What planet is Jamie Oliver on? £1

[BananaCocktails]

I just want to say I absolutely love Jamie, Oliver, and his cooking . watching
£1 wonders right now
he is using up some very expensive ingredients, 3/4 of a bar of butter isn’t budget friendly at all, if I had butter, I certainly wouldn’t be using almost all of it in one recipe it’s so expensive nowadays
he is also using olive oil, another very expensive ingredient
I feel like I’m moaning, but I went to Sainsbury’s today and spent almost £20 and bloody packed lunch alone for the kids. I absolutely hate margarine so bit the bullet and bought butter which was £2.60!

@IClaudine

Depends on the oven mine cooks really fast on one side as the thermostat is dodgy and fan gone (ordered new kitchen yesterday!)

£2 in sainsburys.

My Lidl receipt from yesterday. This is their deluxe butter with sea salt flakes, so their standard butter will be cheaper again

I like his £1 recipes, I can make my own substitutions if I need to according to cost and what's available. As someone said upthread, I am not on my uppers living from hand to mouth but appreciate some ideas for economical cooking that also uses less fuel. I think there are a lot of us like that - frugal but not starving. He can't please everyone.

@RosesAndHellebores , you mentioned minestrone earlier on, do you have a recipe please? Also can you elaborate on the gammon recipes, i love gammon but find it very dry.

@DespondentOizys let me have a think. I tend to cook by "touch, feel and smell" so would have idea of exact quantities.

I did a cordon bleu course in my late teens and can turn my hand to most things but am not a natural baker.

It's habitual to roll out a couple of economy dinners every week and I can usually "cook-up" an idea. My biggest shock has been oxtail @ £17.50 a kilo in waitrose!!!!!

He's another middle class boy whose start in the industry was given a leg up by family connections. Nothing unusual about that but the pretence otherwise along with all the faux budget programmes is going to attract criticism.

He doesn't have to get it right all the time but if you choose to make your name as "man of the people" doing tv series on cheap or speedy cooking and then produce undersized portions of food which can't be cooked in the time and requires a fully equipped kitchen and store cupboards full of ingredients.

But then budgeting and timing isn't his strong point is it? Some of the staff and suppliers left unpaid when he wound up his very mediocre restaurant chain with something like 70m debts (before the pandemic) could testify to that. I didn't notice him selling his sizeable mansion in Essex to make sure the minimum wage staff got paid.

What I think he was much better at was the basic celeb chef routine with the Jamie's Italian type series and books, which is where he made his money.

Thrifty, seasonal cooking is traditionally an area where women cooks excel (both amateur and professional). I'd like to see more of these women promoted rather than another celeb playing poor.

Will come.back tonight. Starting work now.

I’m not a Jamie Oliver fan in general, but people almost seem like they are watching to find something to complain about. A few months ago there was a thread about a Jamie Oliver show (which didn’t make any promises on cost) and people complained on MN the recipes were too expensive and he should do a budget meal show. And now he’s done that, people are complaining too. Jamie’s style from the start was to introduce new styles and flavours of cooking to a less confident home cook. He’s not a liver and onions type of cook and that’s ok. He tends to go for bold and fresh flavours, which does need lemon juice and fresh herbs. I haven’t seen the show, but nothing mentioned on this thread is obscure or difficult to find. They sell shallots, spices and fresh herbs at my local Lidl.

And extra virgin olive oil is perfectly temperature stable. It smokes at a lower point than other oils, but when analysed it breaks down less than other vegetable oils when heated to high temperatures. Olive oil is a healthy oil to be cooking with and good to recommend. If you can’t afford or don’t want to cook with EVOO then I’m sure most people can figure out they can substitute with whichever oil they do have.

Interesting as I love chicken liver pate!

I think he's entertaining and combines ingredients in an appetising way. I switched on just as he was cooking those flatbreads last night. Can anyone remember how he made them?

@C8H10N4O2

He's another middle class boy whose start in the industry was given a leg up by family connections. Nothing unusual about that but the pretence otherwise along with all the faux budget programmes is going to attract criticism.

It’s been nearly 30 years now he’s been on the scene. Isn’t it time to let this grudge go?

Glad I'm not the only one who thought this, my husband is not overweight in the slightest (slimmer than Jamie by far!) But he would laugh me out of the house if I offered him an 1/8 of a pizza! 😅

I don't bear a grudge that he used connections to get his start- plenty do that in the industry.
My point was that his claims and presentation to be otherwise along with his treatment of his own staff and suppliers makes that stance hypocritical .

The fact that his 20 minute meals and £1 meals are nothing of the sort is self evident.

We've got a Tom Kerridge recipe book sometimes the ingredients list doesn't even fit on 1 page! I'm too impatient and lose interest after about 8 ingredients but DH loves pottering about in the kitchen with a glass of wine, and listening to sport on the radio cooking and he has made some great recipes from there. (Not budget though)

Absolutely.

I am so over batch cooked, variations on a tomato/chilli/lentil theme.

It's good to be inspired sometimes and with a bit of advance planning and imagination I think his recipes are very do-able.

Although canned soups in a pie/sauce make me heave ... I do a Jo Wicks Pie like the one last night and the "sauce " element is a little flour to thicken, a glug of vermouth (cheaper than wine to cook with and keeps ages when open if you don't use it all for martinis) and a few scoops of crème fraiche - again keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks once opened or lovely on tinned fruit/puds).
Bloody lovely

Mix 250g self-raising flour with 150ml of cold water, 1 teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt to form a dough. Split the dough into 4 equal pieces, then roll into balls and stretch them with your hands or roll out with a rolling pin to about 1⁄2cm thick. Place a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat with 1 teaspoon of oil and, as it heats up, fry the reserved squash seeds until crispy, then remove to a bowl and sprinkle over a small pinch of salt. One at a time, cook the flatbreads in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until golden and puffed up. Wrap in a clean tea towel to keep warm.

I had issue with Jamie's 1 pot meals when in lieu of using lots of bowls and pans to wash up it seemed you'd have to virtually deep clean the kitchen afterwards. He should have done a follow up programme of 30 minute clear up and oven cleaning for people like my DH who overlook the chaos and debris they've left after preparing food 🤣🤣 the food looked really nice though!

The pizza served 2, not 8

In terms of time to cook his recipes - I think the first few times of trying anyones revipes will always take longer then you get into the swing of it.

Kitchen full of equipment - he's barely using any kit! Although I do covet his marble work surface. And I'm inspired to find a good quality chefs knife for DH birthday, reccommendations welcome

Lots of I ingredients - well I suppose if you've nothing in then yes it is lots. But in reality it's things most people have. Maybe not shallots I'll give you that.

Soaking it in milk is something that I have never done. I just wash it, and then season it. Coat it in flour, and then fry it. I prefer lambs calves liver. But it is more expensive.

"Our oven seal is fine and I agree with that post. Oven chips (either frozen or home made) take longer than 17 minutes. The only way they don't is if you like a floppy, pale travesty of a chip. I cook mine for at least 25 minutes."

Right. Well I like my food almost burnt. Still don't need 25 minutes 🤷🏻‍♀️

Some of these comments are just nasty. Jamie doesn't use onions at all because his wife can't tolerate them, doesn't mean you can't adjust a recipe from one to the other yourself.

His meals/recipes are tasty and made of actual food unlike Jack Monroe's and he's a fundamentally nice guy at heart. What he did for school dinners was admirable.

If you hate him that much, why are you watching?!

Yes I agree, his recipes work, although you can tweak them and I sometimes do. I’ve got a few of his books and use them regularly, although I probably use my Mary Berry ones more.
And I like that he’s prepared to stick his head above the parapet and speak out. He will say things that other “celebrity chefs” won’t.
He’s always been right about school dinners, despite what a lot of people on mumsnet say.

Thank you 🙏