Jamies Ministry of Food

[loki]

Maybe one for Food for Thought.

Did anyone catch Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food last night. I must admit that I was quite shocked to see children of 3 & 4 year old having a staple diet of Chips, Cheese and Donner Kebab meat or an assortment of take aways at least 4 times a week. Other food crimes included, not knowing what boiling water was like, some parent having a 10 pack of crisps and a Galaxy bar for supper. All set in the back drop of Britians highest risk town for obesity and related illnesses, Rotherham.

Oliver's idea is that he takes 8 people who have absolutley no culinary skills at all. They learn 10 recipes and in turn they must teach 2 people each. Then them 20 people teach 2 people each etc etc. He made some very interesting observation's that the passing on of recipes and skills has effectively stopped with our generation. Also why as tax payers paying all this money for schools that effectively close at 3.30. Why not use the time in the evenings etc to teach some very basic cooking skills and nutrition education.

As an aside, I am quite shocked to see people who can't do some very, very simple meals like Beans on toast, boil an egg or a roast dinner. I suppose it's easy to look down your nose at people like this if you can cook some food. But the statistics don't lie, where there is little in the way of educational achievement, it is no suprise that obesity usually follows.

Interesting programme whatever you think of Oliver as a food Evangilist.

[leowyatt]

Never watched it but will try and see if it is on catch up.

I do agree with what you mean about the passing along of recipes but nowadays we don't cook as much from scratch as our parents or grandparents did. Today most stuff comes in jars so you just cook the meat and add the sauce there is 0 preparation for meals.

[Desmo]

Yep, saw this the other night. Was amazed to see the mother and daughter sitting on the floor eating kebab and chips with their fingers out of the box

I mean, takeaways at least 4 nights a week....and then at then end she was crying because of money problems. I understand that circumstances change, but surely she can get a decent weeks shop with the money spent on takeaways?

Like you say, most of it is down to education. The other part is plain simple parenting.

[leowyatt]

Takeaway is done purely out of convenience IMO.

[Burble]

I've got it recorded on the Sky box, promises to be an interesting watch.

[Garp]

Originally Posted by leowyatt

I do agree with what you mean about the passing along of recipes but nowadays we don't cook as much from scratch as our parents or grandparents did. Today most stuff comes in jars so you just cook the meat and add the sauce there is 0 preparation for meals.

This kind of thing makes it utterly inexcusable for people not to be able to cook. Dym taught me most of the practical stuff I know, but whilst I almost never cooked at home, Mum had made sure I at least had the very basic skills so when I did move out I could pick up a recipe book and cook stuff.

With the amount of cooking shows on TV it's quite simply inexcusable for people to even claim that no one has taught them how to cook, and with all the attention the media plays to having a healthy diet and so on you'd think people would be trying to do something. Delia's (love her or loath her) "How To Cook" series was on TV only a handful of years ago.

Originally Posted by Desmo

Yep, saw this the other night. Was amazed to see the mother and daughter sitting on the floor eating kebab and chips with their fingers out of the box

I mean, takeaways at least 4 nights a week....and then at then end she was crying because of money problems. I understand that circumstances change, but surely she can get a decent weeks shop with the money spent on takeaways?

Kebab and chips, what's that, say £5 each? So £40 a week spent on takeaways. If it's just two mouths to feed, and you plan your meals with a tiny bit of thought you could probably eat for the entire week on £30, not just the four days

Like you say, most of it is down to education. The other part is plain simple parenting.

And laziness

[loki]

Originally Posted by Garp

This kind of thing makes it utterly inexcusable for people not to be able to cook. Dym taught me most of the practical stuff I know, but whilst I almost never cooked at home, Mum had made sure I at least had the very basic skills so when I did move out I could pick up a recipe book and cook stuff.

With the amount of cooking shows on TV it's quite simply inexcusable for people to even claim that no one has taught them how to cook, and with all the attention the media plays to having a healthy diet and so on you'd think people would be trying to do something. Delia's (love her or loath her) "How To Cook" series was on TV only a handful of years ago.



Kebab and chips, what's that, say £5 each? So £40 a week spent on takeaways. If it's just two mouths to feed, and you plan your meals with a tiny bit of thought you could probably eat for the entire week on £30, not just the four days


And laziness

I think Jamie did some quick maths for her and quite easy it totted upto about £70.00 - £80.00 a week just on takeaway food. The real shame was that after she had started to cook some food for herself, one of the parents actually looked healthier.

If the government persist in doing fat taxes on high fat, high sugar food then I think a percentage of that should go back into educating people on food and nutirion. It doesn't have to be haute cuisine. Just the basics on what is good food what is bad food etc. Surely that would work out cheaper in the long run than the cost to the country as a whole