Jamie Oliver Gets Cooking in Rotherham
Episode 2: Get The Men To Pass It On
Jamie Oliver has already tackled the sorry state of school dinners in Britain. Now, in his latest Channel 4 series, he wants to spread his healthy eating message at grass roots level. He has come to the Yorkshire town of Rotherham to get the people off takeaways and back into the kitchen again. Starting with eight volunteers who have never cooked in their lives, Jamie will teach them 10 recipes; they will pass the recipes to two more people, who will in turn pass them on to two more, and so on. Can it work, or will apathy take over if Jamie isn’t there to spur them on?
Following the promising start in Episode 1, it appears that is precisely what has happened. After two months, the eight students have passed on only one recipe to 20 other people – not exactly the result Jamie was hoping for. They’ve been too busy with other things and just haven’t gotten around to spreading the word. Julie Critchlow, Jamie’s old nemesis from his School Dinners campaign, has had doubts about the Pass It On project from the start. “They want to learn to cook, don’t get me wrong, but they only want to do it for them, they don’t want to pass it on, they can’t be bothered.”
Surely All The Best Chefs Are Men
To get the momentum back in the campaign, this week Jamie decides to tackle the largest group of non-cooks in town – the men. The prevailing attitude amongst the male of the species appears to be that cooking is for women, and a “real man” wouldn’t go near a kitchen. So how to change the habit of a lifetime? Braving the lion’s den (Rotherham United football ground) he tempts the supporters with steak sandwiches to try and get some volunteers to show up for a mass Pass It On demonstration. One man observes “Unless it involves a chip pan, he’s no chance”. Of the 5,000 at the game, only 98 put their names down. So far, not great.
Much to Jamie’s delight, the Pass It On, back at the football ground, is a roaring success. With a recipe obviously designed to appeal to their macho side – bashing a piece of chicken with a pan and then frying it up with some veggies – the hard men of Rotherham take to it like a duck to water. By the end of the session every one of the 98 men has not only cooked, but shown others how to cook as well. Many could not believe how easy it was and, perhaps more importantly, their male pride survived intact. Could some of these enthusiastic converts prompt the less committed members of his class to start passing on the recipes?
Noses Are Definitely Out of Joint
So it seems to be one step forward (new recruits) and two steps back (one member of the class quits, and some are less than pleased to have new faces introduced, fearing they are about to be replaced). And Jamie is still nowhere near his goal of spreading the message throughout the town, even after an hour-long appearance on BBC Radio Sheffield. Is this too big a project even for him? No doubt next week will see him up the stakes once again. Preferably with less swearing, unless he’s attempting to replace Gordon Ramsay as the most foul-mouthed chef in Britain.
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