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.

Honey, Boffin and Usual - a portrait

Pascha - I actually did an actual LoL at that

taps feet impatiently

Waits...

Jamie, id never watched any of your shows or bought any of your books before these mad threads came up on MN so it has at least shown me the excellent work you do. Fifteen in Cornwall is excellent. (Although has perhaps done to Watergate Bay what Rick Stein has done to Padstow and massively increased the traffic jammage by increasing the profile of such a small place!)

I have bookmarked your webpage of vegetarian recipes and will enjoy giving some of those a go. Id like to ask if you can do a vegetarian book or show please?

So I'm here and ready to go. Lovely to be on Mumsnet.

A lot of people on Mumsnet have asked about this so i hope goes some way in answering it. It's been a couple of noisy couple of days in the press with some comments from the interview I did with the Radio Times. There was one in particular talking about priorities - poverty & big screen TVs - that's the one that's probably divided people and annoyed people the most, and I guess if I'm really honest: if i'm sitting there doing a nice cosy interview with the Radio Times, I thought it was a real comment from observations that baffle me and things I've seen many times and I've talked to people who've discussed the same things. I guess it's just an opinion about how do you prioritise feeding your kids on the one hand and family lifestyle choices.

But to be honest i think it's fair to say it was a misguided generalisation from my part. Extreme poverty is incredibly complex and of course through a lot of the work that I do with 15 and various campaigns i've done, you dip in and out of seeing and observing stuff, but I apologise if it's upset anyone and it clearly divides people, the issue of what we choose to feed our kids will always be a source of debate.

has he decided to go home instead of doing the web chat?

ooops. Maybe the questions weren't quite as expected...

OI! JO! There are some nice ones around post 354!

Missing the point already then...

He's probably thinking where the bloody hell does he start as he thought he was coming on to talk about his book.....

Flipping heck - its taking a long time to type an explanation isnt it? By the way I don't think JO specifically commented on single mums did he?

@TeWiSavesTheDay

Hi Jamie.

It's the end of the week, I have blackberries from the garden, half a melon and some puff pastry plus usual general baking cupboard stuff. What can I make with the kids for pudding today that doesn't involve buying anything else and is safe for my lactose intolerant daughter?

First up thanks for giving me a really complicated brief. If you're lactose intolerant the puff pastry will be a problem unless it made with veg oil. I'll presume it is made with veg oil and a v simple and lovely desert is simply to roll out the puff pastry and make little cornish pasties with your blackberries, macerated in sugar, a tiny bit of herb, mint or basil sprinkled on top, a drop of elderflower cordial and a little drizzle of olive oil and the flavours that come out will be phenomenal and their fairly portable and they'll love them. On the melon, delicious and ripe, as it is is already good, or removing and skin and popping it in the freezer in chunks and then literally just whizzing it up in a food processor to make a refreshing sorbet, or lollies but fresh as it is is always brilliant. Sorry it's not more exciting but lactose intolerance must be a real grind for you. Hope that helps.

Has he got a book coming out?

Well flipping heck, talk about taking the wind out of our sails and charming us straight off. How on earth can we have a full on satisfying barny now?? He is being really quite nice and reasonable.

Hello Jamie.

Hides behind everyone.

But you DO understand that just because someone has a big TV, it's got nothing to do with how they feed their families? I have a big TV that we bought YEARS ago - before we separated and before I ended up on benefits. It would get nothing if sold, but provides cheap entertainment.

Stuff people have often means NOTHING. It's irrelevant.

That's wise, address it head-on first thing. Seems he's sticking by the original comment though.

What Boffers said

Jamie, how much do you pay your workers, and are they on zero hours contracts?

@Thaumatrope

Imagine your cupboard was bare, and you wanted to buy five brilliant flavour-giving ingredients that could be found cheaply and used in lots of meals.

Which five would you buy?

Thanks Thamumatrope, good question..!
Where would we be without olive oil? i think vinegar, probably balsamic, even cheap balsamic is still brilliant. You know me, chillies would have to be there, whether they're dried or in a paste or in oil form, it wouldn't really matter. Currently I'm having a bit of a love affair with cloves and fennel seeds, so I'm using them a lot in the cooking i'm doing at the moment.

Platitudes r us.

the issue of what we choose to feed our kids will always be a source of debate

Thanks Jamie, we'll give that a go the pastry is dairy free don't worry (and shop bought!)

Is your wife a mumsnetter Jamie?