Yes he’s back on the telly, cooking not lecturing or hectoring. The pans still twirl like Keith Moon’s drumsticks, but he’s maturing nicely and is much more tasteful
Have you been watching the TV show? Quick & Easy Food on Channel 4? I certainly have. I’m sick of the new crowd of TV chefs, I want a real chef who knows what he or she is doing because they were trained in how to do it.
You can see in every move Jamie Oliver makes, for example, that for all his easy attitude he’s been schooled in precision and economy of action in the the kitchen. And in this series he’s gone for economy of ingredients too, promising easy meals made in minutes because, all together now,’we all have such busy lives nowadays.’
I reckon my great grandma would have laughed at that, what with having no washing machine, dishwasher, fridge or microwave. Busy? We don’t know we’re born.
Five ingredients I can get right behind, though. Too much food in restaurant is made of up too many things and nothing gets to shine,
Five ingredients, but a heck of a lot of recipes, over 130, divided up by salad, pasta,eggs, chicken, fish, vegetables (always’veg’ in Jamie’s book, literally), beef, pork, lamb rice and noodles and sweets.
One recipe, one photo on a double page spread, so it’s simple to use. I really hate recipe books where the instructions go over a page. Last thing you need when everything’s boiling and frying furiously is to start flipping pages over.
If you’ve been watching the TV series, and if not why not, then you’ll have a good idea of what to expect and the good news is that there is more of it. Browsing the book I can’t really find anything I don’t fancy eating, and that’s only because I am not a big fan of desserts.
If I had one criticism it would be of some of the recipe names; Jamie does get a bit annoying on that front – Gnarly Garlic Brussels, Messy Meatball Buns, Lovely Lamb Hotpots. It’s the sort of thing Ainsley Harriott used to do and I didn’t like it then.
But hey, it’s Jamie isn’t it. That’s his schtick, the difference between Jamie and other schtick merchants is that he delivers the goods under the banter. This book is destined to get a lot of use and so get very s(ch)ticky in my kitchen and I guarantee it will in yours, too.
Go on mate, buy it, luvvly jubbly.
PS Dishes now being served in Jamie’s Italian Restaurants. Read our review of Jamie’s Italian