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!

[Thaumatrope]

And I bloody hate this reactionary attitude to a herb garden, of all things.
You know what's nice? Herbs. They are cheap to grow, they just need watering, and manage with pretty poor soil. You can grow them in tin cans on a sunny windowsill. Seeds cost about 50p a packet from Lidl or Wilkos. Thyme is the most useful, probably. Oregano grows like a weed. If you grow winter savory, you'll use it all the time.
Of all the things to find poncy or patronising or annoying, I don't get this one. It's cheap and easy and really makes a difference.

[mrsjay]

you put that well TSC people buy and cook to eat it is their income and circumstances that dictate how people cook and eat and it is much more complex than nipping down to the local shops and picking up a handful of mushroom

[wordfactory]

That's an issue of confidence though isn't it TSC?

In Italy, a poor family, hell, any family, would invest in those ingredients knowing that they will rpovide several tasty meals which will be wolfed by all.

They know this because that's how their parents cooked and that's how their grandparents cooked.

[limitedperiodonly]

if anyone came round to mine for tea and started asking where I'd sourced ingredients they'd be sent to A&E with a note reading "can you source this fork?"

[Owllady]

there is never any acknowledgement that the reason poor people buy frozen and tinned foods is because of storage and the food not going off, so it's easier to plan ahead and know you are not going to run out

everytime I have been on the breadline the fear of 'running out' before pay day is petrifying and I will fully admit that I buy emergency foods like frozen pizza/fishfingers etc for those petrifying days and I cook lovely meals I just have no access to the bank of mum and dad and no access to credit. It's hardly rocket science is it

he looks like he needs to eat a bit healthily himself anyway from that photo

[wordfactory]

Thauma if you go to Naples (one of the poorest cities in Italy), everyone grows herbs on their window. No one would buy them!!!

But again, this is cultural.

[Thaumatrope]

Yup, it's cultural: that's why it bugs me that JO ? however much of a twat he comes across as ? gets a slating every time for trying to change food culture for the better for as many people as he can reach.

[Thaumatrope]

You are being done for that veg box. Mine is half that.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

Until I read the article I liked Jamie.

But the flat screen telly comment annoyed me. What does the telly have to do with food? He's just being bitchy.

[Thaumatrope]

Anyway porcini risotto and mange touts are straw men.
Other nice food is available
(Incidentally it's too late for this year, but mange touts grow like stink and are really productive: in a big bucket on the step with some canes for support and a bit of tying in: you can have them every night for a few weeks in summer.)

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Owllady I thought exactly the same maybe he needs to eat less turkey twizzlers but I thought it was too bitchy to say!!

[Owllady]

the reason he comes under scrutiny is because he isn't sensitive with his language, that may be because he is dyslexic, but as I am dyslexic myself I very much doubt it

also people do not like to be told what to do and they don't like being judged by someone who really doesn't have any idea. There are better ways to go about.

By using more empathetic and sympathetic language, a good drive towards teaching children from all backgrounds domestic science and budgeting at school would be a far more empathetic way of dealing with problems of people living off ready meals. Iceland do tray back ready meals, massive lasagne etc for £3.50. I don't buy them myself, but I wonder if you can cook one for that price? A pack of mince is £4, then you need stock, pasta, milk, flour, cheese, onions

I am not saying the ready meal is the best option, but I can see why people would choose that option knowing it's in the freezer for friday and isn't going to go off and everyone will get fed

[Bonsoir]

I don't particularly like Jamie Oliver. But he is right that people in the UK eat a vast quantity of truly terrible ready made and fast food. And that that sort of food is expensive and unhealthy. But convenient ...

[littlemisswise]

I can not remember the last time I saw a veg shop.

I would have to drive at least 25 miles to get to an Asian shop, so it would be an expensive "handful of this and handful of that"!

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

He's doing a webchat...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/1836958-Jamie-Oliver-webchat-Thursday-29-August-2-45pm

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Oops...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/1836958-Jamie-Oliver-webchat-Thursday-29-August-2-45pm

Yes, I live in London couldn't tell you the last to,e I saw a veg shop... Maybe 1997?

[Thaumatrope]

Owllady you are right about his attitude. He's letting himself down, really. (I just think it's a shame he also gets a kicking for things like using herbs or suggesting people have a couple of good things in the cupboard.)

Nobody could cook a good lasagne for £4 under normal conditions.
There is something very wrong with food production and distribution that it's even possible to find it in the shops.
However surely the point is that there are other meals which will fill up a family just as cheaply and more healthily? (Lasagne is pretty unhealthy.)

[wordfactory]

owl his manner lets him down, to be sure.

However, I'm convinced that however it was said, and whoever said it, people would still be utterly defensive and come up with a thousand and one reasons why anyone shouldn't change their eating habits.

We need to reverse/change our eating and cooking culture. But anyone suggesting this will be met with resistance.

[Tailtwister]

I think he's right to a certain extent, but he really has no idea of the reality a lot of people face.

In poorer areas there often isn't access to markets or even a decent supermarket in some cases. The local corner shop is where people buy food and they only have convenience foods. Many can't afford the bus fare to the supermarket and it's often impractical with young children in tow.

The fact is that yes, cooking from scratch is cheaper in the longer term. However, in the short term it isn't if you haven't got the equipment, knowledge, access to ingredients, even the money for extra electricity for cooking.

Jamie's not my favourite chef by any means, but he does try to change things. He just needs to delve a bit deeper into the real issues.

[Fillyjonk75]

Jack Monroe knocks him into a cocked hat. Can't wait to get her book. I hope they give her a TV show.

JO is trolling to promote his new "budget cooking" TV show. Think it has backfired though, I won't be watching. I don't think celeb chefs have a scooby about budgeting.

[pregnantpause]

What's the Telly got to do with it? Does anywhere sell fat tellys anymore? I haven't seen one for sale for a long time. having a flat screen TV is not a mark of misspent wealth. It's an indicator that it was bought in the last ten years.
I'm poor. I cook. It's not rocket science. I can see a place for ready meals though, and wouldn't judge anyone using them. yanbu, the message is a good one, and I think he has done some good with his celebrity, but more and more he'sjust an out of touch smug git.

[StanleyLambchop]

My mum was a brilliant cook, she taught me loads, I even passed an O level in cookery (back in the dark ages) but I hate & loathe cooking, so I will do anything to get out of it. My family seems healthy enough. Each to their own, Jamie does not make me feel guilty about my food choices. (Shrugs shoulders and wanders out of thread to assess the very poor selection of my 'store cupboard' essentials)