Jamie Oliver's 'jerk rice'

[PPPMA]

Jamie Oliver has been accused of cultural appropriation for calling a new product "punchy jerk rice".
The decision to label the microwavable rice "jerk" has been criticised, because the product doesn't contain many of the ingredients traditionally used in a Jamaican jerk marinade.

What we think of this?! As someone of Caribbean descent, who loves jerk, and raised an eyebrow when I looked at the ingredients, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow... not offended, just baffled!

AIBU to think that if you create something new, you call it something new...?

There really are bigger problems in this world right now 

I do also care about charity, closing down sweat shops, preventing child abuse, homelessness problems and many, many more issues. My greatest apologies for talking about something that isn't devastating, such as a natural disaster or war. I'll know not to dare talk about something so trivial in the future...

He's had a great deal of publicity out of this...

derxa I still don't think it's enough to make anyone buy it though

It’s just a bit embarrassing for him isn’t it? He shouldn’t pretend to know what he’s talking about when he has no clue.

I do know that from the ingredients list it’s a bit like putting egg fried rice in a package labelled ‘Lasagne.’

This.

Or chocolate mousse that’s actually strawberry.

Not sure about cultural appropriation, I’m not convinced it applies here, but it’s certainly mis-labelled.

We know there are bigger problems. Does that mean we can't talk about other things. Of course it doesn't!!

This is a classic August ‘silly season’ story. There is no real news, so the media have to manufacture ‘controversy’ to fill airtime and column inches.

But FFS, cooks and chefs and wanky pointless recipe book writers have been doing 'their own version' of international classics for aeons. They might or might not fall short of the mark, but why on earth is it suddenly so heinous?

Am I not allowed to make a vague stab at some tagliatelle carbonara, or a Thai green curry, without checking my bloody privilege and feeling obscurely guilty?

This bollocks is MADNESS, I tell you. And why is it deemed to be so offensive? And for that matter, why is that in itself an issue? I wouldn't go out of my way to offend someone, I'm mostly a nice person, but nobody has the right not to be offended.

I think it's clear (to most) that the issue isn't him cooking Caribbean food. Anyone is entitled to that! He owns a bloody Italian restaurant chain doesn't he? It's the fact that he has taken probably the most traditional Caribbean dish there is, completely removed the essential ingredients and decided to recreate it in order to profit. Why couldn't he have either used normal jerk ingredients or called it something else?

Ya know us Caribbeans are very protective over our Jerk Chicken! One cannot simply jerk rice

People are going to lose their shit when they realise he's not Italian.

(Credit to random Twitter user )

@GlomOfNit people of course should be able to make their own versions, but if you told me you were making me a carbonara and made me a bolognese, I would say 'that ain't a carbonara' !

I wondered how long it would be before the "don't you have bigger problems" posters popped up :o
Clearly everyone who is discussing this will spend tonight lying awake fretting about it.

If it’s not proper jerk chicken and it’s not good, it will fade into obscurity

Its not chicken (or in fact any kind of meat) at all. That's part of the issue - 'jerk' is a term specific to meat marinated
/ coated in specific spices and seasonings.

Using it in relation to rice which doesn't even contain all the correct spice and seasonings is wrong in all sorts of ways. Its just a cynical money-making ploy that is backfiring Higgins.

Much ado about nothing.

@Biggreygoose completely different though! He cooks Italian food as he is entitled to. He isn't claiming to be Italian.

Here, have a lemon drizzle cake

It's only a discussion it's only on mn that it will always turn in to an argument!

Using it in relation to rice which doesn't even contain all the correct spice and seasonings is wrong in all sorts of ways.

Sure, it's wrong in some ways and probably right in others (some people will like it, otherwise it wouldn't have passed through the test kitchen).

But it's not cultural appropriation, unless every chefs are generally guilty of CA.

unless all chefs are guilty of CA.

@StealthPolarBear

Here, have a lemon drizzle cake

Wat u did thar, i seed it!

Cultural appropriation is to profit either financially or otherwise from a culture which you don’t belong to and has suffered oppression or continues to.

So eating jambalaya = not CA

Liking kimonos = not CA

Buying said rice = not CA

White guy claiming to have invented jerk rice and profiting both financially and personally = CULTURAL APPROPRIATION.

It’s not that hard a concept to grasp and there’s literally thousands of articles explaining and discussing it.

Is he claiming to be Jamaican?

Just checked Twitter. A lot of stupid people on there who think the issue is that he's cooked a Caribbean dish and isn't Caribbean. It's quite funny how defensive some people get without understanding the issue

"Jerk rice... even I know that there's no such thing."

Actually if you search the internet for webpages from before one week ago, there are tons of recipes for "jerk rice." I have to wonder why everyone is attacking Jamie as though he's the one who's invented it. why not any of the 100s who have come before?

@Biggreygoose no?