So Jamie Oliver's new book and show will deal with waste, money saving tips from the restaurant trade. Wonderful. We are going to have a multi-millionaire raiding the fridges of people who don't know how to save, or cut corners in the kitchen.
Press Release on Channel 4, Jamie cooks up meals on a budget.
Frankly I've had a bad day today and this news really put the cherry on my cake.
I have never had much of an issue with Jamie. I was fully behind his campaign to improve school dinners, his attack on the evil Michael Gove and being part of the campaign about sourcing more sustainable fish. Some of his recipes are great too. Especially some of the 15 Minute Meal ideas, which I find fantastic, apart from his love of serving things on a chopping board. Awful.
I can think of all sorts of things that Mr Oliver can throw his weight behind rather than trying to tell people with the smallest amounts of cash how to spend part of it on food. I think that the premise of this show/book is good. People do need to know what to do with very little in the kitchen. God knows the subject of waste can get me going too. But I don't see how these people can stand being preached to by someone who will never have money problems for the rest of his life. Someone who couldn't possibly understand the drudgery of the daily, weekly or monthly shop on a pittance.
I would say that I am pretty creative in the kitchen, and I don't struggle with a few ingredients put in front of me. A lot of people do, which is one of the reasons why I started this blog. If through this programme/book Jamie actually spent time living on the budget that his subjects are I would be surprised. It is not indicated anywhere on the press release or amazon article. If that was the case then it might be a more interesting venture.
It is hard, and it is stressful, it is depressing and it is sometimes very boring. I can't understand someone who hasn't had these worries being able to tell people what is going to work for them. Especially since he isn't coming from any semblance of experience that I can discover.
I know this blog entry may come off slightly as if I have a touch of the green-eyed monster but that is not (totally) the case. I feel strongly that Mr Oliver is jumping on some sort of 'recession bandwagon', it's kind of distasteful. With so many people struggling with the basics of life, people resorting to the food bank, and other charitable organisations are we really going to listen to someone worth approximately £150 million tell us how to 'save'? I certainly can't, well maybe with a big pinch of own brand salt.
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