Jamie Oliver

The_Thrilla

I have had to catch up on the Jamie Oliver series, because I was over in Manila. The city got flooded, so I had to sort out one of my wife's properities. I was reading the stuff about the programme, and about his remarks about British workers. Also his remarks about diverse people he met while making his Ministry of Food series. He was a guest in someone's house, and he starts talking about the size of his hostess's TV. That's not nice.

The problem with Jamie Oliver's programmes is that they don't deliver what they say they are going to deliver. This series - and the Ministry of Food - produce not plain food but restaurant food. If people don't know how to cook, then you would teach them how to scramble some eggs and lay them on a piece of buttered toast.

Also in the Ministry of Food and also this series, there is nothing about improvising - using mashed potato instead of pastry, mixing potato flour and maize flour when you've run out of wheat flour. These are the techniques I see all the time on the OS Moneysaver section.

In the latest episode I saw...well, how many people on JSA are going to afford paying £10 on that big piece of salmon - even if it was at a knock-down price? Who here uses Uncle Ben's rice, when you can buy polished rice for 40p a Kg in Lidl? The only good thing about the programme was the little tips. That one about tipping the marinade from a jar of sun dried tomatoes over the salmon was priceless, as was his tricks with the filo pastry.

And there can't be many people who hang fresh herbs in their kitchens. Most people pay gross prices for a little packet of Schwartz.

Better were Ready Steady Cook, or that series on plain food with Delia Smith. This Jamie Oliver thing just isn't what it says on the tin.

Tibbie's_mum

The_Thrilla wrote: »

I have had to catch up on the Jamie Oliver series, because I was over in Manila. The city got flooded, so I had to sort out one of my wife's properities. I was reading the stuff about the programme, and about his remarks about British workers. Also his remarks about diverse people he met while making his Ministry of Food series. He was a guest in someone's house, and he starts talking about the size of his hostess's TV. That's not nice.

The problem with Jamie Oliver's programmes is that they don't deliver what they say they are going to deliver. This series - and the Ministry of Food - produce not plain food but restaurant food. If people don't know how to cook, then you would teach them how to scramble some eggs and lay them on a piece of buttered toast.

Also in the Ministry of Food and also this series, there is nothing about improvising - using mashed potato instead of pastry, mixing potato flour and maize flour when you've run out of wheat flour. These are the techniques I see all the time on the OS Moneysaver section.

In the latest episode I saw...well, how many people on JSA are going to afford paying £10 on that big piece of salmon - even if it was at a knock-down price? Who here uses Uncle Ben's rice, when you can buy polished rice for 40p a Kg in Lidl? The only good thing about the programme was the little tips. That one about tipping the marinade from a jar of sun dried tomatoes over the salmon was priceless, as was his tricks with the filo pastry.

And there can't be many people who hang fresh herbs in their kitchens. Most people pay gross prices for a little packet of Schwartz.

Better were Ready Steady Cook, or that series on plain food with Delia Smith. This Jamie Oliver thing just isn't what it says on the tin.

You so got it right with Delia, at the age of 12 I was using Delia's Complete Cookery Course Book to complete my domestic science homework and it is still my go to book for everything that needs proper measurements, like scones and yorkies. I think what we are lacking in the UK now is proper domestic science lessons whether it just for girls or unisex, someone needs to be learning the basics!!!

Honey_Bear

Why has it become the responsibility of schools to teach children how to cook? Doesn't every parent want their child to know how to look after themselves when they leave home?

Eviekins_2

I succumbed and bought Jamie's new book. I made the meatloaf to the exact recipe (I used half pork mince and half beef mince instead of just pork) and it was delicious.
Now I have made it once, I can tweak it to make it more cost effective though it wasn't that costly and it stretched two nights (me, husband and three kids) which I thought was quite economical.

If you take it for what it is its an excellent cookbook. Lots of good ideas, and you don't have to buy the whopping bits of "mothership" meat and fish he suggests, I'll be tailoring it to suit my families requirements.

Trying the gangnam style chicken wings tonight (£1.50 for 6 in my butchers) Just hope my kids don't dig out their gangnam style cd for background music during dinner

Gigervamp

I'm one of the lucky ones who won a copy of the books MSE were giving away, so I'm looking forward to receiving it.

MrsE_2

I've seen chefs say to chop up veg & put in the bottom of the roasting tin to help with the gravy, but I always thought that such a waste of veg, but what jamie showed tonight about using the peelings & choppings, what a fab idea
:beer::beer::beer::beer::A:T

CH27

My OH watched this with me last night & really liked the look of the kebabs.
I think i'll buy the book later today.

mineallmine

MrsE wrote: »

I've seen chefs say to chop up veg & put in the bottom of the roasting tin to help with the gravy, but I always thought that such a waste of veg, but what jamie showed tonight about using the peelings & choppings, what a fab idea
:beer::beer::beer::beer::A:T

I use peelings (and the chicken carcass) to make stock. :j

malamay

I'm hoping this cookbook will make it under our Christmas tree this year

As with Superscrimpers, I do not think OS people are the target audience. I know my sister would benefit from both, as she finds budgeting for food shopping and using leftovers difficult. She wastes a lot of food and money. Our parents were pretty OS, and she's had the same upbringing as me so not sure why we turned out so differently!

ash28

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Why has it become the responsibility of schools to teach children how to cook? Doesn't every parent want their child to know how to look after themselves when they leave home?

I'm in my 50s and wasn't taught to cook by my mother....the closest we got was to peel the veg and do the washing up.....

Cake and pastry making and other basic cooking skills I learned at school and not at my mother's knee.

My mother was a meat & 2 veg cook....if it wasn't a roast or a casserole she wouldn't have had a clue or in fact any interest. Saying that, her meals were always delicious and she made the most fabulous gravy. Salad was a slice of ham, a lettuce leaf, a boiled egg, a tomato and some cucumber served with bread and butter and a bottle of salad cream....usually done on Sunday for tea......

I got married in 1975 and was given a cookery book as a wedding present....from that I discovered things like chilli, bolognese, stroganoff, fish pie etc....although we lived on the coast and had access to cheap fresh fish (friends of the family were fishermen), my mother knew one way to cook fish....that was in the frying pan and served with chips (still my favourite), how to use herbs and spices.....things my mother wouldn't even have heard of. And we never had chicken, it was too expensive.

We have 3 grown up children, one of them was very interested in cooking and would often want to make things or cook the dinner when she got older...she trained to be a chef and is a fabulous cook and baker. She can make something out of what seems to be virtually nothing....

Another is a good cook but can't bake.....doesn't like sweet things herself (she'd rather have a bag of crisps) if she wants a cake she'll either buy one or buy a packet mix. She is 30 and has never made a cake from scratch in her life.

The other wasn't interested at all....until he discovered curry.....he can cook good curries, do a mean barbecue and manage basic things. He can't cook a roast dinner bacause he can't manage to get everything ready at the same time.....neither can OH. Both are happy to prepare and start it off.

Only one of them had any interest in cooking when they were younger - that was the one who trained to be a chef. The others had absolutely no interest at all but learned as they needed to....when we went on holiday and left them behind for instance.

Our grandson who is 12 lives with us and he has a practical cookery lesson at school every other week....he loves it but has no interest in cooking at home...when he gets his recipe I make him go through the cupboards, fridge, freezer etc to see what we have and then he has to make a list of anything we don't have....then we go to the shop to buy what is on his list. He then has to weigh out everything he needs. This week he is making a scone base pizza...no shopping required and he will have the pizza for his tea that evening. He's in year 8 and I don't have to check his shopping list now....in the beginning he was hopeless.

At school I learned basic cookery, how to sew by hand and machine (my mother couldn't sew a button on), how to knit....I learned things at school that have been useful through out my life. And although I wasn't interested in any of the things that were being taught along those lines, I had to do it and those basic skills seemed to sink in whether I wanted them to or not.

And I do think cookery, basic kitchen hygene and other basic skills should be taught in schools, not every parent can cook.....plenty of children are brought up on ready meals/Greggs pasties / chips etc, either because the parent can't or won't cook.