Jamie Oliver is a twat!!!

[MrsMertle]

Discuss......

Massive round of applause for solidgold - you tell them love!!

i dont like him tbh

he doesnt seem to have an appreciation of problems

he doesnt use accessible ingredients or start from the point of peoples familaiarity with food

Actually a friend of mine has been working on classes that teach cookery to adults (mainly aimed at mothers of young children) and she was telling me that there's so much stuff she had never thought of that has to be taken into account. Such as some people who are poor don't have fridges, so the amount of fresh food they can store is limited. And bedsits don't often have ovens so all cooking has to be done on two rings, etc.

and prepayment cards for gas and electric....etc etc etc. Being on benefits is utter crap. My husband and myself worked for over 60 years between us till he had a bad accident.....believe me it is no fun surviving on £125 per week for two adults and one child.

If someone is on income support they can apply for a budgeting loan which is intrest free. This loan can be used to purchase a fridge.

So I dont understand why someone wouldnt have a fridge

it is really hard

my dgs gets hoem at night and therss no elecgtricv

so firast thing is go and gwet a toekn from the corner shop

they dsmoke

and have take away pizza and stuff

and because they have no moiney they have tcik at the (expensive) corner shop

i still think dd2 does manage well but working long hours and always surviving is hard

On Incapacity benefit you dont get social loans, you have to pay some tax on your benefit and top up your rent and council tax. Believe me each day, each week is a sodding nightmare. We are not all scroungers...................

Well, even if you qualify for a social fund loan, you may have more pressing needs than a fridge. A bed, maybe? Or a major debt with a loan shark.
Agree wti hDittay: the Cooking In A Bedsitter book would be more use to the very poor than being told to hand-knit meatballs when they've never boiled an egg before.

I wasnt implying anyone was a scrounger but I find it really hard to believe that people in this country dont have fridges in this day and age.

Even a mini fridge which costs a tenner can hold a pint of milk, some butter, a few eggs even a small pack of salmon!

There are charites which help people in need by giving them free furniture and white goods.

i think a fridge with a freezer would work out cheaper

frozen veg is verey economical

and quick

he does come over as a ponce

I like some of the effort he makes, but have to say that when he came to my bookshop for a signing, he came across a s a twat. He fecked off as soon as he could, treated us like minions and just seemed arrogant. Jacqui Wilson, on the other hand, stayed long past her time so none of her fans were disappointed, and was lovely to one and all.

i think the problkem is he isnt really that astute or perceptive

He may not be astute or perceptive, but that's not the point is it? He's trying to make a difference which is laudable, as he did with 15 and school dinners. Lots of my students watched the School dinners episode where he demonstrated what went into a chicken nugget, and vowed not to eat them again, so that worked. It also had an impact in my school on healthier school dinners which has a knock on effect for behaviour in the classroom.

Also, given that lots of students are entitled free school meals, this may be their main cooked meal of the day, so it is important that it is a healthy balanced meal.

but butbitoffun you ARE minions

surely you were worign( indirectly) for him

i htink he didnt NEED to stand in skany rotherham kithcens did he?>

he could haev lounged in london
he raises his head above the parapet and look what happens

I think it's about priorities, tbh. And I see this, doing my job as a market researcher running focus groups with people upper, middle and lower class. Food is just much less important for some people - regardless of class.

We don't care about ingredients and where we come from. We're not prepared to spend more than about 20 minutes making meals, which means we rely more and more on convenience foods. And the more we do this, the less likely we are to be able to cook - therefore cooking anything takes even longer, so it's unlikely to happen.

And we would rather spend money on 'experiences' and 'saving time' so we go for the easy, microwave and/or take-away option. With only a nod to our health - buying 'lite' or 'low fat' or 'healthy options' foods, without having any real clue about what's in them to make them any healthier. In fact the reality is that many of these so-called foods aren't that healthy.

What Jamie is trying to do is inculcate an appreciation of the raw/component ingredients. I'm not sure why salmon and basil should seem so poncey to anyone here, as they have been staple ingredients in any supermarket for years now. And Sainsbury's basic salmon, responsibly sourced and an RSPCA Freedome food, is actually cheaper than buying chicken now.

How many people who are featured on programmes like this drive nice cars, have lovely flat screen TVs, expensive trainers, holidays abroad, etc, etc? It's about their priorities, and food isn't one of them.

Jamie for PM!!!

I think he's doing his best, from a rather clueless viewpoint. I think he's a decent bloke if a bit arrogant. But presumably his perceptions will alter as the series evolves?

Definitely would have made more sense to start by taking them to Lidl, buying a few store cupboard basics, showing them a week's simple menu plan versus the cost of a week's takeaways, and then teaching them. Really, really simple basics like baked spuds, boiled/scrambled eggs, porridge, sardines on toast. Probably wouldn't have made such good, chunter-inducing telly though.

Also, I do think the crux of it was when the woman said she gave her child crisps rather than cooking because it was easier - depressed, yes I'm sure she was - but I don't think Jamie has a hope in hell against that - he'd be fighting all the negatives of modern life there.

Soren - I still save butter wrappers! Was taught it at school

Have just remembered that I was convinced Jamie or Jools have looked in at mn when I saw him on JRoss last week, can't remember why.

Right - in for a penny, in for a pound- JO did not get where he is today by being thick. He knows exactly what he is doing and how he will get there, and I admire him for that. This will be a well planned piece of TV aiming to get the most publicty he can from being out spoken and getting them to cook the salmon and basil! The Daily Mail will have a field day - but the more people who hear about it the further this message will get spread. And the more extreme your starting point, the better your results appear!
And people shouldn't take offence at it being set in 'a Northern town'. It could be any city, town or village in the country and he is placing a mirror up to society and we don't like what we see. There are so many more issues behind this than just people can't cook. And that is where the problems lie because he is just trying to tackle the cooking bit but look how the kebab woman's (can't remember her name)confidence and self esteem rocketed with her sense of achievement - so maybe he can do it.

thought that was a good point he made, re the schools, hes right,most secondary schools have big kitchen classrooms,why cant the council/government open them up at night and run free cookery classes for people who want to learn?
got to be cheaper in the long run than all the money they spend tackling obesity.

dont know why gordon brown doesnt assign a dept/bod to work along side with jamie to get the country making healthier meals,he has a lot of clout. (jamie that is not gordon )

my DH has never attempted to make anything other than cheese on toast of pot noodles,but he said jamie inspired him last night and on saturday hes going to make the meatballs and spaghetti dish,so if you dont see me around for a while after .....

I like him. I think he is genuine.

Like cod says, no one is forcing him to do what he has tried to do wrt school meals, youth training and family eating.

It is absolutely shocking that people cannot or will not think about the food they give their children.

I enjoyed cooking before I had children - used to look forward to making interesting food and experimenting and spending ages. Now I have children and am doing family catering, it is not so much fun. I am going to make more of an effort to get dd involved though - I am guilty of using cooking as a means to have child-free time (when dh is around). And when dh not around, tend to be trying to do lots of things at once and dd is so slow!

I learned the basics of cooking from my mother. By osmosis really - she never set out to teach me, but I saw food in pans and stirred things and watched her cook (from scratch, everything). Then she had to go to work when my parents divorced, and that was the first time that we started to have more convenience foods, so I see his point about the impact that women working has had on diet and attitudes towards cooking. Even though women have always worked, usually people lived within proximity or even with, extended family, where a grandmother, aunt or older child would cook with whatever cheap and fresh (no refrigeration) ingredients were available.