Summer 2009
Jamie Oliver
He’s a chef, a campaigner, a restaurateur, an entrepreneur, an author, a television star, a husband, a father and a philanthropist.
Words: Mariana Grépinet, Pictures: Rex Features, Jamie magazine
You’ve asked us to cook ‘naked’, as it were, been on a crusade against junk food in school canteens and dragged us around Italy. Most recently, though, you’ve had us growing our own vegetables, which seems a much calmer prospect. What happened there?
A complete accident, that’s what. During my various trips I was always asking local producers where they obtained their seeds. I managed to buy a few packets here and there. When I got home, I planted them. Not understanding (or paying much attention to) the instructions I just planted them any way I could. It was incredible: 75 per cent of them started to sprout! Delicious! There’s something quite soothing and relaxing about seeing your own vegetables grow. It’s nature. We may be cool, but compared to nature we are so insignificant.
So is there a real difference between the fresh vegetables sold in supermarkets and those which we grow ourselves?
In a supermarket, ‘fresh’ vegetables are picked a week before, and will have already lost 25 per cent of their nutritional value. It’s not only that, though. Growing our own veggies changes the way we eat. We realise, for example, that we can eat the leaves of some things, such as beans, so we pick and cook them. Then we sit around the table with the family to eat, sharing the experience. As a nation we need to re-prioritise that way. We spend our lives working and forget about what is important: health, taste, quality time. When filming a recent documentary on the eating habits of twenty families, I found only four of them had a proper table to eat on. Incredible!
Seriously? So 80 per cent of the population no longer sit around a table to eat dinner?
Yes, especially so in central London and the large cities in the North of England. It’s strange, but it’s a new kind of poverty generated by man. Britain is one of the richest countries in the world and the people I’m talking about all have huge television sets – much bigger than mine – plus top-of-the-range mobile phones and lovely new cars. But the poverty apparent in the quality of their daily life, and in their food, is truly shocking.
I have found food cooked in the slums of Soweto in South Africa better than ours. It may sound harsh, but the food eaten by many British families is heartless, soulless and for that matter pointless. I mean, a house without a table, imagine that, and kids who don’t even know how to use a knife and fork correctly and who only eat fast food. For me, some of the most important things in life happen around a table, it should be part of everyday life. And we don’t lunch properly, either. More and more employees eat at their office desk. Why not take five minutes out to enjoy a home-made salad with a glass of wine? We snack all day long instead, on junk full of additives. And we’re surprised we feel drowsy in the afternoon! See, I’m not calmer now…
Maybe we should go back to the vegetables then… Isn’t this grow your own concept just for those who live in the countryside with a garden?
Not at all! All you need is a patio or a balcony or even a window box, a bit of sun, some water and some enthusiasm! You can grow vegetables anywhere. Tomato vines, some lettuces, parsley, herbs... Though when I suggested to Channel 4 a series helping people grow vegetables, they almost laughed in my face. So I did it on my own: filmed and produced an entire series on my own. And then sold it to 38 countries! Channel 4 ended up taking it anyway, at which point Jamie at Home pulled in more than 2.5 million viewers a week in prime time. In schools, teachers were taking the same idea on board. In less than three months the top brands of seeds sold as much as they normally sell in a year.
A simple enough idea done well, then, which – if you don’t mind me saying – could be a mantra that runs through your recipes.
I don’t mind in the slightest, simple is beautiful. I’m fed up with Michelin-starred restaurants and their ilk. I admire the work they do: they are talented, work very hard and can discover fabulous tastes. But it’s not the type of cooking I’m passionate about. I spent years working in that type of kitchen, anxious and stressed. I got tired of it. It’s not contempt. I go four or five times a year to a great restaurant and that’s enough for me. But older chefs, well-known guys, speak in an almost scientific way. For years they’ve presented cookery television programmes showing how to reproduce dishes prepared in great restaurants. I have no problem with that, except that it terrifies everyone! For me, the key is helping people cook well and quickly, on a daily basis. Ten, twenty minutes should be enough. I love the smile on a person’s face when they are proud of a dish that they have prepared and are serving to their friends and family.