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Original poster

To think that Jamie Oliver lives in a parallel universe?

170 replies

iamthenewgirl · 21/12/2014 09:25

Have watched a few of his programmes over the last few days and I cannot help but think wtf?!

Every dish he makes seems to feed about 100 people. He's cooking a chicken kebab about the size of my leg at the moment. Shiny happy children gorging on massive pieces of chocolate cake. His perfect bloody house and his opinions on how we should all be shopping daily from the food market... Hmm

OP posts:
dementedma · 21/12/2014 10:26

The boy looks more like a girl than the girls do ....and I will now be slated by all the mums with long haired boys Grin

Meechimoo · 21/12/2014 11:02

I've met him. Lovely guy. Very down to earth and caring. Very good looking in the flesh too.

Methe · 21/12/2014 11:09

J O always gets a right slagging off on here but I think he's fantastic. I love his programmes and his books and recon he comes across as a nice enough bloke too.

He's my kind of cook - a bit of this and a splodge of that.

I can't bare Nigel Slater.. Like the way he talks about food but the way he handles it makes me was to beat him to death with a floury rolling pin.

SnookyPooky · 21/12/2014 11:14

I love Nigella but Jesus wept, who keeps chocolate buttons in a jar in their store cupboard?

Trills · 21/12/2014 11:16

It's quite a NICE parallel universe though.

I enjoy watching him have a nice time in his little universe.

GotToBeInItToWinIt · 21/12/2014 11:17

I love him. He's a bit of a plonker but he's completely sincere and his heart is in the right place. Surely most things you see on TV are a parallel universe to your own? I'd much rather watch a shiny, sparkly Jamie Oliver world than people screaming at each other and shagging each other's wives/husbands in soap land. Life is depressing enough.

500Decibels · 21/12/2014 11:21

I like him too. He's done some excellent work. He really wants people to eat better and all his recipes I've tried have been really good.

Hurr1cane · 21/12/2014 11:58

They all are aren't they, they say 'cook for a fiver' or something and then use about 10 different herbs and spices, because we all just have those lying around don't we?

limitedperiodonly · 21/12/2014 12:15

because we all just have those lying around don't we?

Actually, I do. But I take your point Hurr1cane. These things cost a lot of money. I recently ran out of a whole load of spices and herbs in one go - dried chillies, ground coriander, ground cumin, black peppercorns, turmeric, dried oregano, dried thyme etc so replaced them.

I made a special trip to a Chinese supermarket I knew did large bags reasonably cheaply. I confess I'm not the kind of person who bothers overmuch about spices going stale. Jamie does though.

It still cost £12. I've got that money but some people haven't. And they haven't got the money to spend on cooking and eating utensils or fuel to freeze and cook items. Or perhaps they live in shared accommodation where they don't have storage space and worry about theft.

I get it that Jamie's cookery shows are entertainment. I just wish he wouldn't shove his half-baked political and social views down my throat at the same time.

phlebasconsidered · 21/12/2014 12:28

I like it when Nigella does the "shopping" shots and interacts with real life. There was one when she was sat on a bus and she looked like she'd had to be drugged to do it. You could almost see her hovering over the seats rather than actually sit on them.

JO is know in this house as "Liver Lips" and Dh often remarks on how he should be stuck to a window with them to prevent him from ever opening his mouth again. I can tolerate him, but his cake recipes are shite. They never work properly, he's simply not accurate enough with quantities.

Nigel might be a a bit of a prissy pranny, but his sheer love of toast and potatoes, plus the easy way he writes, wins me over. His biography is quite funny. is Fast Food book is the one I go to.

limitedperiodonly · 21/12/2014 12:35

JO is know in this house as "Liver Lips" and Dh often remarks on how he should be stuck to a window with them.

Genius phlebaconsidered. Like a Garfield car-cat's rubber paw suckers.

And as your DH says, it would shut him up.

Perhaps we can leave him stuck to the window of an Iceland staring at us in horror while we buy Aunt Bessie things.

Though your DH has to volunteer to lick Jamie's lips first before affixing him to the window. Because I'm sure as hell not going to do it.

oswellkettleblack · 21/12/2014 12:39

He is personally responsible for all these restaurants now serving food on planks, slates, anything but a fucking plate.

AllOutOfNaiceHam · 21/12/2014 12:42

I like some of JO's tricks, like how to make mash more quickly, pressing garlic with the skin on, the common sense sort of stuff that I just wouldn't think of doing for some reason. And I like his cooking, and I'm quite jealous of his parallel universe and his kitchen.

I saw Nigella making "pav" last saturday on some show, and every time she opened her mouth I had to fight the urge to hit someone. Pretentiously knobby.

phlebasconsidered · 21/12/2014 12:46

Limitedperiod, I bet even Jools has to be drunk. Or looking at a bank balance behind his head. I would love to stick him to the window in Iceland or Lidl. I would stand in front of him with my cut-price bongos and fake Pringles, and yummy pies and do a little dance.

They really have got bongos on offer in Lidl this week.

oswell, agreed. I went out for our Xmas meal from work to a posh pub place, and the whole thing had been Olivered and Masterchefed. Stupid non-plates and a tuile on everything. And the yorkshire puddings were weeny.

PizzaLegs23 · 21/12/2014 12:46

Every time he says "wazz it up" when he puts food in the blender, my skin crawls. It makes me want to wazz his fingers off

GotToBeInItToWinIt · 21/12/2014 12:47

AllOut bloody pav gave me the rage! Had to switch it off.

GraysAnalogy · 21/12/2014 12:50

I will never forgive him for what happened to my beloved Turkey Twizzlers.

TheSpottedZebra · 21/12/2014 12:51

I like Jamie. He seems like a good bloke. I'm sure we don't agree re politics, but I don't think that that is reason to slag off his looks, suggest his wife is only with him for money, etc etc.

GraysAnalogy · 21/12/2014 12:51

Some of the comments of this thread are a bit harsh though. Liver lips? That's nice.

GraysAnalogy · 21/12/2014 12:51

x posts

Boomtownsurprise · 21/12/2014 12:53

The only thing that "gets on my norks" (marvellous phrase btw!) and it's a minor one, is that nigellas recipes don't work. Look nice. Never work.

I've managed with everyone else, even yottam ottolengi who can be very strange but hers are shite.

Still use my mums books from the 70s too!

TheSpottedZebra · 21/12/2014 12:53

(Oops, posted too quickly there...)

I think he's done more than many to democratise food and foodie culture. So I can forgive him the plank thing.

Re dirty food, he said at the time of Comfort, that he had wanted to do a veggie book/series, but it was deemed that it was not commercial enough so did comfort instead. He has lost weight tho, so maybe diet will be next, if it is deemed suitable for the masses?

TheSpottedZebra · 21/12/2014 12:54

Not dirty food. DIET FOOD!

JoanHickson · 21/12/2014 12:57

We make a joke of how much olive oil he can drench over a dish and his second favourite sneaking chillies into everything.

He was horrible to his Mum, on his bells programme putting her down and projecting his drink issues onto the poor Woman.

beavington · 21/12/2014 12:59

Why are people going on about his lips?

I like some jamie oliver recipes but havent tried too many as i try to cook with what i have in rather buy items from recipes and theres always something major that i dont already have in.

He does irritate me going on about knobs of butter and all that though.

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