Does anyone love Jamie Oliver's recipes but find him a bit odd?

[MrsKingfisher]

I'm sure he speaks very highly of me! I really enjoy his recipes but the more I see of him and Jools on tv I don't know he creeps me out a bit..can't put my finger on it. Anyone else?

[quote bettyskitchen]@Anordinarymum is that a new thread? Trying to find it.... 👀[/quote]
It was an AMA thread and only lasted for 30 days if I remember. Sorry.

Saw him at his first Big Festival in London a few years. I was standing near him with my son who was then a small child. You could tell from his interactions that the person he is on TV was not who he is in real life. He is definitely not Mr Cheeky-chappy everyone's friend. I did feel a bit sad at the time but I guess you don't become a multi-millionaire unless you are pretty tough and a bit ruthless. On the other hand I was in my local Waterstones a couple of weeks ago and I saw Richard Osman with his new book. I'm not sure if it was an official book signing but I think he was early and they were getting ready. He seemed so nice. He was really kind to all of the staff and one of the customers in the shop. I remember thinking what a lovely man.

I can’t stand his Lisp. Not exactly Mr. personality

I went to school with a relative of his... they are incredibly posh. It’s definitely a mockney accent!

'His sister's v well-spoken.' This doesn't mean anything. I have 3 dcs, grown up now. Two speak like me. The other one speaks SELondon Comprehensive, because he likes to fit in and fly under the radar. I'm from a working-class background but got a scholarship to a posh school and a posh university. I like to fit in, too, and quickly learned to adjust my vowels.

Not an expert of Essex-speak but I know Beth Rigby from Sky News has had a lot of flack for dropping her g's. Or droppin'. Grayson Perry is also from Essex. Does he speak Mockney?

I do think he is very talented though and think he has done a lot to educate young people in nutrition. He does seem to genuinely care. I would imagine as he employs a lot of people it must be pretty stressful. Maybe expectations to be a perfect human being are unreasonable.

I can’t stand his Lisp.

You don't like his speech impediment? That's a bit of a low blow.

Yes, it's definitely mockney. You can see how it's changed over the years. Some of the early clips of him at the River Cafe etc.

I don't mind him as a wannabe "get aht mah pub" pearly king, or as a chef. I love all cookery programmes and have all his books (and everyone else's)

I found the necessity to involve "Jools" especially in the early years tiresome. It was as if we were being presented with the first woman to have a working husband and a baby. And the cringy weird bit on the Italian show, where he tells us they've fallen out but he thinks she'll come over for his birthday and she doesn't, is embarrassing.

My main objection though is he's not averse to manipulating facts for his own ends. School meals...he comes to Italy. To Puglia. Visits a "primary school" (his words) and waggles turkey twizzlers at the cooks who run away screaming. He tells us how wonderful Italy is (again) and how "all food in Italian school kitchens has to be organic by law". As I am in Puglia, and had never heard of this wonderful law, I did some digging. No such law exists, or ever has. The "primary school" you could see the children were too young to be in primary (Italian primary begins in the Sept of the year you turn 6 and some of these kids were tiny) It was a private nursery he was in. So two omissions of the truth to big up his "British food is shit" stuff. That private nursery may well have insisted that its meals were organic (doubtful as 10-12 years later Italy is still not big on organic) but to infer that it was a state primary and that was the general quality of the food in schools was disingenuous at best and thinking ",nobody will find out" at worst.

I emailed him via his website but unsurprisingly never got an answer.

I find him immensely irritating. Those 15 and 30 minute books are the worst - I'm a pretty experienced cook and I'd struggle to make some of those recipes in the allotted time without generating a mountain of washing up or using pre-prepared (and more expensive) ingredients.

His heart was in the right place with the school meals campaign but he just ended up coming across as out of touch and patronising.

What really got my dander up was his Italian restaurants - over time the prices went up, the menus got weirder and the quality went down. For all their "ethical and artisanal" spiel, they were found to be using the same meat supplier as Weatherspoons. And when they went down the drain - as so many mediocre restaurant chains do - he blamed everyone and everything but himself, including the rise in the minimum wage. Not so ethical, if they're paying the bare minimum, were they? Of course, he wasn't paying himself NMW...

There are much better cooks and food writers out there to follow.

I find his recipes are easy and work, liked eating at his Italian chain and appreciate his efforts on social change. I don’t really watch cookery shows and am not massively into watching celeb interviews so haven’t really seen him talking about his personal life. If his persona didn’t appeal to me I def wouldn’t watch tho!

No, I'm not keen on him at all. I just can't put my finger on it. I just find him a bit irritating. It's almost like he has never grown up.

I love Tom Kerridge though.

I loved Gary Rhodes 🥰 and ainsley harriot!

His are the only cooking programmes I enjoy, and make me want to be in his family so he could cook for me all the time. I refuse to believe he's a rude got until I experience it for myself!

My toddler would live on his seven veg pasta sauce but I can't watch the guy in anything nor do I like any of his other recipes

My mum was a fan of James Martin till she met him at a book sighing, apparently he was extremely rude to her!
She won't have him on the tv now! 🤣

Can't believe anyone can abide him after his admission of rubbing his child's apple with a scotch bonnet chilli after she had been cheeky to him to punish her.

Making the pretence of giving your child food, having doctored it to make it inedible whilst looking normal is unequivocal child abuse.

Yet he thought he was hilarious. There were a few rumbles at the time but it seems forgotten about now. Not by me.

He irritates me and I don't like most of his recipes , however I admire his success and the effort & energy he has put into his career

@jeffgoldblumlovespenguins

My mum was a fan of James Martin till she met him at a book sighing, apparently he was extremely rude to her! She won't have him on the tv now! 🤣

James Martin is awful IRL!

Also I stayed at an airb&b which turned out to be owned by James Martin’s mum and there were huge photos of him EVERYWHERE

Was so weird

😱

I hate this type of Internet celebrity bashing. Would people be as unkind in real life? He's a person, with feelings the same as the rest of us. Remember Caroline Flack?
I can do without the 'halo' comments as well. It would only be further unnecessary unkindness.

Don't have an opinion on him one way or another as a person, but his fish pie recipe is a triumph.

Can't forgive him for ruining soft drinks though. I rarely drink squashes or fizzy drinks, but when I do I want a proper sweet variety as a treat and they are too bloody hard to find.

Did you know turkey twizzlers are back on sale?

@Londonmummy66

I find it a bit weird that the current show only involves the boys and one (silent) girl

The two older girls are teens. Not unusual for teens to not want to be on camera.