Jamie Oliver

Barbeduk

I love lentils!

lostinrates

Barbeduk wrote: »

I love lentils!

Me too:D

We don't eat quoin or any think like that, but a vegetable and lentil ' shepherdess pie is more popular here than an over stretched shepherds pie I find.

ash28

Barbeduk wrote: »

Interesting thread although (I hope you don't mind me saying) in my opinion people are taking things far too seriously! It is, after all, a cookery programme.

I watched, liked some of the ideas, might make a tweaked version of the fish pie. But do you think that maybe the programme has been over hyped, and that it was never meant to appeal to those on a budget budget, but those on a middle class budget. BUT look at the debt free wannabe threads and see how many people think a weekly takeaway is the norm (when in the name of glory did all that sort of behaviour start?). If some of them could discover 'cooking' is just bloody easy peasy, it would save them a fortune.

We did laugh and comment that the meals would go further if he added a handful of lentils or a can of budget mushy peas. But that's what you learn from experience innit. And honestly, I'm not willy waving cus I don't have one.:rotfl:

I'll be watching next week Jamie, and hoping for rubber chicken or rubber mince!:)

I think the show was very much aimed at the "squeezed middle", there's nothing wrong with that. And there are plenty of them. People who've lost child benefit because their income is above a certain level.....who have not had pay rises or have even had pay cuts.

The show is called Money Saving Meals.....and for some they will be money saving......and for others they will be the height of extravagance.....you know the old saying "you can please some of the people some of the time and.....".

Next week he is using pork shoulder.....our local butcher sells pork shoulder for under £4 a kilo and it's locally sourced......and you can buy a whole shoulder (around 5 - 6kgs) or a half shoulder.....or less. Apart from the main dish he makes dim sum and a meatloaf from it......

For us using left over meat for anything other than a sandwich or with a bit of chutney or maybe in a salad is pretty much a no go.....I don't like the taste of rehashed meat.....even chicken....I never make a chicken curry or stir fry from left over chicken - don't like the taste or texture of the meat. Not very MSE I know....

For me you have the likes of Jack Monroe on the one hand feeding an adult and young child a mainly (or an all) vegetarian diet on £10 a week and Jamie Oliver spending £14 or so on 2kg of brisket....and most of us fall somewhere in between.

AnnieO1234

"I think the show was very much aimed at the "squeezed middle", there's nothing wrong with that. And there are plenty of them. People who've lost child benefit because their income is above a certain level.....who have not had pay rises or have even had pay cuts."

I do agree Ash28 that the show is coming across as being the squeezed middle unfortunately it is JO in the build up to it that is making it about the "poor".

If consider myself middle class, in the last year I've started a business (my earnings far exceeding my salary expectations elsewhere) an my DH has received a patriarchal, promotion and further pay rise. We're really not the squeezed middle. My reason for starting this thread was that, despite what some PPs have said, I cannot stand hypocrisy of any shade and, for me, this show, its hype, and JO have been.

I firmly believe that the premise of the show is a good one, with or without Jamie, but it should have almost been less about the food and more about working things out rather than "here's my team of nutritionists etc".

I hope a TV company picks up on all these comments.

X

Any

kezlou wrote: »

Any i actually said the media portrays construction workies as being alcos. My partner saw the program and he was fuming himself. When he goes to work he has to deal with people complaining about how much plumbers charge and how they rolling in it. How they always think they in the pub boozing it up spending the customers money. I even end up being shouted at myself when angry customers phone me up and say how can you charge £80 to fix a boiler, he was only here an hour. Err well the part cost £50, materials £10 and £20 for the fuel and labour. So in effect the plumber gets maybe £10 profit out all of it.
when in fact they not they generally at home shattered.

Like i said i was just angry at how the media portrays construction workers.

WE actually DRINK, myself and my partner a few glasses of wine, especially on a Saturday night. Can't during the week as were absolutely shattered, especially my partner. Or he does have time off the next day we do.

When you have solid grafting and i mean hard work for 16 hours straight, you really can't be bothered to do anything. He's also covered in grime and so are his work clothes, hence the bath. The food is generally cooked by ME and coffee well he doesn't drink tea!
Instead he spends time with our children as sometimes he doesn't see them all week. I.e he leaves the house at 6:30am comes back 11pm.

No i don't have a censoring look and your obviously lucky enough to have wine all week. some of can't afford to do that. Instead we choose to spend it on quality food.

There is no need to judge people just because others have opinions or live the life they do. I've defended someone on the forum just living the way they choose to. Your obviously looking for an argument and are extremely arrogant by the use of smileys in your posts.

By the way my friends are Russian and they say goulash is cheap for them. In the part they come from lamb and mutton goulash is dirt cheap. It is served with potato dumpling or dumpling stuffed with bacon, black bread, pickled veg and stuffed cabbage.
It is a very filling meal and is designed to keep the cold out as the vitamins in.

Sorry, I am now completely lost in this.
There was a guy, who happened to be heating engineering, sitting with a glass of beer and from that media portays construction workers and working class as boozy fools and now people shout at your OH how dare he charge £80 for an hours work...

I consider that very far jump and completely don't understand the implication that because a guy who happened to be heating engineer had a glass of beer on TV and so workies are boozy fools.

On Saturday kitchen they recommend wine to go with particular meal and guests drink that wine before lunch!! Does that portray all (usually) actors as boozy fools?

Sorry, I completely don't get it.

As for goulash. I wasn't saying the meal isn't cheap, I was saying the meal is as cheap here given the amount we earn and pay for the ingredients, in comparison what they earn and pay for the ingredients.

Mad-Frog

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

"I think the show was very much aimed at the "squeezed middle", there's nothing wrong with that. And there are plenty of them. People who've lost child benefit because their income is above a certain level.....who have not had pay rises or have even had pay cuts."

I do agree Ash28 that the show is coming across as being the squeezed middle unfortunately it is JO in the build up to it that is making it about the "poor".

If consider myself middle class, in the last year I've started a business (my earnings far exceeding my salary expectations elsewhere) an my DH has received a patriarchal, promotion and further pay rise. We're really not the squeezed middle. My reason for starting this thread was that, despite what some PPs have said, I cannot stand hypocrisy of any shade and, for me, this show, its hype, and JO have been.

I firmly believe that the premise of the show is a good one, with or without Jamie, but it should have almost been less about the food and more about working things out rather than "here's my team of nutritionists etc".



I hope a TV company picks up on all these comments.

X

Well rewind the clock 15 years ago and this program would have helped me

I am not poor now and was scraping by then. I did not have the Internet or a mobile phone to google how to cook Yorkshire puddings! I armed myself with recipe books

My freezer was there to host frozen food, ice cream and ice cubes

My home cooked meals consisted of pasta with a veg, onion, garlic and a shop bought sauce, jacket potato and salad or ready meal and veg/ salad or chicken breast veg/salad ....... Basic but what I knew

Without the likes of Delia, Jamie and now the Internet my cooking skills would be c@@p to be honest so fair play to 'celebratory' chefs to helping me cook from scratch

I know know my freezer can accomodate frozen leftovers, (but not pasta or meat as in my opinion it blerhh) I do freeze chilli, soup, casseroles but not much else as personal opinion I don't like

I am a shift worker who mostly cooks from scratch (and with that I assume we are talking not making pasta from scratch right?) I buy some ready meals as a stand by yes I know they are not healthy I buy the low fat ones but on 12 hour shifts sometimes it's a must have

It's great if you have the time/ energy to go to 3 or 4 different supermarkets to 'save' money most of don't that's why aldi and lidl are so popular

The show in my opinion isn't about hype it is to show people like me that the freezer can accommodate food that comes from your own kitchen (shame he didn't mention 6 boxes for a pound from pondland)

It is education you will never learn unless you look for info or are taught, the slagging off that he gets on here is wrong but that's just my opinion

Gordon Ramsay recipes are lush but I get that needs its own thread :D

Honey_Bear

It's terribly easy to knock people who are trying to do something. I'm a huge fan of Delia and Jamie and will watch them cook anything, mainly because with both of them it's about enjoying producing nutritious food. I'm currently planning a lot of catering on a tight budget I'm going to be doing next year and I'm just a home cook, so my starting point is Jamie's 30 minute meals because they look wonderful. I'll cost the recipes up and shop around now to work out how to do it cost effectively in the time I'll have available and I absolutely know I can rely on his recipes. I learned to cook from Delia and I still go back to her books every time I try something new and on this project I'll be using several of her recipes too.

Good food costs money. The supermarkets compete on price and we've got a fabulous choice of produce available in this country. I shudder with revulsion whenever I walk into most American supermarkets because pretty much everything is processed. I can't see why they have to add sugar to fruit when they dry and package it, but that's normal for them, hence the level of obesity which we're rapidly approaching too. We're genuinely spoiled for choice and there are a surprising number of people who prefer to buy ready prepared food and don't know how to cook from scratch. What ghastly sin is this man committing trying to get people to eat well?

ash28

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

"I think the show was very much aimed at the "squeezed middle", there's nothing wrong with that. And there are plenty of them. People who've lost child benefit because their income is above a certain level.....who have not had pay rises or have even had pay cuts."

I do agree Ash28 that the show is coming across as being the squeezed middle unfortunately it is JO in the build up to it that is making it about the "poor".

If consider myself middle class, in the last year I've started a business (my earnings far exceeding my salary expectations elsewhere) an my DH has received a patriarchal, promotion and further pay rise. We're really not the squeezed middle. My reason for starting this thread was that, despite what some PPs have said, I cannot stand hypocrisy of any shade and, for me, this show, its hype, and JO have been.

I firmly believe that the premise of the show is a good one, with or without Jamie, but it should have almost been less about the food and more about working things out rather than "here's my team of nutritionists etc".

I hope a TV company picks up on all these comments.

X

I don't know why people were surprised at the content of the show.....celebrity chefs don't usually create recipes with the absolutely cash strapped in mind.......and it's very subjective.....

I looked on the programme primarily as a bit of froth.....as most tv cookery shows are.....perhaps with the exception of Delia where she actually showed you how to cook with the emphasis on the food rather than the presenter.

It would have been nice to see something more instructive and of value to poorer or less savvy member's of our society. And you have to ask yourself who would be more likely to watch the show....people who already have interest in cooking and budgeting, those who watch cookery shows as entertainment or those who don't engage and would prefer to watch Eastenders.

Personally I'm a firm believer in basic cooking skills (along with basic budgeting, basic nutrition, how to meal plan etc) being taught in schools...not how to make rock cakes, lemon drizzle cake, apple crumble, cup cakes, Yule log, meatballs (somewhere between a golf and tennis ball in size with a sauce made from a jar)......some of our grandson's creations at school during the last year......apart from learning how to assemble meatballs the only useful thing he made was vegetable soup...and it was delicious.

Since the financial crisis the sales of ready meals has increased while the sales of fresh fruit and meat and fish has fallen......so I suppose it shows how cheap ready meals can be......Asda do some in their freezer section...Asda Chosen by You: Cottage Pie, Beef Lasagne, Pasta Bake, Chicken Hotpot...all weigh 1.4kgs and serve 4, and they cost £3 each.....you probably couldn't make them for £3 each or 75p a head.

There was an article published last year in the British Medical Journal and it compared 100 ready meals produced by the big 3 supermarkets...Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys (all own brand) and 100 main meal recipes randomly chosen from the top 5 best selling recipe books by celebrity chefs.....Recipes were included from 30 Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver, Baking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale, Ministry of Food by Jamie Oliver, Kitchen by Nigella Lawson, and River Cottage Everyday by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The nutrional content was based on the raw ingredients of the ready meals/recipes and the results were surprising as the ready meals were healthier than the recipes. So in some instances buying a ready meal is healthier than cooking from scratch.

Conclusions Neither recipes created by television chefs nor ready meals sold by three of the leading UK supermarkets complied with WHO recommendations. Recipes were less healthy than ready meals, containing significantly more energy, protein, fat, and saturated fat, and less fibre per portion than the ready meals.

http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e7607

So perhaps JO needed his team of nutritionists to make sure the meals were healthy. The other thing is the celebrity chef (or any chef) is a result of their training and I imagine their aim is to produce food that tastes wonderful and not necessarily the most healthy or nutritious. We need to start in the schools.

MrsE_2

Well I thought it was wonderful that he showed how to roast a piece of brisket, roasting beef is so expensive & if you can create a nice roast with a piece of brisket that's great. I will try it & I don't buy brisket as I thought it was tough stuff only suitable for the slow cooker in a liquid.

Go back 10 years & I didn't cook - I thought I cooked, but really I was reheating food, not cooking from scratch.
I used jars as my sauces & I didn't bake or make bread.

I started watching Jamie Oliver & I fell in love with cooking.

That's why I think he's the bees knees :-)

I'm addicted to celebrity cook books, but Jamie will always be my favourite.

I've bought the book, but I know I won't cook loads from it, I love 15 minute meals (it's calorie counted speedy mid week cooking) I also love ministry of food (that's the basic cook book every home should have) & Jamie's Italy.

So what about product placement, are people really so stupid they don't realise there are premium brands & there are own brands?
So what about expensive equipment, get the Argos book, you can get kitchen equipment to suit every budget.

Gers

MrsE wrote: »

I've bought the book, but I know I won't cook loads from it, I love 15 minute meals (it's calorie counted speedy mid week cooking) I also love ministry of food (that's the basic cook book every home should have) & Jamie's Italy.

Last night I was browsing through a JO book I bought ages ago and never used - the Great Britain one - and saw that the recipes are for 8/10/12 people. Lovely recipes, great ideas but not something that I would actually make. Much later I logged on and bought the Ministry of Food one for myself. I had given this to a friend many years ago and he still raves about it so am heading back to basic land.

Horses for courses. :beer: