Jamie Oliver; Ministry of Food

betterlife

angelnikki, well said, i was brought up on home cooking and mostly do it for my family as i like to know exactly whats in my kids food, but i never knock anyone who does`nt , it can sometimes be very fustrating cooking from scratch especially when it goes wrong it goes from being a cheap meal to a waste of money. and if you have fussy kids it makes it hard, im lucky that my oh and kids love home cooked meals and they feel very lucky to recieve them, but it can be hard work, i have 4 children and with one being only 10wks it can be hard making big meat and veg pie (made today) from scratch one handed and a baby in the other arm lol x

calleyw

angelnikki wrote: »

I think everyone on here who is shocked that so many people dont know how to cook should join jamie in passing a recipe on to a neighbour / friend / family member / work colleague / etc. as I think its a great idea of his :T (shame about his choice of recipes though)

Unless the people want to cook there is no point passing on recipes not matter how easy.

Even the people who where working where going half hour is a long time to prepare a meal. I work 3 days a week and a carer (disabled husband) and have do all meal planning, prep and shopping and house work. And I spend approx £100 a month to feed two adults who virtually everyday get there 5 a day. And that covers all meals. Granted cooking is a chore but if I want to eat then I have to do it.

Jamie's approach is to simple to work. It needs to go beyond why they don't cook or can't cook.

Example with Tash she needs to be sat down and her budget gone through to show how much she could save by not eating takeways each night. It also needs to be shown to her what eating all takeways are doing to both her and her children. And then start showing her simple things e.g spag bog even if it uses jarred sauce. As that is start and a way to build on how easy it is to cook a simple meal that would take less time then going down to get a takeway.

Yours

Calley

Pippilongstocking

Hi all
Read the thing in the guardian on the plane (just work nothing exotic!) and tried to watch in on 4OD so will try again tonight.

It certainly sparked a healthy debate in our household - did anyone see the 'pass it on' thing on the website? Ie teach a couple folk to cook? Think thats a good idea. (I have a guy at work who can't cook so have offered to help him learn over the winter)

Made me really think, I am lucky I was shown how to cook (and I love food) so I am able to pass this on to my kids - both are keen to learn and aged 12 and 13 they are both pretty competent in the kitchen. I have been a single parent since my kids were 2 and 3, and left high and dry by my ex.

YOu can see how things are cyclical can't you? The article spoke about the mum's mohter not cooking etc and she's just passing that on, maybe this will break the cycle for her family. As parents we do have a responsibility to pass on cooking, money management, manners etc (well I think so) but I guess when folk are in the depths of debt and a culture where you aren't accepted unless you are dressed in labels, have the latest gadgets (god yeah would die for that cooker) and so on. I feel really sorry for them that they aren't able to express themselves as individuals and are 'sheep' instead of (in my opinion only) following the path laid out for them by a good level of proactive parenting (her mother is probably lovely with problems of her own).

Lots of us have had less than great upbringings (my parents fed me (and I learn to cook) but they beat me at the drop of a hat) - if I am honest when things get heated my first reaction inside is to break out and hit - but I don't I have broken that cycle for my kids - I am a single parent as well and we do struggle like most folk, so hopefully this programme will make some folk who aren't fortunate enought to be nutured as kids themselves to take a look and think ok - I will give my kids the skills they need to survive cooking, money sense, manners etc

Sorry on the moral high horse here - I can't imagine anything worse than folks actions continue a cycle thats got no where to go but down.

And not being able to cook, I would die! Food is the one delight in life I absolutely couldnt do without!!

Ps what I think I am saying is that (without being judgemental) we have a responsibility as parents to ensure we pass on valuable life skills, and for those who didn't get them we should help them as much as possible without judging them.

Welshwoofs

angelnikki wrote: »

I think it's sad that the people who had chosen to take part in this show have been put down on here. They have realised that they need to change and have started to do something about it. :T

You don't think some of them are on the show just because they wanted to be on the telly? People are more than happy to debase themselves in a myriad of ways if a TV camera is about.... just look at the Jeremy Kyle show

Beccah_3

Have to agree with so much that has already been said. Jamie's idea is a great one, he is trying to empower the people of Rotherham and to enable them to help each other. But I think he has mis-judged the scale of the problem, as others have mentioned, and needs to realise that he has to go right back and teach them life skills. Its all well and good to teach them a few recipies and that will no doubt give them some confidence and hopefully a spark of interest, but they need to be taught about the simple elements of meal planning, shopping for food and budgeting. Over the last two years I'v taken over those responsibilites for my family, after the death of my domestic goddess of a mother. Its a culture shock and everything becomes a learning experience, but if you put the effort in, you get soo much out of it. With a lot of the people in the show, there seemed to be such a deep-seated apathy and absence of a real commitment to change...those things need to be address before they can move forward.

Welshwoofs

angelnikki wrote: »

Maybe some are, who knows, but why dont we try and turn this into something positive instead of dwelling on the negatives eh?

Well the problem is, a program like that gives the impression that if you learn to cook a few meatballs, your life is going to magically change for the better. It isn't.

If the TV production company really wanted to change people's lives (and of course they don't, 'train wreck telly' gets higher ratings), they'd send these familes a whole range of experts to tackle everything from budgeting to parenting to time management. People's lives are like jigsaw puzzles, you can't just plonk one piece down and say "Ta daa!!!!! done" unless all the other pieces are also in place.

Not being negative... just realistic. I honestly hope the families do get something out of it but I think a holistic approach would have worked better than sending in one famous name.

nell2

Like so many others, I was heart-broken about the way that the people in the programme were eating and I also agree that the problems will not be resolved simply by teaching them to cook.
I just thought I'd report that I made Jamie's fish pie from the programme last night (there are lots of recipes on his website from the series) and jolly nice it was too. However, it certainly wasn't cheap to get the ingredients (fish pie is never going to be the cheapest option), and even though it was easy (things grated rather than chopped - but will chop the celery next time as it went 'stringy') it took about twenty minutes to constuct it, and I think that it might be rather too much for someone to think about doing if they've never cooked before. The finished result was nice and quite light though, and it was less time-consuming than poaching fish! Children loved it!

trying-very-trying

You can find his recipes from the programme here https://www.jamiesministryoffood.com/content/c4/recipes.html Sorry, can't do the little fancy links.
I think that most of the people on this site could tweak these recipes to make them a little bit less expensive. I think "the sun" newspaper was giving vouchers to get the dvds with the recipes and 2xcards, so that you could "Pass it on" to 2 of your friends.

soon2bjobless

Me and my 11 year old daughter have just watched this on 4 on demand - I was taught to cook by my mum and never had any problem and she has just started doing Home Ec at Secondary school but is still dying to have a go....

So - I have invited her wee pal over and on Tuesday I am going to show them how to make meatballs and the choc fudge cake from the website - start em young!

Craftyscholar

Delia got a lot of stick when she did her how to cook series but as she said it was aimed at people who didn't know how to cook an egg never mind follow a recipe.