A few words from Rob Mansfield

Today is Blog Action Day and thousands of bloggers are uniting to talk about poverty.

Now I know that poverty is rife in the developing world, but sometimes I think people forget the poverty in developed countries.

In the UK, Jamie Oliver is midway through a series called Jamie’s Ministry of Food, where he’s attempting to get an entire town, Rotherham, to learn to cook properly.

I’m impressed by his drive and passion for the project and think it’s immensely honourable, but it’s just highlighted to me the problem many people have in affording ingredients.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that people are learning how to cook beef stir fry or chicken wrapped in prosciutto, but Jamie is paying for all these ingredients.

Once he leaves, how many people are going to be able to afford to buy these items: beef is expensive, even if you buy it diced and prepackaged. So is salmon, especially if you’re feeding a family.

I’m not denying that takeaways aren’t just as expensive, but food costs are spiralling and for many people, it’s tough to buy much of this food.

A feature in The Guardian a couple of weeks ago pointed out that it’s far cheaper to get calorific intake through ‘value’ high-fat sausages than good quality meat-packed bangers. The same is true for french fries and similar junk food.

This is why people eat takeaways. I’m not denying that people need to be better educated about food, but money talks and for the underclass in the UK it will always be more appealing to live on crap than learn how to cook and spend a little more!

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I watched the first of Jamie Oliver’s new series, Jamie At Home, last night and was sorely disappointed.

The concept is Jamie going back to basics and showing you simple recipes, based on ingredients you can grow in your back garden. First stop: tomatoes.

It sounds great, but it just didn’t ring true for a number of reasons.

1) Jamie’s home (or at least the grounds) is huuuuuuuge. He seems to have a curiously well-equipped outhouse, complete with a massive fridge empty enough to be able to hang a muslin-full of tomatoes to create tomato consomme. Something we can all do easily at home, right?

2) Then he casually produces the most fantastic collection of different-coloured tomatoes that he (or rather his gardener) grew in his, ahem, garden. We’re talking cherry, beef, and plum tomatoes, green ones, yellow ones, purple ones, orange ones - you name it, they’re there. Again, all something we could all knock up in our 10×6 space!

3) I know Jamie’s recipes are meant to look good, but the quality of the ingredients he uses pale against what most of us could find. His dried oregano looked quite remarkable and the size of the three, yup, you read that correctly, three bufala mozzarella balls he produces to make his “mothership” of tomato salads must have cost a small fortune.

4) The programme employs FOUR food stylists. Hang on, Jamie’s a chef - can’t he do his own food. Why does he need to employ four extra people to make his own food look good? Is he not confident enough?

I started to like Jamie after Jamie’s Kitchen and School Dinners, but this latest series looks too contrived. It’s too slick to look convincing and feels fake. The back-to-basics thing just doesn’t ring true, and the “at home” bit is a joke.

It’s ironic that Jamie has campaigned vigorously to keep his own privacy, yet happily broadcasts his latest show from his “home”. I don’t doubt he owns it, yet it doesn’t really look like his. It’s clearly been TV-ised.

Sorry, Jamie, the recipes might taste great, but the presentation doesn’t ring true. Time to go back to crusading, not basics!

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