Jamie Oliver webchat, Thursday 29 August, 2.45pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We're chuffed that Jamie Oliver is paying a return visit to Mumsnet this Thursday. His first MN webchat was back in 2010.

Jamie has a new book out, Save with Jamie: Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less (all subjects dear to MNers' hearts). It has 100 brand-new recipes designed to be accessible, reliable and, above all, affordable.

This is what Jamie says about his new book: "For years I have been telling people that if you look back through history, the best food in the world has always come from communities under massive financial pressure. But the proviso is that you MUST be able to cook! If you can't, and have no money, that is where the trouble starts. This is a cook book which, from start to finish has tasty recipes, all dedicated to great value, is a brilliant weapon to have on the shelf, and is relevant to every household. If you use this book the way it's intended, you should end up saving a wodge of cash from your wallet."

And to tie in with the book, he has a new six-part series on Channel 4 starting on Monday 2 Sept at 8pm.

Please post your question and join Jamie for a chat at 2.45pm on Thurs.

Do his kids ever refuse to eat the food he gives them, if so what techniques does he use to encourage them to eat them, and also to try new things?

Dear Jamie, what do you say to this blogger who took your advice and bought 25 mussels and 10 cherry tomatoes in the market and doubled her daily budget? I'm pretty sure she can cook...

www.northsouthfood.com/one-mangetout-at-a-time/

Hi Jamie

Your Ministry of Food book is simply one of the best I've ever used.The stew's are particularly brilliant!

My DS age 7 cooked a stew , a curry and the mince beef and onion pie, reading and following the recipes himself and just having a little help from me with chopping and handling hot stuff. He was so proud!

I would love to see a second Ministry book as I've cooked most of the recipes in the first one already! Any plans to write a second?

I live in Paris and do a lot of popping to my local market (almost daily, in fact) to buy fresh seasonal produce which I cook from scratch. We eat very healthily and my cooking skills are sufficiently developed that I can imagine a meal when I spot a special offer at the market.

The reality of my domestic catering arrangements is that we eat exceedingly well - but at a cost in both time and money that us right up at the luxury end of the spectrum. What is more, on my regular trips to the UK I find myself unable to produce meals of equivalent quality to those I produce in France - the range of fresh produce is not available.

I love my family's way if eating but I don't think it is easy for time and money pressed people in the UK to replicate and they shouldn't be berated for not managing to do so.

The equivalent to Jamie's mussels and tomatoes may be winkles with a nettle jus as the North East (where I am) equivalent. The long term problem with that plan is that there are so many working poor and the undeserving up here that soon there would be no winkles left on the rocks and we'll just have to eat nettles instead.

However, nettles and earthworms may be more sustainable long term. Maybe cut the price to nearly nothing by farming our own earthworms too. Can someone devise a recipe for that?

My 3 year old starts full time nursery next week. I can't afford to pay for school lunches, and will be making him a packed lunch. I'm already stuck for ideas for healthy, vegetarian, packed lunches - do you have any?

Jamie - don't ever loose your fighting spirit - OK?

Foodbanks - a local environmental group that I'm in is keen to work with our local Foodbank. Largely cos of storage problems, the foodbank only provides tins, cans and lots of sweet stuff. We want to encourage local growers and providers to help us supply the foodbank with fresh fruit, veg and herbs.

Do you have a connection with Foodbanks? Do you think that a next step, after providing the fresh stuff, might be cookery classes, sharing recipes, ideas, growing projects? In other words, not only providing good food but empowering people to use it well and creatively and to grow it, too?

Bit like your Pass It On campaign - which my kids and I signed up to many moons ago!

Jamie, I'd like to apologise for being part of a group of people that have posted such vitriolic, nasty bullshit on this thread. It's shameful. I like the work you have done, and I especially like a sausage meat pasta recipe you put in a magazine my Mum read years ago, and the lovely waiter in your Guildford Italian restaurant that let me see the pasta machine.

Anyway, I'd like you to answer the question about the 10 store cupboard essentials you would choose to make the widest variety of meals.

Good question broken sunglasses, I would like to see this question answered too

Hi Jamie
Thanks for joining us on mn. Your wife is a very famous sahm(stay-at-home-mum)-what do you think about the government putting pressure on parents to return to work asap? Thanks again.

Nothing more vitriolic than his own comments Broken. If he wants smiley happy 'Lurve you Jameee' comments only then he should go to Nethuns.

Dear Jamie, Can you recommend any cheap meal ideas for coeliacs? I cook from scratch, on a budget of £50 per week for the family. I generally make casserole, soup, or roast dinner. It's quite boring... But gluten free pasta etc. and gluten free flour are all pricey, and if I get gluten free things on prescription I need to pay the prescription charge - £7.85...

Thanks in advance!

I think instead of food banks, have a food hall where people can go and eat a meal that is healthy and cooked. Set them up at schools so working parents picking up after the after-school club can eat with their children - better still, get groups of parents to cook the meals together.

This shouldn't be seen as a way out of poverty, more as a sensible way for some people to have a good sociable meal. If they are one parent families or if Dad doesn't get home until bedtime anyway, this would be a good way around it.

School kitchens sit empty after 5pm - people could be cooking together in there rather than going home to scrape food out of a few tins they got from the food bank.

I loved the TV series (and have the book) Jamie Does: where you visited Spain, Italy, France etc.

Any plans to do anything similar?

I love foods from other countries- so find it all good watching/reading and of course eating.

Hello Jamie :) Your children are super adorable!

I am bored of potatoes. How can I make them interesting again?

I posted a question a few days ago. Just want to add today, to try and balance things out a bit by all the unpleasant posts, that I have made your veggie chilli today the one with sweet potatoes etc

It is absolutely delicious and cost about 2 euros to make. The most expensive thing was the coriander!

Thank you again for your great and healthy recipies.
Hope you and Jools are not put off mumsnet by some of these posts.

I watched the programme where Jamie went to Sweden, and it was bloody brilliant. He had me in stitches. His face was a picture when he was gearing up to eating the rotten fish, and it was very funny when he was coming up with excuses not to leap naked into the lake after the sauna with all the Swedish lovelies. He's at his best when he is doing that kind of telly, IMO.

Can anyone tell me how one of these webchat thingies work please? Is he just going to appear on this thread at 2.45 or do I have to look somewhere else?

He will appear at the time stated (probably). You stay on the thread and keep refreshing and the responses will appear in front of your eyes.

Hi Jamie,

I'd like to ask if using Sea Salt rather than ordinary cheap table salt really makes a difference to the end result.

Thanks.

Hello Jamie, what would you choose as your last supper please?

Love your books and TV shows

How can I feed my family of 4 - two adults & two children three square healthy meals a day, with a budget of £50 a week?

Afternoon, Mr O.
FWIW I have read your comments on UK diet, big TV etc and you are entirely correct. I think the vitriol from some of the posters here shows that you have hit a raw nerve!
I gather your wife is a SAHM, (I am too). What are your/her opinion on current government policy with regard to our dying breed?!

Size 8 working Mother here with good health and bank balance. I however care about those less advantaged and do not fight only the corner of self interest Fun.

Jamie, do you believe that all those who are appalled by your comments are only appalled because they are fat, lazy and feed their children on styrofoam chips? Or maybe that people like to advocate for others less advantaged?

Interesting also that of all the pro Jamie comments, nearly all are requests about what to cook. Maybe that is what you should stick to as clearly it is what you do best.