Jamie's dinners

[marlena spieler]

okay, first week he swore and swore and swore, i have never heard so much f***, f***in, and well, abundance of swearing. and the kids hated his food. and he complained the whole time that he isn't getting paid for it (he owns the prods company).

last night, second week, he was really good with the kids, in the scenes with the kids, and his views on his beliefs about what kids eat was really really good. inspiring!

but then back to his Fifteen restaurant he threw a hissy fit when pres Clinton came in to the restaurant for dinner, and was on the south beach diet ("He's on some San Francisco diet" oliver complained, and then told his student that the student would have to throw out all the food that they had prepared, because clinton and party wanted to eat salmon, steak, protein and salads that sort of thing.

Clinton wanted to meet oliver, but oliver said no, and ran out of the kitchen to his waiting car and papparazzi, saying he would rather go home to his family than meet "Bill", saying he's a "wanker" apparently for not eating olivers food.

what for next week?

why do we need jamie to call bill clinton a "wanker" in the mistaken belief that it is good television? i don't think "bill" deserved it (and i'm not a fan of the south beach diet either).

i thought it was gratuitous. and after all those cute scenes with the kids and all, and getting mavis the dinner lady to make a fabulous meal which all the kids ate! (though janie took credit for it).

at least the kids are eating good food....but i have kinda a nasty taste in my mouth....

marlena

[phatbastard]

at least the kids are eating good food....but i have kinda a nasty taste in my mouth....

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You should taste his food.

[origamicrane]

the end justifies the means

if 'ole mockney can get the schools to change the menu and get kids in the uk to eat healthier i wouldn't mind if he had tourettes, called every customer at fifteen a tosser and declared himself gods gift to cooking:raz:

also remember that jamie oliver is passionate about his food. bill clintons party decided to change their minds after confirming a menu weeks in advance if a party had done that at my restaurant i would have called them tossers too

as they probably wasted a good few hours preparing menus, faxing them back and forth, ordering the best ingredients and preparing each dish hours in anvance and also if it was a special menu then all the ingredients would have gone to waste unless they could be used in other dishes in thsat serving.

[marlena spieler]

i think his hissy fit was just done for "good television".

[origamicrane]

i think his hissy fit was just done for "good television".

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oh yep definitely. but the part i really hated was when they were talking about the newspaper story about there marriage breaking up, as if anyone would really want to discuss their private lives on screen that was so staged.

[John Whiting]

In pre-revolution France, a would-be Bourgeois Gentilhomme could hire a corps of music, dance, fencing, philosophy and fashion masters to remake his public image. In today’s world of resolutely down-market celebrity, Molière's plot would be greatly simplified: Monsieur Jourdain would form a TV production company and put himself totally in the hands of the director.

[Dani Mc]

who cares if it was blown up for the cameras or not? it gets people to watch the show, and (hopefully) will inspire them to become more involved in what their kids are eating.

I'm not a fan of Jamie personally (I don't like it when someone tries so hard to come across as my 'mate'), but I like what he's trying to do. Of course not a small part of it is feeding his ego, but I don't know of many people in the world who are well and truely selfless, so....fuck it. He's getting kids to eat real food.

and ps-I kind of agreed with him about the Clinton thing. Its just rude, and if a non famous person pulled that crap, it wouldn't be tolorated. If your diet is THAT restricted, plan in advance, or eat at fucking home. I don't care who you are.

[marlena spieler]

and ps-I kind of agreed with him about the Clinton thing.  Its just rude, and if a non famous person pulled that crap, it wouldn't be tolorated.  If your diet is THAT restricted, plan in advance, or eat at fucking home.  I don't care who you are.

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see, i don't quite buy that clinton didn't tell them he was on his diet, because in reports about his procedure last week it was reported that he had been on that diet since his operation last year or whenever it was. so i have this feeling that if he had been, his people wouldn't have "approved" jamies menu as he said on telly, and would have mentioned his dietary needs, anyhow the south beach diet (or as oliver said: the san francisco diet) i think you just order fish or meat, salads that sort of thing? anyhow, i think it was kinda a set up? made for tv moment of "our hero" taking on the big guy......but maybe thats just cynical me.

anyhow you can't eat at home when you're on the road like that, you have to eat at restaurants so thats not an option. usually eating fish, meat, salads is easy (though boring).

[Dani Mc]

and ps-I kind of agreed with him about the Clinton thing.  Its just rude, and if a non famous person pulled that crap, it wouldn't be tolorated.  If your diet is THAT restricted, plan in advance, or eat at fucking home.  I don't care who you are.

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see, i don't quite buy that clinton didn't tell them he was on his diet, because in reports about his procedure last week it was reported that he had been on that diet since his operation last year or whenever it was. so i have this feeling that if he had been, his people wouldn't have "approved" jamies menu as he said on telly, and would have mentioned his dietary needs, anyhow the south beach diet (or as oliver said: the san francisco diet) i think you just order fish or meat, salads that sort of thing? anyhow, i think it was kinda a set up? made for tv moment of "our hero" taking on the big guy......but maybe thats just cynical me.

anyhow you can't eat at home when you're on the road like that, you have to eat at restaurants so thats not an option. usually eating fish, meat, salads is easy (though boring).

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yeah, good point about menu 'approval'. I have a real sore spot about that kind of thing in restaurants, having travelled with someone who's 'nutritionist' had her on such a restricted diet, it became a burden on everyone else when it came time to go out to eat. It came to a head when she asked the waitstaff to give the chef her own food to cook up for her. People like Clinton also usually travel with a personal chef, so its not like its THAT hard for the guy to get his way. He travels a lot, his schedule is tight, someone is there to cook for him what he needs when he needs it.

but also, this program was filmed about a year ago, so I wouldn't necessarily assume that at the time, everyone knew about his post procedure diet.

[marlena spieler]

hiya dani,

no i'm sure not everyone knew about his post procedural diet, but i'm sure that his "people" would have noted menus etc as being within what he was able to eat. I don't think they would have just sprung it all at the last minute, as in: here we are at a dinner party, and i can't eat anything on the menu! j.o. did say that his people looked at the menu and approved it, so........i'm sure that they would have approved it dependant on what his requirements were. i just think that the hissy fit he threw telling the student that all the food he made specially would now just get thrown out, and then refuse to meet with clinton when the latter wanted to say hello.......it all just doesn't ring true to me. for some reason.

but again, mybe i'm a cynical old hag. (hope not, but sometimes).......

x m

[reuvens]

first of all....

...i am not tying to bring this whole topic up to an international affair, but did you, my lovely americans, ever consider that bill clinton did many things to your country which actually is worse then calling you a "wanker" ? i think so.....

mr. three chin oliver is a very good chef in his league....basta! and he knows how to entertain people in the way he is cooking, speaking, acting. check mr. ramsey and his shows, lagasse and his shows....they all deserve a little bit more respect. they are reflecting the food world today and it could be much worse.

so back to jamie.....

i was watching supersize me a few days ago and there is a scene playing in a highschool where they fed junk food to the kids. i just can´t loose the impression that this movie inspired mr. oliver. could be?

vue

[VeryApe77]

so back to jamie.....

i was watching supersize me a few days ago and there is a scene playing in a highschool where they fed junk food to the kids. i just can´t loose the impression that this movie inspired mr. oliver. could be?

vue

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Am pretty sure that the JO project was in the pipeline before the Supersize Me movie came out - in fact, I remember reading interviews with JO a couple of years ago when he was talking about the school dinner thing.

I could, of course, be wrong.

[marlena spieler]

first of all....

...i am not tying to bring this whole topic up to an international affair, but did you, my lovely americans, ever consider that bill clinton did many things to your country which actually is worse then calling you a "wanker" ? i think so.....

mr. three chin oliver is a very good chef in his league....basta! and he knows how to entertain people in the way he is cooking, speaking, acting. check mr. ramsey and his shows, lagasse and his shows....they all deserve a little bit more respect. they are reflecting the food world today and it could be much worse.

so back to jamie.....

i was watching supersize me a few days ago and there is a scene playing in a highschool where they fed junk food to the kids. i just can´t loose the impression that this movie inspired mr. oliver. could be?

vue

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is this really the place for your political beliefs? or as an excuse to bash americans, "my lovely vue de cuisine?" i felt sick reading your response, partially because of its ignorance and partially because it was gratuitously anti american.

as for the inspiration that started j.o. on his crusade to help children eat better, all one needed was to see the way children eat/ate lunches at school either school lunch or packed lunch. as much as you may wish to condemn american foodie habits for all the ills in the world (many do). the fact is that i never EVER EVER saw such lunches in america as i saw when i took my daughter to live in britain: the standard lunch was: crisps. choc bar, fizzy drink. mothers gave this to their children!

the crusade for good food for children is long over due, both here and in america where its been undersway for a while......such as the from farm to school program of the san francisco unified school district, or alice waters program in berkely, or the jewish high school in san francisco whose food is really good, vegetarian and healthy too!

but sorry, when i saw j.o. dishing out salmon risotto i just wanted to scream along with the kids: hey, where are the chips? but the chicken that the dinner lady made looked marvelous.

[reuvens]

is this really the place for your political beliefs?  or as an excuse to bash americans, "my lovely vue de cuisine?" i felt sick reading your response, partially because of its ignorance and partially because it was gratuitously anti american.

as for the inspiration that started j.o. on his crusade to help children eat better,  all one needed was to see the way children eat/ate lunches at school either school lunch or packed lunch. as much as you may wish to condemn american foodie habits for all the ills in the world (many do). the fact is that i never EVER EVER saw such lunches in america as i saw when i took my daughter to live in britain: the standard lunch was: crisps. choc bar, fizzy drink. mothers gave this to their children!

the crusade for good food for children is long over due, both here and in america where its been undersway for a while......such as the from farm to school program of the san francisco unified school district, or alice waters program in berkely, or the jewish high school in san francisco whose food is really good, vegetarian and healthy too!

but sorry, when i saw j.o. dishing out salmon risotto i just wanted to scream along with the kids: hey, where are the chips? but the chicken that the dinner lady made looked marvelous.

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how can you title a critic an anti american? i love the americans as i worked almost a year in lovely san francisco. what i wanted to say was that if jamie oliver is calling mr. clinton a "wanker" then it is nothing against some "bad stuff" that mr.clinton did while he was the president. don´t be ignorant and just let it go for a second.

i apologize if you felt sick,

now do i.....

back to the thread please,

vue

[Gul_Dekar]

Obviously this program is a win-win situation for Mr. Oliver, isn't it? If he succeeds, he'll be hailed as the TV chef that helped improve Britain's school dinners. If he fails, he'll still be seen as one of the 1st to try. He'll still have good run of publicity, gain the approval of concerned parents and will sell millions of copies of books as a result. But the fact is, he's a celebrity, and celebrities have a certain image they need to uphold in order to remain one. J.O.'s is the 'good boy' image, which is why he's done programs like this and 'Jamie's Kitchen'.

I find nothing wrong with this, since it does ultimately help educate a certain portion of the population about the importance of kid's health. Quite on the contrary, I think using one's celebrity status for a good cause is commendable, whatever his real intentions may be. I mean there are celebs out there who use their status for far worse things.

I guess i'm just trying to look at this from as unbiased a view as possible, though I suppose it's not really possible.

Edited March 21, 2005 by Gul_Dekar (log)

[Dani Mc]

hiya dani,

no i'm sure not everyone knew about his post procedural diet, but i'm sure that his "people" would have noted menus etc as being within what he was able to eat. I don't think they would have just sprung it all at the last minute, as in: here we are at a dinner party, and i can't eat anything on the menu!  j.o. did say that his people looked at the menu and approved it, so........i'm sure that they would have approved it dependant on what his requirements were. i just think that the hissy fit he threw telling the student that all the food he made specially would now just get thrown out, and then refuse to meet with clinton when the latter wanted to say hello.......it all just doesn't ring true to me.  for some reason.

but again, mybe i'm a cynical old hag. (hope not, but sometimes).......

x m

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I'm sure you are not an old hag, and sometimes its good to be cynical. but I understand the cathartic power of a good hissy, and it probably made his staff feel a bit better to know he was on their side.

or maybe its all a load of crap.

I'm just glad he made those little buggers try some salad.

I'm trying to remember what we had available when I was in school. I'm 28 now, so this is 80's through mid 90's.

Elementary school was pretty balanced, though disgusting. Its no joke when he gives those dinner ladies shit for overcooking everything. I shuddered at the memory.

Junior High was spent abroad in Germany. I was at an American school, and I remember the food being passable for school food. There were school groups who had BBQ grills set up for burgers, chicken and wursts, and the bread was always fresh from the local bakery. I usually went home for lunch, but damn, I remember those wursts being a good treat. Pretty ok salad bar.

Highschool was back in the states, and almost as bad as what is portrayed on the show. Lots of nasty burgers, fries, hot dogs, pretzels, etc. The alternatives were overcooked, salty and swimming in grease under heat lamps. There WAS a salad bar at least, and lots of kids DID actually use it. Soda machines everywhere, afterschool groups selling candy all hours of the day. Classes were just a market place for the Snickers and Kitkat trade. I brought my lunch most of the time. Two years before I got there, there was a SMOKING QUAD at school (if you were an 18 year old senior, all you had to do was bring a note from your parents, and you could light up in between classes with the faculty!)

I have no idea what its like now, but I can only imagine its gotten much worse. Its so sad. First they cut arts funding, then sports, and food is probably been cut back so much already, they can't take anymore away there. Didn't Supersize Me say that lots of schools were 'sponsored' by McD's and Taco Bell?

[marlena spieler]

how can you title a critic an anti american? i love the americans as i worked almost a year in lovely san francisco. what i wanted to say was that if jamie oliver is calling mr. clinton a "wanker" then it is nothing against some "bad stuff" that mr.clinton did while he was the president. don´t be ignorant and just let it go for a second.

i apologize if you felt sick,

now do i.....

back to the thread please,

vue

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?????

how do you title a critic anti american? if anyone is biased whether a critic or not, or says things without substantiating them, well they are anti or pro whatever... ..american or whatever the subject is.

to just throw out a "he did "bad stuff" accusation is not very "critical".

and one can easily be anti american having lived in america previously, I know many who fit into this category. and in fact, many americans are anti-american, so it doesn't hold water, as they say.

one thing i do agree with you however, is this: back to the thread.

[marlena spieler]

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I'm sure you are not an old hag, and sometimes its good to be cynical............

I'm trying to remember what we had available when I was in school. I'm 28 now, so this is 80's through mid 90's.

Elementary school was pretty balanced, though disgusting. Its no joke when he gives those dinner ladies shit for overcooking everything. I shuddered at the memory.

Junior High was spent abroad in Germany. I was at an American school, and I remember the food being passable for school food. There were school groups who had BBQ grills set up for burgers, chicken and wursts, and the bread was always fresh from the local bakery. I usually went home for lunch, but damn, I remember those wursts being a good treat. Pretty ok salad bar.

Highschool was back in the states, and almost as bad as what is portrayed on the show. Lots of nasty burgers, fries, hot dogs, pretzels, etc. The alternatives were overcooked, salty and swimming in grease under heat lamps. There WAS a salad bar at least, and lots of kids DID actually use it. Soda machines everywhere, afterschool groups selling candy all hours of the day. Classes were just a market place for the Snickers and Kitkat trade. I brought my lunch most of the time. Two years before I got there, there was a SMOKING QUAD at school (if you were an 18 year old senior, all you had to do was bring a note from your parents, and you could light up in between classes with the faculty!)

.......... Didn't Supersize Me say that lots of schools were 'sponsored' by McD's and Taco Bell?

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Schools being sponsored by McD's and Taco Bell is a shame on society. (and don't some hospitals have mdD's doing their cafeterias?)

smoking quad: what was the school thinking?

But the good news is that from what I"ve been reading, school lunches are getting better, at least in the s.f. area. i recently tapped into the country day schools throughout northern california to see what the various lunches were and it was fascinating the difference.

i like your idea of sharing our school lunch experiences.

when the cafeteria came to our school with its school lunches we all tried them out for a few of our formative years; when we hit junior high school lunch bags were the trendy thing, none of this "baby" balanced meal crap.

what i remember most was the trays with its indentations for different foods. and how the food was very different from anything we ate at home. no fried stuff or burgers though. and we always had something crunchy like carrot sticks, and also half a butter sandwich, white bread on one side, whole wheat on the other, cut on the diagonal. we had lets see, spanish rice, pizza on french bread, fish sticks every two weeks (i didn't like them), mashed potato with meatloaf-y stuff, and what i really did love, very sticky rice served in scoops (!) with a ladle of ground meat sauce on top. thinking about it makes me shudder today, but still there was something about the stickiness of the rice, so comforting, and the meaty sauce that made it my favourite of anything they served. i think there were tacos sometimes too but they weren't as good as those at home, or at the local taqueria. i think that peas and corn were a common accompaniment. i don't remember fresh vegetables besides the raw crunchies but they must have been there in one guise or another.

i mean the meals were kinda weird but also very interesting in that even as a small child i thought: ah, this is the way other americans eat?

and we did NOT have machines selling soft drinks and chocolate bars, though when you reached junior high you could go to the snack shack and buy these things, as well as crispy salted snacks such as crisps. (i confess to buying my share of cheese-puffs).

on the other hand, when my daughter went to pre school in san fran (Phoebe Hearst Center for Learning) they had the most wonderful school lunch experience. Each class of about 8 to 10 children sat down at a little table together, with the teacher, and ate family style. Each child was only required to take a taste, a teeny taste, and after that they could then have as much as they wanted of whatever they liked. I credit this approach for my daughter's open minded pleasures of eating. (the only bad moments were when they had tuna with noodles, i think she still shudders at having to taste that!)

a lot of the thing about school lunches pertains to culture as well as nutrition. in addition to getting the food to a more healthy level, we need to think about the statements that the food we're sending out says and how the children relate to it.

x marlena

[FoodMan]

what channel is this show on?

[VeryApe77]

what channel is this show on?

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I think it's only in the UK right now. We might get it in a couple of years (or, like Boiling Point, 7 years)

[Shalmanese]

If you know where to look, you CAN get copies of it off the internet.

The Economisthad a very insightful article on it this week.

I think it's free for non-subscribers but heres the main gist of it:

The main problem in school meal economics is not that schools are short of cash, but that they, and parents, are scared of making themselves unpopular with children. Only 45% of children eat school dinners. Double that, and the average cost of a meal—which includes fixed costs such as labour and administration, as well as the grub itself—comes crashing down, leaving more room for good ingredients.

[Dani Mc]

we download ours off of bittorrent

Loads of BBC docs and series.