Jamie Oliver; Ministry of Food

ALIBOBSY

I also thought meatballs was a bit of a waste to learn, surely spag bol would be better, can be stretched further to cover more than one meal, and can easily be turned into chilli or the base for a shepherds pie. A much better rec. I also thought the salmon/tuna thing was a bit daft considering they are on a budget.
The original ministry of food was not just about cooking it involved budgeting and stretching your food resources. Hope this is addressed in later episodes.

ali x

recovering_spendaholic

I watched the programme last night and thought that Jamie Oliver was patronising and trying to do too much too quickly. He obviously loves, and is good at, cooking and so it is no problem for him to rustle up meatballs and spaghetti from scratch, but I don't think he had any idea how much of a stretch it would be for the people he was with on last night's show. I suspect that the house with the big cooker was rented so the cooker may have come with the kitchen. I also think that it can be relatively cheap to eat nothing but takeaways - particularly if you buy the really crappy stuff. In the chip shop nearest to my house you can buy chips and gravy or chips and cheese (or most revoltingly chips, cheese and gravy:eek: ) for £1 and I am sure that there are kids who share a portion of that each night between two or three of them, with the parents eating much the same. If they get free school dinners then the cost of food for the day is pretty low, and it is likely that alot of them don't eat any breakfast.

I think Jamie is well intentioned needs to consider a more staged approach. There is nothing wrong with an omelette, oven chips and peas - (it is certainly better than kebab, chips and cheese!) or boiled spaghetti with a jar of Dolmio type sauce. That surely would be easier to grasp than jumping right in with meatballs and salmon and not such a big leap. Also teaching them to cook value sausages and beans and mash or similar might have got a better response.

I think it is easy to be judgemental - those people's inability to cook and to feed their families in a healthy and cheap way is only a symptom of a much more deep seated disease IMO.

pinknfluffy

The lady with the children who ate off of the floor like animals had a partner who run a cafe why doesn't he step in and show her the basics, particularly if one or both of the children are his.

bravobeastie

lightisfading wrote: »

And later on in the programme she was in tears because she'd sold/pawned everything she could (bearing in mind what she was actually wearing might have been something emotionally precious, or not worth anything). As someone who grew up with mum going to the pawn shop on a regular basis (tried to hide it from me but I usually found out) this bit of the programme tugged my heart strings a bit

I can appreciate what you mean, but at that point of the show she said she has pawned everything she possibly can.

Now if you had a choice between feeding your children healthy nutritious food or wearing about 4 gold chains, 3 pairs of gold hoop earrings and rings that look so heavy i wondered how she picked her hand up, regardless of any emotional attachments to these things, i know which i would choose.

Perhaps they weren't worth anything (i very much doubt it, even if she got a £10 for the lot) get rid of the huge tv, buy a cheap second hand one, she has to make the repayments anyway regardless so get a cheap tv and stock the cupboards with whatever she gets for it or use it to make some payments on it until she's more financially settled.

MandyLou66

I too find it sad that people don't cook, I always included my 2 children when they were young, I don't think OH will ever forgive me for the amount of 'grey' cheese straws and jam tarts made from the left over pastry he had to eat when they were small!!
However its all paid off, DS is now chefing in an hotel and DD is a star at Uni cos she can do allsorts with a pound of mince!!

tramps

I thought the programme last night was brilliant i went to school in the 70s and learnt to cook there along with my mother always involved my children in cooking now DS19 would live on take aways while DS15 can cook pasta add tinned tuna and condensed soup and make himself a meal in minutes - 2 different children. Going back to schools and the lack of cookery lessons i think this is now beginning to show in the next generation ie mothers cant cook so cant teach the children.
I work with adults with learning difficulties and each week we cook a basic meal (this week chilli jack pots and salad followed by bannanas in custard) many of them live in care homes. One is doing an outside course on basic living ie shopping cooking etc he said to me yesterday whats the point in doing a cookery course when all we get in the care home is chips

johanne

i really enjoyed the programme... being 23 myself i was shocked to hear that these young women cant cook.... i have lived on my own since i was 19 and for some that time i was on benefits and never resorted to takeaways... infact they were a very very occasional treat!! Now we have one maybe once a week, but im hoping to cut them down.

I learnt to cook copying my mum.. when im moved out i bought basic cook books.. i watched tv programmes and most of all read here or googled stuff!

I am very surprised at number of people my age who cant cook though, I make my fiance homemade soup, cakes, biscuits pasta salads or "homemade" ready meals to take to work and all his team comment on how lucky he is apparently! Infact if i make cakes i have to send enough for the whole team!! :rotfl: :rotfl: His supervisor (who is in his late 40's) actually brought it up at his last work night out that i was "amazing" cos OH gets all this "fab food" and the supervisors wife sends him to work with a soggy pasty from greggs or tells him to go to the shop!

I was taught cookery in school but as people say it wasnt fantastic i can only remember doing, fruit salad, scones, pizza, spag bol and chicken casserole (both the later 2 using packs of colemans mix!).

I also told my little brother who is 16 to do "GCSE catering" when he picked his options 2 years ago he is not very academic and the other "technology" subjects didnt seem too useful. i think he got a D in the end but i told him learning to cook would be a life skill more than anything so even if didnt get the qualification when he left home at least he'd know how to cook... and its worked as hes actually pretty good at it! I will be teaching my DD to cook shes only 6 months now but LOVES watching me in the kitchen already when im making tea.

I picked up on one the mums say it was easier to throw a bag of crisps at her children if they were hungry or a choclate bar? Well what about giving them an apple, pear, tomato or carrot even? They dont even need unwrapping and a bag of value apples is cheaper than a multipack of chocolate bars!! Im sure children under a certain age qualify for vouchers for buying fruit and veg too... like milk tokens... i know they were around last year

johanne

Oh and btw i think the reason he did the meatballs is they are one of his recipes from the promtion he is running with sainsburys.. the "feed your family for a fiver"....

I noticed alot of the stuff he was using too was sainsburys (or branded). None of the value "basics" range either

suzywoozy_3

Mine children are all learning. The 12 year old can make a meal for everyone and follow pretty much any recipe and had the amounts for cakes and scones in her head. The 10 year old has this morning made cakes for herself to take out in the afternoon and a batch for a church tea this evening, with no help. The six year made a huge chocolate cake with me, was disgruntled when I insisted he also helped with the washing up but did it anyway. (i have taught the older ones that part of the cookinf experience is doing the dishes too and they now do it automatically) The 6 year old always eyes up the reduced shelf in the greengrocers, he knows I'll buy him something from there. When I left home I couldn't cook anything and knew nothing about budgetting, even though my mum did the oldstyle stuff I was never included. I'm sure my kids are going to be much better equipped than me.

Doom_and_Gloom

I've seen so many of you judge about the children sitting on the floor. I personaly do not see a problem with this. My parents only ever sort the big table out for Christmas dinner or other big celebrations.

On normal days when I was younger IF everyone was home to eat at the same time my parents would be on the big sofa with my sister on the single sofa with trays. I would have my tray on a wooden seat maybe or on the fireplace and I would sit on the floor with a pillow with the dog laying near me. As time went on we got more sofa space and I choose to stay on the floor to eat near the dog. It was what I was used to. Yes even some meals I ate with my hands and I still do. Some meals ARE hand meals in my veiw and I'm not very good with utensils as I'm kackhanded :rotfl: although can eat with them aswell. Does that mean some of you would judge me or say it was animal like as I was on the floor eating with my hands? I hope not.

We never ate at the table normally as I said already and alot of the time we didn't eat together as my dad works shifts and my sister is alot older than I am (5 and a half years) so would have it early or late etc but most of the time we had a home made meal. THAT is the most important part I feel. I have no problem with not eating at a table or eating as a family but a good home cooked meal most of the time IS a big deal.

As always this is my veiw.

D&G