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.

[applauds Mignonette]

IvyKaty
Difficulty is getting workers in catering industry is nothing new. My brother has worked as a chef for over 20 years, and we have seen both sides - the staff often feck off to another job cause they are treated like shit.

Sometimes yes you are treated badly - I have also doing my years in pubs and hotels, but this is a decent boss in a nice area. I have what I consider an easy job now but my colleagues don't so ssh

I think though part of the problem with catering is that is is never considered as a trade or decent job, a bit like retails it is considered a bad career to enter at most levels.

if though you go to many countries in europe it is considered a good job to be in and ok to have as a carer.

I do think that needs to change, but whether it ever will I don't know?

My children really love your Young's frozen fish ready meals. Will you be adding to the range?

Tulane

Do you pay everyone that works for you at least a living wage?

Ivy katy I completely agree, I have had many parents call to say their child is ill or staff not coming in due to hangovers, I agree with some of Jamie's comments in regards to immigrants.

The real truth though is that hospitality and catering is one of the few industries that you can join at grass roots level, as say a KP (kitchen porter - pot washer) or a waitress and work your way up by hard work and learning on the job and end up in a senior kitchen position or management job with a decent salary.

I agree with BIWI and LOL LOL LOL at all the people piling onto this thread to justify why they have big tellies. Hilarious.

Where?
Sure you got the right thread?

It's more about the sweeping generalisations. Questioning abut JO's own staff pay and conditions. JO's previous associations with supermarket chains and ready meals manufacturers and how that might be a little hypocritical.

There was a bit about comments alluding to dv in the past, too.

Great post mignonette and i would like to back up her points as half my family is Italian. My mum was born and brought up in Naples in poverty and was working in fields by the time she was seven years old.
She came over here in 1960,married my British dad in 1963 and me and bro came along in the 70s.
My mum is a fantastic cook but when i was growing up she simply didnt have time to teach me a great deal.
Because she had to work 12 hr days in a poultry factory so we didnt lose our home even though Dad worked full time too as a site foreman.
And mignonette is bang on about the changes now happening in Italy. My aunts,uncle ,cousins have seen it first hand.

I wonder if Jamie thought the board would be full of questions such as: 'Hi, Jamie, I love your Ministry of Food book....any idea how to get my DC to eat more veggies?'

And the large amount of very old people living in and around my Father's town in France w/ badly bowed legs caused by Rickets when they were young. Back in the good old days of simple home cooking.

ivykaty In the interest of balance here is a copy and paste of something i wrote on another thread.

DarkesteyesWed 28-Aug-13 13:45:38

A couple of months ago there was an interview with a chef in Marie Claire. the way ppl are treated in some of these kitchens is appalling She talked about the time a co worker was deliberately burnt on the back with a hot palette knife.

Greythorne

Must have confused us with Netmums.

It's going to be like when Nick Clegg (remember him?) came on just after he had formed the coalition and expected us to keep to the topic he wanted to discuss.

Forgot to add My mum didnt really speak Italian directly to me and my brother when we were little and as we got a bit older she simply didnt have time to teach us the language.
My mums upbringing has left a its mark.
She is STILL working standing up in a poultry factory all day at the age of 77.
Because she has a terrible fear of poverty due to her experiences. That is why i become angry and upset when people attempt to romanticise these times. Post war Italy has left its legacy on my family and many others in lots of different ways. And most of it isnt good!

darkeyes - I have seen a few things in kitchens - fortunately not actual bodily harm and more of the plate throwing from chefs when they have lost their temper.

Did the chef being interviewed cause this burn to a co worker?

No she was a witness to the incident.

I am with Mignonette on all this. He obviously means well, but I don't think he's in touch with the real world any longer.

I think it's pretty easy for someone who grew up in a restaurant, and who is now a multi-millionaire, to lecture other people on how to eat, but his family always had access to wholesale bulk buy food and top quality ingredients, not to mention time on their hands and access to capital, that allowed them to run a pub and restaurant in Clavering.

I feel rather sad that this latest venture will further add to his coffers as well, while people are literally unable to afford a tin of tomatoes in some parts of the country. It's not that I envy him the money, but I genuinely do feel utterly frustrated that many of these very wealthy, uniquely privileged people fail to see any paradox whatsoever between their frequent TV appearances, engagement with advertisers, their profitable careers, and the very food poverty they are trying to address. It's all linked, people!

He is right on a lot of what he says, but the solution is so much more complex that the hidden agenda - 'it's the poor's own fault', is just not enough. Sorry Jamie. The real problem is a combination of ignorance, being knackered, limited funds, limited access to fresh food and social instability. That's why some people could only eat fish and chips and bought-in meat pies in the past, while others ate lobster, and why it happens now.

Darkest I am so sorry to hear that. Think Jamie owes you an answer. Seeing as he knows so much about Italy and all.

Hear hear boffinmum

Oh dear, I fear he will be roasted like one of his very own vegetables on here.

This is very appropriate for JO from Doctor Seuss- (Borrowed from another thread)

"Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot."

BTW when doing my blog I costed up a 1910 diet recommended in a school cookery book of the period aimed at the working class, and just the meat part of it would cost about £50 a week now, for a family of four, let alone the rest of it. Yet that is a period held up as a golden era, with mums at home busy preparing food all day and so on.

Jamie
How do you expect to help families that you have openly judged and condemned? You have added to the many privileged voices who take an anecdote and use it to reason that those most vulnerable in our society only have themselves to blame.

So will you be continuing this journey to 'help' families or move on to your next cookbook/ series tie in now you've openly talked about your ignorance when it comes to poverty?

Perhaps you could do a follow up at the many many local food banks that are possibly the closest to that idyllic local market you waxed so lyrical about. Our local market is full of chi chi jams at £5 a jar. Not a mange tout in sight.

BoffinMum are you the author of "Austerity Housekeeping?" I bought that and very reasonably-priced it was too.

I didn't know there was a blog as well. Reading now. Your Crisis Diet looks amazing but how sad it is that people have to cut back this much.

I would also be interested in the answer to how much Jamie spends on feeding his family and what percentage of his net weekly income it is.