Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver brings "Food Revolution" to US

[Kadie]

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver brings "Food Revolution" to US
1 hr 2 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is bringing his crusade against unhealthy fare across the Atlantic with the debut of his US reality television show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution."

A pop icon of modern cooking, Oliver lands in Huntington, West Virginia -- a town he has designated the unhealthiest town in America because of rampant obesity -- promising to revolutionize how they eat.

Oliver preaches the gospel about the joys of fresh food lovingly prepared from scratch, in place of the cheap processed food that has contributed to America being one of the world's fattest nations.

The telegenic chef, 35, in his new TV program that debuts Friday for six episodes on ABC television, tries to help rid the town's inhabitants of their diet of hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza.

Oliver's claim to fame is having overhauled the lunch menus at schools across Britain.

snip...
"This food will kill your kids," he tells one mother, condemning the family's diet of fried and fatty junk food, as her eyes fill with tears.

His message, delivered in his broad Cockney accent, is that good food is a God-given right: every child has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and every family deserves honest, wholesome food.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/lifestyleusbritaingastronomyoliverpeople



British celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver, seen here in 2009, is bringing his crusade against unhealthy fare across the Atlantic with the debut of his US reality television show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
"(AFP/DDP/File/Axel Schmidt)

[maddezmom]

1. My favorite UK chef

and my Saturday morning fix is watching his old shows that run here in the UK. Was lucky enough to eat at his restaurant Fifteen last time we lived here.

[Warpy]

2. Jamie Oliver's food is pared down, simple to prepare, and great

and there is no reason for anyone not to follow his lead. Much of his stuff takes less time than it does to go through a drive through on the way home from work.

He's starting a new series on Food TV this year, "Jamie at Home." He's been sorely missed since "Naked Chef" went out of reruns. His food runs counter to the overdone, overtweaked fare many of the professional chefs on that network come up with.

I hope his food revolution catches on. It needs to. The horrible diet of grease, meat, salt, and sugar is killing us.

[CurtEastPoint]

3. I watched the first show. An eye-opener.

The fat family had such SHIT in their kitchen. The fryer sat on the counter ready to go at all times.

The kids' food in the school cafeteria. Omigod. Pizza for breakfast? Flavored (i.e., HFCS'd) milk. Chicken nuggets. When they got to choose between HIS food and their old shit, they chose the old shit.

Any hope? We'll see!

[Lorien]

5. The "lunch ladies" and the school adminatrators were knuckle dragging thugs

members of the "proudly ignorant" who have dragged this Nation down. He has a challenge on his hands, for sure-but it's a worthy one.

[Hannah Bell]

31. it's a tv show. don't mistake its filtered video for reality.

[Warpy]

6. Yes, it's an uphill battle to get folks to choose the good stuff

when they've been programmed to prefer the fatty fast food crap.

However, maybe the new Republican Poverty will do it for them. It should always be cheaper to cook something at home. The fact that it isn't should speak volumes about the overall quality of fast food.

[SoCalDem]

9. Not necessarily.. mac & cheese & hot dogs

will always be cheaper-faster than veggie lasagna with real ricotta..

and $1 banquet frozen "dinners" will "feed" a child cheaper than potatoes $0.79 lb, fresh green beans @ $1.29 lb , tomatoes @$1.99 lb.. and of course microwaving a frozen blob of alphabet chemical food, is "easier" than making real food, if that's all Mom ever learned..

Cooking is something that is passed down, as young kids learned at Mom's side.. Many young people never had that..their Mom's picked them up at daycare and then did a drive-thru or raced home to toss something into a microwave..:(

Not everyone had the advantage of having Mom stay home:(..

[Warpy]

12. You can learn to cook without that

My mother hated cooking and it showed. She didn't teach me, thank goodness. I had to learn on my own, out of books and from Julia Child. I turned into quite a good cook and I do enjoy it. I also managed to live on a very healthy diet at about $25.00 a week for about three years. It wasn't varied and it wasn't interesting, but it was healthful.

Those dollar apiece frozen dinners (more like $1.25-$1.50 here) three times a day 7 days a week will cost $21.00 and will make the diner feel like shit very quickly.

[SoCalDem]

14. Good for you.. Cooking is easy and much faster ..once you get organized

but there are MILLIONS of kids who never really had real food, growing up, and who continue on that path as adults and are now raising their kids the same way..

My boys used to be the "kneaders" when they were young & to this day, they prefer & buy or make "real bread".. Even as little boys, they would always offer to help make it.. It was helpful to them too as they learned fractions in school..:)

we never got into the fancy bread.. I mostly made my own french bread and we sliced it up for whatever we needed..:)

[Foo Fighter]

32. Exactly.

I grew up dirt poor but had the luck of growing up on a farm where we grew our own veggies, raised our own beef and milked our own cows. We cooked and baked every day and never ate fast food because it wasn't available and even if it was, we couldn't afford it. These days, it seems cooking at home is the exception and fast food is the norm. All too often, I see my friends with kids stopping off at McDonald's on the way home to pick up "supper." And as if that's not bad enough, kids can get McD or Burger King or Taco Bell or whatever from counters right in the school cafeteria. Unreal. We had crap food in my school when I was growing up and I had a weak stomach so my Mom always packed me a lunch. I swear, I was the luckiest kid in the school. She made the BEST lunches. I can't imagine growing up these days and having to eat fast food instead. Ugh.

Ha! SoCalDem, I was also my Mom's "kneader" growing up. She would get it "started" and then put me up on a footstool when I was 4 years old and have me knead the bread for her because her health wasn't good so it was too hard for her to do. We baked bread every single Saturday and also buns, dinner rolls, etc. as needed. For 4-H, I'd always exhibit a loaf of bread at the fair and invariably got purple and blue ribbons. (The kicker was, I'd just grab a random loaf out of the freezer and submit it. Ha, I guess fresh bread probably would have been a better idea. Hell, what did I know? I was just a kid.) To this day, I still bake bread. Sometimes I'll make artisan bread on Saturday but every Sunday, I'll make a loaf of whole wheat bread for sandwiches at work during the week. Not only is it cheaper but it's soooo much better than the crap they pass off in the store as "bread." (I'll admit it: I actually cringe when I walk down the bread aisle at the store.) You taught your boys well. Kudos to you! :thumbsup:

[kestrel91316]

24. My mom may have been borderline batshit insane when I was growing up, but

by god she had a hot breakfast for us every morning and a real dinner with salad and veggie and dessert at 6 each night, and she made a good lunch on the weekend, too. The ONLY time she ever opened up a can of ravioli for us was when my parents were going out to eat and the babysitter was coming.

Of course, she leaned heavily on frozen and canned veggies, and Wonder Bread, and boxed cake mixes and desserts, but compared to today we didn't get much in the way of convenience foods. Such was the 60's and early 70's.

I feel really sorry for the kids who get taken to McDonald's as the default meal option as often as it seems to be going on. My best friend, as far as I know, has never cooked a single meal from scratch. They get takeout just about every night. I don't get it.

Tonight I fixed a vegetable soup from scratch - onions and potatoes and carrots and kale. It was laughably simple and easy, and is incredibly nutritious. People may find some day that their very lives depend on being able to COOK.

[Foo Fighter]

26. And therein lies the problem.

Processed food is cheaper than real food. Also, someone earning minimum wage and working a job-and-a-half or two jobs often doesn't have the time or energy to cook a "real" meal, even if they were able to afford luxuries like fresh produce and fruit. (And yes, I consider them luxuries because I feel truly rich when I can walk into a store and leave with a bag full of produce and fruit. Sadly, too many people can't afford to do so, especially these days.)

However, some things can be cheaper. For example, homemade bread, whether it be artisan bread or the enriched type used for sandwiches, is substantially cheaper than the crap they pass off as "bread" in the stores. (That's especially true if you buy the bulk bag of yeast as both the packets and jars are way more expensive.) But sadly, unless a person grew up baking bread (like I did), it might not occur to them to bake their own and/or they might feel too intimidated to try it.

[TuxedoKat]

4. Sounds good

and very timely with Michelle Obama focusing on healthier eating habits and exercise too.

[Codeine]

7. Waste of time.

People eat shit because they like shit, and will always return to shit-eating given the availability of shit regardless of any cooking lessons or nutritional information they have been provided. Moreover, they will eat it in enormous double handfuls until they feel sick, only to repeat the process two hours later.

Mr. Oliver is wasting his time.

[Kadie]

8. I don't agree at all.

I don't believe it is a waste of time. Sure he will not convince everyone, but he will make a difference in some peoples lives.

[sudopod]

13. Don't you have clinic duty today House? nt

[Codeine]

15. . . .

:rofl:

[sudopod]

20. =D nt

[Foo Fighter]

25. They like that crap because they are conditioned to like it.

Here's a quote from a quick google search:

Conditioning can happen quickly. In one study, people were given a high-sugar, high-fat snack for five consecutive mornings. For days afterwards, they wanted something sweet at about the same time each morning that they had been fed the snack, even though they had not previously snacked at that time. Desire had already taken hold.

http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=2156749

Sugar and fat can do that to a person. However, if a person starts exercising, they will eventually gravitate to a more healthy diet because that's what their body will crave. A few years ago, I read a book by a couple that was doing an around-the-world tour by bike. They weren't experienced cyclists and I was amazed at absolute junk they ate at the start of their tour -- doughnuts for breakfast, greasy burgers for lunch, etc. I couldn't fathom how they could eat that crap and still ride their bikes. But sure enough, as the tour went on, their diet changed because their body craved healthy food. They switched to things like granola and yogurt for breakfast, fruit and PB&J for lunch, and rice and vegetables for supper with healthy snacks in between. Looking back, they were appalled at how crappy their diet used to be.

Changing diet alone is difficult because people will usually continue to crave the satisfaction that sugar and fat provided them with. But throw in an exercise program and 6 months down the road, the person will wonder how they were ever able to stomach the total crap they used to eat.

[Toucano]

28. Precisely. n/t

[Romulox]

10. Is it just me, or is that a rough looking 35?

Jamie either smokes, gets too much sun, or has really bad genetics. :shrug:

[Huskerchub]

17. Gordon Ramsy

is only 5 years older than Jamie and looks 15 years older.

[Romulox]

18. Gordon Ramsey straight up lies about his age. He has a face like a catcher's mitt. nt

[Kadie]

19. That isn't really a very good pic... here are a few more...

In this publicity image released by ABC, chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver is shown during the taping of his reality series, 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution,' in Huntington, W. Va., airing Friday, March 26, 2010 on ABC.
(AP Photo/ABC, Holly Farrell) NO SALES


In this publicity image released by ABC, chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver, standing left, and Principal Patrick O'Neal talk with students at Central City Elementary school during the taping of his reality series, 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution,' in Huntington, W. Va., airing Friday, March 26, 2010 on ABC.
(AP Photo/ABC, Holly Farrell) NO SALES


In this publicity image released by ABC, from left, chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver, Mary Calhoun Brown and Huntington Fire Chief C. Creig Moore during the taping of his reality series, 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution,' in Huntington, W. Va., airing Friday, March 26, 2010 on ABC.
(AP Photo/ABC, Holly Farrell) NO SALES

[PVnRT]

11. Ugh - Huntington is a very depressing place to be

I'm not surprised people are overweight there. Just driving in on I-64 makes you sad when you see the town below you.

[JI7]

22. a lot of fast food places ?

[Beringia]

16. Cooking takes time and talent n/t

[Codeine]

21. Very little of the first

and none of the second. Most cooking is very simple and requires no special abilities.

[Toucano]

27. +1

Following recipes is not the same as inventing them.

[JI7]

23. i'm watching now and it's interesting so far

just saw where he did the chicken nugget experiment and thought the kids would say no to eating it but they all said they would.

[Foo Fighter]

35. That was very surprising.

It looked to me like after the first kid raised his hand (the "leader" of the class maybe?), the others followed suit so maybe it was a peer pressure thing? But good gawd, peer pressure or no, I can't imagine agreeing to eat that crap when I was a kid. Then again, I grew up on a farm where we raised our own meat. including chickens, so I knew the difference between what was edible and what was not. I actually expected Jamie to throw the carcass in a pot of boiling water to make broth and extract the pieces of meat from the bone for creamed chicken because, hey, that's what we did. But the carcasses would need to be cleaner before we would do that because I saw, uh, stuff inside the cavity that still needed to be cleaned out. Plus we'd rinse them repeatedly before putting them in the stock pot. Salmonella in chickens was unheard of in those days but then again, ours were allowed to roam around outside in a fenced-in area (to protect them from potential predators like foxes). The whole idea of putting them in cages and then pumping them full of antibiotics is appalling and a big part of what's wrong with the food system these days.

I rarely watch TV but had read about this program so I made it a point to tune it. I think what struck me most is the resistance Jamie received. I wasn't expecting that and apparently, neither was he. The DJ objecting to Jamie's "telling people how to live their lives" really caught me off guard. The resistance from the cooks at the school was also rather surprising. Good gawd, if that was me, I'd WELCOME him and thank him profusely for helping to change things so the kids could have more nutritious meals. Jamie is really up against it and hopefully he will prevail.

The other thing that struck me as odd is that the USDA provides the "guidelines" for the school lunches. To me, that sent up a HUGE red flag as it's a majorconflict of interest. The USDA is serving the interest of Big Ag and could give a rat's ass about the actual nutrition the kids are getting. Their sole interest is in selling products and having the the entire school system as their "captive market" is the reason why the kids get crappy processed food instead of real meals. Get the USDA out of it and have an independent commission of some sort (as if that's even possible with all the corporate money flowing into our government but let's pretend for a second her) and they would get REAL guidelines for actual nutritious meals for the schools.

Note to Jamie: if you get sick of fighting them, you'd be more than welcome to come to my place and spend a week teaching me how to cook more nutritious meals. I cook nutritious meals as it is but hey, I'm sure you could still teach me a LOT. It won't get you national attention but it WILL get you a completely dedicated and supportive audience of one, for what that's worth.

[upi402]

29. Good, will he be on Food Network

or will Ronald McDonald offer him a free flight in his small plane? I wish the brave fellow good luck here in the land of the free.

[FrenchieCat]

30. He was on Oprah's show today.....and was touting the First lady.

Sounds like we are gonna get a bit a change, if he has anything to do with it.
I welcome it!

[Fleshdancer]

33. I watched some of it. The kids couldn't identify tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, and cauliflower

but they recognized chicken nuggets, fries, ketchup, and pizza immediately. As a mom, I was pissed.

I changed the channel when a family went to the doctor for checkups and the 6th grade son had early signs of diabetes. It broke my heart to watch the fear in his mom's eyes.

[Blue_Tires]

34. I know it's just a show, but

I *REALLY* want to see a moratorium on the use of the word "revolution" in any context for at least 3 years...