Jamie Oliver; Ministry of Food

Julimk

In case anyone hasn’t seen it, Natasha says in this month’s Delicious magazine:

“Jamie made me realise that what I was eating was disgusting. When I knew I felt sick. My five-year old daughter Kiya had never touched lettuce in her life. Now she eats salmon, new potatoes, all sorts. Learning to cook has given me new confidence, new friends – and it’s saved me money”.

In the book JO does go back to the absolute basics like boiling an egg. He was on radio 2 at lunchtime & said that he didn’t necessarily start with the basics as he found that confidence grew faster when they were producing proper meals.

Also in the book, he says that he wrote the curry chapter with the common take-aways, realised it would be too daunting for novices, so re-wrote it using Pataks pastes, but has included his own recipes for the pastes for those who are more confident cooks.

Cinny91

i think I'm going to have to buy this book and put it away for when i move out!:rotfl:

Minerva69

Cinny91 wrote: »

i think I'm going to have to buy this book and put it away for when i move out!:rotfl:

It's £10 on Amazon at the moment I haven't had time to read all the posts here, but I'm a person who can't cook and I've found Jamie's programme really interesting. I can do basic stuff like pasta etc but I'd like to be able to do proper family meals that we can all eat. We don't have many takeaways but we do rely on processed food like sausages and fish fingers too much and I'd love to be able to cook my daughter proper home-made food. My husband has severe depression and I can't remember the last time he cooked, but even he was interested in Jamie's programme.

I went to a "posh" girls school 25 years ago and we did do home economics, but it was how to do things like fairy cakes and lemon curd, not proper food. We learnt how to do ironing but we didn't learn anything about nutrition! My Mum would never allow me to help her in the kitchen because she had (and still has) set ways about how things should be done so she wouldn't allow either me or my sister to help. My sister can't cook either.

I heard a little bit of Jamie on Radio 2 at lunchtime today and a lot of the people from Rotherham (including a councillor from the town) were complaining about how Jamie had portrayed them. Personally I'd be happy if he came round to my house and showed me how to cook!

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

Folks

Please don't make this personal. Most of this discussion is good, some salient points are being made. However it's starting to stray into territory where the Forum Team might need to start removing posts for the good of the thread. Let's not have to go down that route and take a slight step back.

Thanks.

Cinny91

Minerva69 wrote: »

It's £10 on Amazon at the moment we did do home economics, but it was how to do things like fairy cakes and lemon curd, not proper food.

I think I'll have to treat myself on payday. Jamies MOF is back on tomorrow, right? And I'm out! I'll have to catch up on 4OD thursday.

Minerva69 wrote: »

we did do home economics, but it was how to do things like fairy cakes and lemon curd, not proper food.

We spent hours designing soup labels in our lessons


I really could do with watching this, I'm great at baking, making juices and jellies but when it comes to proper cooking, I'm not very confident at all, I get all in a muddle and end up messing up big time.

LJM

I think it was very interesting to watch,i was shocked at some of it but i will be watching the rest of the series

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

There's not just knowing how to cook or budget (or deal with boyfriends who were presumably responsible for the cans of beer in the refrigerator) - the girl who is getting most of the stick here was the one I liked most as she obviously wanted to change - but really simple things were obviously not part of some of the other participants' education/upbringing. At least one of the females needed to be taught how to clean her kitchen floor and how to wash her own hair as well. I would rather she did that than tried to cook food in her kitchen with her own very dirty hands.

It appears that it is becoming necessary to add further instructions in recipe books - starting with 'wash your hands' and finishing with 'wash up the bowls.

I grew up in that sort of chaotic, dirty, house. The only difference is that we never had takeaways. We just went without (or went off and stole milk bottles and loaves of bread from doorsteps at dawn). There is no excuse for it - depression, illness, laziness, whatever - it is not fair on the kids who have to endure it. Just as there is no excuse for having fat children. Fat adults, fair enough - you want to do that, go ahead. But fat children is wrong. It's abuse as much as skinny starving children is wrong.

Grr! People need to be taught this in school in case parents are unable/unwilling/incapable of doing so. There is no point learning about the Tudors in school if a) they are going to be kept off because it's boring and mummy wants some company cos she's lonely at home with the babies and b) if the child is living in conditions as unhealthy as those of a Tudor period peasant.

And it is all very well getting on their high horses in Rotherham and saying 'not everyone is like that' because the tragedy is that a heck of a lot of people are. And they are the ones that needed help.

By the way, last time I looked, a kilo bag of salmon fillets was £4 in Sainsburys. A kilo of cheese is about £7 - £15. I'd say fish is a very, very cheap protein these days in comparison.

meester

Minerva69 wrote: »

It's £10 on Amazon at the moment

It'll be cheaper in a few months.

Personally I wouldn't buy any of Jamie's books, bought one from his last campaign, never touch it. All the recipes you could need are on the internet, the only cookery book I use is Cradle of Flavor, which is pretty esoteric.

I'd go for Delia over Jamie anyday though.

meester

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

By the way, last time I looked, a kilo bag of salmon fillets was £4 in Sainsburys. A kilo of cheese is about £7 - £15.

Really?

I just checked on http://www.sainsburys.com/groceries/frameset/navigation_frame.jsp

and two of the promoted items are

Save £2.04 was £3.99 now £1.95

Pilgrims Choice Medium Cheddar 370g
£1.95/unit


and

Save 79p was £2.79 now £2.00
Sainsbury's Mature Farmhouse Cheddar, So Organic 320g
£2.00/unit


Not the cheap and nasty stuff, and only £5.27/kg.


Sensible shopping involves buying what's seasonal and cheap, and what's on offer and cheap. Of course a bit of maths helps in comparison, but usually you can check on the shelf edge the comparative cost per kilo.

sandraroffey

the tragedy is that no one IS taught to cook any more. i am 61 and when i went to the senior school at 11 years old, cookery and housecraft was compulsory for every girl. (woodwork or metalwork for the boys). . and we were taught to cook for the next four years. my mum taught me also and when i was 11 i could do the whole sunday roast!! but then, so could most girls my age. every christmas from when i was 11, i made the christmas cake. i made all the sausage rolls and xmas biscuits etc., but it was nothing unusual then. no one cooks any more, (if the are under 35) and sadly, my youngest daughter i include in that category. my eldest daughter can make a feast out of nothing, but she is a lot older. the younger ones just dont want to know. 'oh i cant be ar**d, i'll get a takeout'. what she spends on take out for three for one meal, i could feed them all for a week.

bring back proper cookery lessons.xxxx