A word from Jamie Oliver

HAPPY DAYS

The motivation for this post is not my usual lack of inspiration, but rather due to the fact that I was 'allowed' to watch a cookery program the other day and it happened to be Jamie Oliver cooking from his latest book - 5 Ingredients: Quick and Easy Food in which he cooks quick dishes using just five ingredients and a few basics such as olive oil and red wine vinegar - which he seems to rather like. Funny isn't it? When you watch one of these TV cooks after a while you see that they have a penchant for a particular ingredient. I remember thinking this of Delia Smith's Summer Cooking show in which she used a lot of lime. Anyway - here he was promoting his latest book and looking almost middle-aged - yes middle-aged and a tiny bit plump but not quite as plump as he has been. So I thought I would try to find some words of wisdom from the five books of his that I have.

He has a website of course. And from here you can find the websites for his four initiatives - Fifteen, The Ministry of Food, The Kitchen Garden Project and Jamie's Food Revolution. He began all of these but is probably not quite as involved personally with all of them anymore - Fifteen for one, which I think is now run by the Stepping Stones Foundation, although I'm not sure and there does still seem to be a Jamie's Fifteen Restaurant in London. There is also a Ministry of Food Australia site, so obviously he has had some impact. From small things big things grow as they say, and how on earth can one person run all of them hands-on? If he has inspired others to continue the work then surely that is good.

His website has forums, news and, of course, recipes - lots of them, although he is not quite as generous as Delis in this respect. She has virtually all of her cookbook recipes on her website.

Throughout his career he has been a passionate and voluble campaigner against bad eating habits, especially focussed on children. His school dinners campaign is well-known, and when Theresa May recently said that her government will be ceasing free school dinners at primary level for all but the very, very poor he was out there protesting and getting a lot of press coverage. His London restaurant charges a 10p tax on drinks containing sugar, etc. etc. But then again I see he was fined for serving a non-gluten free pasta to a coeliac. But then he is a tall poppy and he is always sounding off about something, in that over the top Essex accent, which I have no doubt he cultivates, and so somebody is always going to be looking to bring him down. It's what we do is it not?

It's a carefully cultivated image I suppose - made to appeal to the ordinary working class people - but then these are the people he is trying to change. They are less likely to listen to someone with a 'pukka' accent. So he makes a lot of money from his restaurants and his cookbooks and his TV series, products and sponsorships - think Woollies here in Australia. This is Ok with me, as long as he is genuinely trying to change things.

I don't use a lot of his recipes but I keep meaning to use more. They are usually relatively simple and tasty and just a little bit different. There were a couple on that TV program that I aim to try. A bit like Delia, but somewhat more slapdash. And his aim (like Delia) is to get ordinary people to cook. Nothing wrong with that. So here are a few quotes from the man:

"I truly believe that anyone can cook and love it - and that everyone has it in them to hold great dinner parties, family occasions or everyday meals that are remembered for a long time."

"I just think that life is too short not to try things - no matter how good your own way might be, you're not always going to be right. ... Just get out there and enjoy yourself."

"As far as I see it … the school is at the front line of the fight against obesity and diet-related disease.”

"Why should you have standards when buying? Because you're going to put this food in your mouth and swallow it and you'll do this two or three times every single day of your life. Everything you eat contributes to you being happy, or fit, or lethargic, or full of energy, or susceptible to colds and flu, or being able to think better and hold your concentration. Your hair, your fingernails, your height, your skin, everything you are is made from the food you eat."

"Comfort food at its best - unfussy and unpretentious, but full of life. You can't force it or pretend: it just is what it is. I know that you if you cook the recipes from here you will be rewarded with good times, brilliant weekends and big happy smiles all around the table - I'm so excited about that."

"I think Italy has managed to retain a lot of its brilliant things because there hasn't been a lot of choice available. I really believe that. And for me it creates quite a profound emotion because sometimes when you have too much choice you can lose sight of the things that really matter - your family, your kids and your health."

Yes he's a tiny bit irritating, tiring even. How, you wonder can anyone have that much energy all the time? And all those children - is it five or six that he has? That accent, that lisp, that vocabulary. And he's dyslexic too - which he actually says he sees as a blessing. I'm pretty sure though that even if he has only changed a few people's perceptions and habits, all power to him. Go Jamie. Go Essex!