are going to be much more competent home cooks.

Jamies' new programme sounds like it might actually be good - shame he had to demonise the people he is aiming it at and who will get the most benefit.

He possibly does have a point somewhere, but it is rather lost. I've never seen his 'crusade' programmes, and have no idea if they have been successful, but I'm wondering if he really manages to educate and convert his target market with such an attitude.

I'm not a fan of his anyway. I prefer Hugh F-W and Nigel Slater.

and it isnt even the poor it is ordinary people living their lives and dont give a shiney shite about whipping up something from cupboard dust some people just cook to feed their families at meal times, they dont have time ponce about with wooden chooping boards and mixing in herbs it isn't a crime to just cook the bloody dinner cos you are hungry

was it maybe weight watchers meal for one lem

LEM I know, I completely agree.

It's so patronising to those who are struggling. How does he know where the TV even came from?! Could have been a gift, won in a competition. I'm sure that's not the case all the time, but really who is he to judge?

When a family is on a very low income they don't have the money to buy a lot of different ingredients that will see them through the month.

Yes it would be much more economical in the long run to buy a 1kg bag of pasta and start a herb garden, but the initial outlaw is just far too much for some people.

*outlay

It may well work out cheaper to make your own pizza. But you're not factoring in the cost of your own time. If you can afford the time to do this, you're probably a SAHM with a husband who is meeting the household cost on his own. I'm aware I am generalising!!

he just wants to flog more 'simple meals in 15 mins' (provided you have a cupboard choc full of fancy herbs, spices, veg and meat) books

he is utterly removed from the reality of normal life and I can cook and I do

Being female I don't think it's just my responsibility mind

Anyone who suggests that you swap button mushrooms for porcini ones clearly does not know what they are talking about.

I loathe Jamie Oliver, very out of touch but too thick and arrogant to realise.

I think he does have a point, but when money is tight and your DC need feeding then it is a bit scary to try new recipes that could end up in the bin and wasting money . So you tend to stick to the same foods

It's not being a smug, judgey twat to think you can eat a better quality of food for the same outlay as "ready made crap".

Your choice though.

Does anyone here follow recipes though? I never do - i am firmly in the suck it out of my thumb camp. Its a bit of of a 50:50 thing in this house - if i could live on risotto i would. I have however never tried a porcini mushroom

He's right in what he is saying, but in my opinion it's the Government's and the schools' fault. Have any of you seen what they teach in 'Food Tech' these days? It isn't cooking meals. That's where it should be being addressed.

I can cook because my mother cooked and I learnt to do it at school. I, also, enjoy cooking, I enjoy getting recipe books, going through them and trying new things. I have a basic idea of what things cost so know a meal made of chicken thighs, tomatoes, onions, pasta and a few herbs will be tasty and cheaper than feeding four people processed ready meals. If you have only been fed processed ready meals the chances are you are going to follow suit.

It is education that is needed not Jamie Oliver, who I can not stand btw, preaching to people about eating shite yet having big teles. That is a sure fire way of putting people's backs up and losing the message before it has even got across.

why does everything on here revert back to "its sexist"??? he is correct and only because in most households the cooking falls to the females, and a lot of people dont know how to cook. I HAD to learn, not because i am rich, not because i am smug because my daughter is a kidney patient and cannot eat any processed foods, so i enrolled in a FREE class, and it snowballed from there. That was 15 years ago now, and have never had a ping meal in my life (pre children we were well enough off to eat out a lot and i was a crap cook) why do people get SO defensive and think he is patronising? people should be wanting to improve their lifestyles and those of their children

TBH i think jools has read a big telly thread and pointed it out to jamie and he has just run with it

So, should no-one come up with ideas to improve the nation's diet? Or is it just his manner?

I am eternally grateful to him for his school meals campaign. My primary now has a proper cook and absolutely delicious lunches.

The outlay if you want to go from microwave burgers to full on Nigel Slater would be enormous.

However most people can afford to choose very wisely and collect a few items for their store cupboard which will last for months. And it is just a fact that decent quick home cooked and tasty food can cost the same as junk food. Slow cooked home made food is even cheaper if cooked in bulk.

Let's not get all reactionary and assume he means every meal to be something from a Sunday supplement.