Ever a great fan of Jamie Oliver, I admire the sentiment behind his latest healthy eating assault on the British population, but I think possibly he may have bitten off more than he can chew on this occasion.
Jamie’s latest campaign for getting Britains to improve their eating habits and therefore their health, focuses on Rotherham, a town in the North of England with a population of approx 117 thousand. Rotherham has a high proportion of obese residents and Jamie believes that he can change the way they eat and teach the whole town to cook.
The town hit the head lines during Jamie’s school dinners campaign when a Rotherham mum, Julie Critchlow, was seen on the news, handing junk food to students through school railings. Jamie gets to meet her for the first time and apologises for calling her a “big fat scrubber” on the BBC’s programme Top Gear. The straight-talking mum is initially dubious of Jamie but warms to him and provides him with a powerful ally in his campaign to transform Rotherham’s eating habits.
Jamie’s campaign begins with him teaching 8 people to cook 10 dishes. These 8 will each then teach 2 more people the 10 recipes, who will in turn teach 2 more, etc and in 16 steps, the whole of Rotherham will have learnt how to cook. The maths works out but the plan doesn’t take into account human nature. Will it work or will the flow of knowledge collapse as soon as Jamie leaves? Julie Critchlow has her doubts of the scheme’s success, she tells Jamie “they will do it while you’re there, sucking up to you”, “but you know, once you’ve gone - ah sod it! - that’s probably what they’ll think”.
Feeling that the campaign needs further support for it to have any chance of success, Jamie creates his version of the Ministry of Food and opens a branch in Rotherham town centre. The old shop is turned into a centre for cookery demonstrations, advice on healthy eating and inspiration for recipes. At Jamie’s Ministry’s launch, 2 of his cookery students cook up salmon for the crowd and show what they have learnt in just 2 weeks.
However, following the launch, on his return, he finds that his students have not been passing on their new knowledge. He gets all his students together with Julie Critchlow to try to find out what’s going on. Is the campaign doomed to fail?
This first episode of Jamie’s Ministry of Food, has intrigued me and I’m going to carry on watching, now I need to know the outcome. But I do wish he didn’t swear so much, I feel like he’s trying to be Gordon Ramsey!
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4 Comments on "Jamie’s Ministry of Food"
I didn’t watch it because I find Jamie Oliver extremely annoying. It’s a shame because he could do some good. Another point - I don’t think there are 250 million people in Rotherham unless they’ve had a sudden influx of illegal immigrants!!
I come from Rotherham,im a professional woman who works full time as well as having a family.It concerns me the way Rotherham has been portrayed in the programme,i feel the programme makers have been very selective as to the people shown in the series.We are not all on benfits,unable to/or just cant be bothered to cook or uneducated. The first programme showed this,the mum on benefits crying because she has nothing else to sell ,so she cant buy decent food,the next second she lights up a cigarette,obviously some of us prioritise feeding our families over smoking and drinking.
Jamie has some very good ideas,but sadly he can come across as patronising.
Maybe he would do well to focus on those who will continue what he is teaching once he has gone and not focus on those who just want to get on tv.
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