

To think that Jamie Oliver is a Goady goady mc judgy pants personified!

(512 Posts)
LEMisdisappointed Tue 27-Aug-13 09:53:07

judgey much?

It reads like a clip from the daily mail - actually, it probably is!

Now there are people, i have a friend who can make an amazing meal out of apparently nothing (she is italian though!) in ten minutes flat - although she has lots of those ingredients that are expensive to buy in the first place but go a long way,i would never know what to do with them!

I am such a boring cook, i have a small repertoire (sp) of meals that i cook - over and over again, the ingredients in my cupboard are basic because i can't afford capers and porcinni mushrooms etc. I rarely fall back on ready meals and feed my family healthily. But its boring really and i can understand why some people use ready meals - time, money - So yeah, making your own pizza will be cheaper than dominos or tesco fineset but it is not going to be cheaper than icelands £1 pizza is it? Not from scratch, not from the start - yes if you divide the amount of pizzas your flour, cheese, tomato sauce and anything else you want to put on it by 20 it might be cheaper but those ingredients have to be bought in the first place.

See, I would welcome cheap and easy ways to make my meals more exciting and thankfully we are not on the breadline this month, but im not going to watch that smug little bastard telling me how i can just knock out some pucker tucker out of a packet of anchovies and dust from the cupboard!

I have always thought him a smug twat - this confirms it!

I can't stand watching him on the telly, I like some of his recipes but I've never found them to be particularly cheap to make either.

He is a bit of a smug tosser, I agree.

ChocsAwayInMyGob Tue 27-Aug-13 10:02:11

You need a lot of money to cook like Jamie. I use ready meals sometimes, but the majority of my food is made form scratch and/or in my beloved slow cooker.

How can he know what it's like to be a busy Mum on a budget who's just got in from work?

scarletforya Argentina Tue 27-Aug-13 10:02:28

I didn't read it but it sounds like the usual shite he peddles. He's not a very bright man, who can cook. Ho hum.

He's managed to spin a career out of that but instead of just shutting up and appreciating his good luck, it's gone to his head and he's under the illusion that his opinions are important/interesting.

He's dreary.

mrsjay Tue 27-Aug-13 10:03:04

I agree with you he is so smug I wonder how it doesn't choke him grin I can't watch him dh likes his smug save the nation programmes they get right on my wick, yanbu

waltzingmathilda Tue 27-Aug-13 10:04:03

You dont need to have a cupboard full of expensive ingredients, that is an excuse, you swap porcini mushrooms for button, and capers for peppers, all perfectly cheap and affordable in the supermarket.

He's right in that a large proportion of British women - this is aimed at the British market - are bloody awful cooks who can only flip the lid and wait for the ding of the microwave.

Hands up, I have used ding meals too when short on time. But they are expensive, small portions and not really worth the effort nor expense.

You also just know that those who have a reliance on ding dinners, will also have a cupboard full of crap snacks because a ding dinner doesnt fill you up. And if you are going to buy a ding dinner you aren't going to be in the fruit aisle either

catgirl1976 England Tue 27-Aug-13 10:05:14

I actually think he is right, although he has come across as very smug in the way he has said it.

The marketing done by fast food and convenience foods producers has really entrenched the idea that it's a cheap way to eat.

We should be judging these companies and the way they are allowed to advertise IMO

I haven't been able to stand him since the turkey twizzlers saga grin

SeaSickSal Tue 27-Aug-13 10:08:07

Jamie Oliver is a slack jawed cunt. Apparently people are all judgey and horrible to him when they point out that he's a fat git but it's fine for him to point out other people are fat gits.

mrsjay Tue 27-Aug-13 10:08:22

I agree with catgirl she is not smug grin I dont use ping or ready meals not out of any smugness or that im a great cook but it was working out really expensive when i did buy them , but jamie is expecting us to use the dust out of the cupboard and sprinkle it over our pan fried monkfish in a lemon sauce ,

LEMisdisappointed Tue 27-Aug-13 10:12:15


I can't actually find the words to pull you up on your sexist comment right there, hopefully someone else will!

LookingThroughTheFog Tue 27-Aug-13 10:12:42

LEM, we have a similar cooking routine to yours. We do big vats of chilli, bolognaise and stew once a month, then it gets divided and frozen for the rest of the month. Healthy and nourishing, and not stupidly expensive if we buy the cheap meat, but boring as hell month in month out. We supplement with beans on toast or pasta-and-sauce or sausages and spuds (shopbought) just to shake things up a bit through the week.

It's not just money; it's time. I have discovered I can make 3 loaves of bread for the price of 1 sliced. However this has not been a good economy so far as the bread is so tasty we eat loads of it in big chunks. Also, the only way to make it work timing wise is to leave it proving overnight, then cooking it in the morning while we're also trying to get the children ready for school and ourselves up and out the door to work. Trying to ram something else into that time just isn't practical.

So yeah, Jamie can Judgy McJudgypants me as much as he wants. Most of us are just trying to do the best we can with the resources available.

CoffeeTea103 Tue 27-Aug-13 10:14:02

He has a point even if he does come across smug. I bought his 15 minute meals book. Given that you initially have to buy a few of the ingredients but you use them throughout! And if you group together the meals with the same ingredients you are really cooking smart and tasty as well. I have tried and tested this and have to admit his recipes are really that simple and healthy.

With cooking you learn over time how to substitute ingredients. Just need practice.

PrincessFlirtyPants Tue 27-Aug-13 10:14:30

He may have a very valid point, however, he acts so Professor Judgy von Holier-than-thou that it doesn't come across in the right way.

waltzingmathilda Tue 27-Aug-13 10:15:54

I can be as sexist as I like - I'm female. So you run along with all your feminist angst and work out an insult or two for me. Face boithered?

LEMisdisappointed Tue 27-Aug-13 10:17:36

I hear you re the bread lookingthroughthefog we went through a phase of making our own bread, both by hand and with the bread maker and yes, you can make the loaves cheaper but they just get scoffed and everyone knows that too much bread makes you fat! Also they don't keep like shop bought rubber bread.

Thaumatrope Tue 27-Aug-13 10:17:57

He's right, but...
I would be ashamed to be part of the whole 'demonising the poor' vibe that is going around right now.
What have tvs got to do with anything? He is saying people spend money they can't afford on expensive food, and they can save money by learning how to cook better. The tv line was just yet another cheap shot, a la DM.
And presumably people will need a telly to actually watch his show on.

limitedperiodonly Tue 27-Aug-13 10:18:26

If poor people spent more money on artisan bread and less on widescreen TVs they wouldn't have to watch this complete cunt patronising them.

Elsiequadrille Tue 27-Aug-13 10:18:41

He seems rather cross about big TVs. Presumably if they sell the TVs they (the poor) can divert the funds into better food than, what was it he said they ate? Oh yes, cheesy chips, I think.

HellonHeels Tue 27-Aug-13 10:18:53

I like Jamie Oliver.

And I reckon he was right about the turkey twizzler business too.

SmiteYouWithThunderbolts Tue 27-Aug-13 10:19:55

I can be as sexist as I like - I'm female - hmm confused

Does this get the Bullshit Comment of the Year award?

wordfactory Tue 27-Aug-13 10:21:01

I don't like his tone. And I don't think he would understand the poor in the UK if they bit him on the arse....

But he is completely correct about old fashioned peasant cooking in other cultures. Ways to make cheap staples tasty and nutritious have been passed down the generations and continue to be cooked today.

This simply isn't the case in the UK.

LookAtTheTwain Tue 27-Aug-13 10:22:16

I like Jamie Oliver <shrugs>

dexter73 Tue 27-Aug-13 10:22:27


The best thing I have read on MN for ages!!grin

LEMisdisappointed Tue 27-Aug-13 10:22:32

He does have a point princess it is a shame he is such a twat about it and his point gets lost. DP did buy a recipe book of his years ago - the food was shite! We need delia smith to come back with her motherly advice and good home cooking, i do not need michelin starred food on my table, just something yummy and comforting can you tell im hungry

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