[Ammi]

Jamie Oliver has said he struggles to talk about modern poverty after seeing families living on junk food but spending money on enormous televisions.

The chef, who has previously worked with ministers to improve school food, said he was baffled by struggling Britons who relied on expensive ready meals.

Oliver, 38, who has an estimated fortune of £150m, recalled being appalled by one family when filming a campaigning programme.

He said: "I'm not judgmental, but I've spent a lot of time in poor communities, and I find it quite hard to talk about modern-day poverty.

"You might remember that scene in Ministry Of Food, with the mum and the kid eating chips and cheese out of Styrofoam containers, and behind them is a massive ******* TV. It just didn't weigh up."

Poor communities in other countries took a different approach and used cheap food products but still ate healthily, Oliver told the Radio Times.

"Some of the most inspirational food in the world comes from areas where people are financially challenged," he said.

"The flavour comes from a cheap cut of meat, or something that's slow-cooked, or an amazing texture's been made out of leftover stale bread."

He added: "Seven times out of 10, the poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods.

"I meet people who say, 'You don't understand what it's like.' I just want to hug them and teleport them to the Sicilian street cleaner who has 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes, and a packet of spaghetti for 60 pence, and knocks out the most amazing pasta.

"You go to Italy or Spain and they eat well on not much money. We've missed out on that in Britain, somehow."

Oliver, who is promoting a new Channel 4 show Jamie's Money Saving Meals, urged people to go to their local market instead of the supermarket.

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) insisted low income could be a barrier to healthy eating and attacked the Government for a lack of support.

Head of policy Imran Hussain said evidence showed poorer parents were less likely to be able to afford fresh fruit for children, and that they spent more on healthy food if their incomes rose.

"The huge hits many working and non-working families are taking in their incomes as a result of cuts in tax credits and benefits are very real, as is the resulting huge growth in demand for food banks. The Government's child poverty strategy is seriously adrift and urgently needs rethinking," he said.

Helen Berresford, Save The Children 's head of campaigns, added: "In these hard economic times, many of us are looking for ways to save money and get more for less.

"It's important that we do not lose sight of the tough reality for so many low-income families who are doing the best they can while struggling with high food costs, rising energy bills and childcare costs."

The Department of Work and Pensions insisted it had taken steps to address the cost of living, such as increasing the income tax threshold and freezing council tax and fuel duty.

A spokesman added: "Our welfare reforms with the introduction of Universal Credit will make three million households better off - the majority of these from the bottom two-fifths of the income scale."

[billy123]

Originally Posted by Ammi

Jamie Oliver has said he struggles to talk about modern poverty after seeing families living on junk food but spending money on enormous televisions.

The chef, who has previously worked with ministers to improve school food, said he was baffled by struggling Britons who relied on expensive ready meals.

Oliver, 38, who has an estimated fortune of £150m, recalled being appalled by one family when filming a campaigning programme.

He said: "I'm not judgmental, but I've spent a lot of time in poor communities

He added: "Seven times out of 10, the poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods.

"I meet people who say, 'You don't understand what it's like.' I just want to hug them and teleport them to the Sicilian street cleaner who has 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes, and a packet of spaghetti for 60 pence, and knocks out the most amazing pasta.

"You go to Italy or Spain and they eat well on not much money. We've missed out on that in Britain, somehow."

It is so easy to preach when you live in an ivory tower.
The lad has done well for himself and good on him but he has absolutely no concept of what its like for people fighting for their lives just to survive in this ****hole of a country.
You couldnt even buy a pot noodle for 60p in this country.
-------

Tesco Cherry tomatoes £2 http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Produ.../?id=259945562

Tesco Mussels £3 http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Produ.../?id=277130623

Tesco spaghetti £0.95 http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Produ.../?id=255340327

Total: 5p short of £6 not quite the 60p the prick claims it costs is it.
Magic me off to sicily if you like! but this isnt sicily is it you moron.

He is such a pretentious prick.

The silly twat really gets on my nerves and i know he is vain enough to google his name daily if he wanted to sign up and explain his ignorance here he could but he wouldnt dare.

[thesheriff443]

the bloke is a complete c*ck!
11 years he tried to shove sainsburys products down are throats.

He does actually speak some truth, but it's also misguided.

The lifestyle in the Mediterranean is extremely different to the UK. The climate being the biggest factor. Poor people are often confined to their front rooms ,because who wants to catch frost bite from sitting outside sharing a meal with the neighbours in October?

It's also easier to grow produce over there and reduce your costs, and I'm sure if you live in a coastal village, mussels do cost next to nothing, but probably not in inner city UK. Birmingham may have more canals than Venice, but it's not fertile breeding ground for beautiful seafood.

There are many factors that contribute to the issues Jamie tries to talk about, and it's not simply a case of food versus TV.

[arista]

Originally Posted by thesheriff443

the bloke is a complete c*ck!
11 years he tried to shove sainsburys products down are throats.

Yes very annoying , that

[Z]

Originally Posted by Jesus.

He does actually speak some truth, but it's also misguided.

The lifestyle in the Mediterranean is extremely different to the UK. The climate being the biggest factor. Poor people are often confined to their front rooms ,because who wants to catch frost bite from sitting outside sharing a meal with the neighbours in October?

It's also easier to grow produce over there and reduce your costs, and I'm sure if you live in a coastal village, mussels do cost next to nothing, but probably not in inner city UK. Birmingham may have more canals than Venice, but it's not fertile breeding ground for beautiful seafood.

There are many factors that contribute to the issues Jamie tries to talk about, and it's not simply a case of food versus TV.

I agree. He makes a good point that people choose convenience at their own cost rather than being cost effective and getting a little creative with their cooking. Most of us are guilty of it. People go to one supermarket to get everything they need rather than doing a little research to find out where they can get things the cheapest. People waste so much food by not using it up and having to throw it out. One of my friends makes sandwiches for the week; puts 6 in the freezer and then the night before each new day she takes one out to defrost it for the morning. I'd never even thought to do that until she mentioned that she did that one day, I thought it was a genius idea. Vegetables are not expensive, you can make a crazy amount of soup and, again, freeze it and use when necessary, for such a relatively low amount... but present people with the option of planning ahead and doing some cooking; or sticking the oven on and putting a pizza in for 20 minutes, and more often than not they'll take the latter option. They see the individual costs of ingredients to make a week's worth of soup and think that buying a pizza is the better option because, for example, you can get a pizza for £2 from some supermarkets - but do that every day and suddenly you've spent £14 on a week's worth of dinners versus say £5 to buy a bunch of vegetables and stock and store the soup in containers. Makes me angry.

I wouldn't call him a friend because I dislike him a lot, but an acquaintance of mine falls into this trap... he's a student, like me, and he gets a lot of financial assistance from the government because of his background... and now he's living in his own flat and just lives off of pizza every single day, and he's always complaining about how he has no money at the end of the month; whereas I'll make a big pot of soup like curried banana and only spend a couple of quid buying onions, bananas, some curry powder, ginger and stock cubes and I'll be eating for days... I live on less of a budget than he does, and I've never been skint for more than about 3/4 days before I get paid again.

[Livia]

I have a friend who's a primary school teacher in a poor part of Leicester. She told me once that she's sometimes struck that the kids who obviously go to school with no breakfast are often from homes that have a massive TV, Sky, PS3, Xbox, Wii, an Iphone... but no table to sit together to eat a meal.

I think Jamie Oliver is right... but obviously not in all, or even most cases... but there is truth in what he says.

[Vicky.]

From my experience, it has always seemed cheaper to buy 'junk' food than fresh?

You can get a giant bag of chicken nuggets for £1.50, and a big bag of own brand chips for under £1. And that would do a few meals.

Eating healthier increases the cost of your shopping, or it did for me :/

[Vicky.]

Also LOL at the TV argument that always seems to come up when discussing poor people

[Z]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

From my experience, it has always seemed cheaper to buy 'junk' food than fresh?

You can get a giant bag of chicken nuggets for £1.50, and a big bag of own brand chips for under £1. And that would do a few meals.

Eating healthier increases the cost of your shopping, or it did for me :/

Yeah, that's why there's such an obesity problem in the UK. Fatty convenience foods are so readily available, cheap and easy to cook that it's the easy option for people who don't have the time to spend an hour cooking a meal. I do it, most people do it, but there is something to be said for learning a few basic skills in the kitchen. You buy a massive bag of rice or pasta and that's enough to last weeks. You can be really creative with the cheapest ingredients; but there's a lack of education about food and diet so of course people are drawn towards tasty, cheap meals that are ready made. Why wouldn't they be? But Jamie Oliver is right... even if he's got the most arsey way of expressing his views.

[Nedusa]

Jamie Oliver has made his money over £150M we read, now he is looking at self promotion and publicity for his massive ego. I've no doubt he sincerely believes his own mantra and to be honest there is more than a little truth in it, however the way the message is preached by this smug, chirpy,cheeky chappie is patronising in the extreme.

He is at best an average chef like thousands of hard working chefs but he was in the right place at the right time and found his niche in the TV chef world. I don't begrudge the hard work he has put in but now he is able to afford to eat practically anything he wants and he must know poverty usually results in poor diet choices as fast food and convenience foods are cheaper but are of poorer quality also.

So I feel this latest outburst is him perhaps looking to promote a new series on TV or a new Book either way its not going to change the eating habits of millions of impoverished people struggling in one of the longest and hardest recessions of modern times.

[michael21]

Jamie Oliver i am sorry to the fan of him but who give a flying pleeeep what he says

[CaudleHalbard]

Originally Posted by michael21

Jamie Oliver i am sorry to the fan of him but who give a flying pleeeep what he says

The government tends to take notice of him.

[smudgie]

Not a Jamie Oliver fan, but he has hit the nail on the head.

Never used ready meals when my kids were younger, now I do buy the ccasional one or two because as I get older I have become lazier.
Tends to be the ready made salads though, don't like cooking in the summer heat.

[Ellen]

I just want to hug them and teleport them to the Sicilian street cleaner who has 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes, and a packet of spaghetti for 60 pence, and knocks out the most amazing pasta.

I would love to be able to buy 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes & a packet of spaghetti for 60p in this country!
The only thing you might get for 60p or less is the pasta so his comparison is silly.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Ellen

I just want to hug them and teleport them to the Sicilian street cleaner who has 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes, and a packet of spaghetti for 60 pence, and knocks out the most amazing pasta.

I would love to be able to buy 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes & a packet of spaghetti for 60p in this country!
The only thing you might get for 60p or less is the pasta so his comparison is silly.

Yeah, bit of a stupid comparison really. In pretty much every other country (or maybe all of them..not sure) most things are so much cheaper than they are here..so obviously the cost of living will be lower. Their wages tend to be lower too though, so it does even itself out. But its not fair to compare our prices to theirs really..without addressing this

When I lived in greece, a weeks shopping (including fags) cost me about a tenner. Here, its pushing £50. Mind my wages were 600 euro per month. Which was about £400 or so.

[LemonJam]

I can't take anything this guy says seriously after he went so hard to get healthy school dinners but then became pretty chubby himself.

[Ellen]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Yeah, bit of a stupid comparison really. In pretty much every other country (or maybe all of them..not sure) most things are so much cheaper than they are here..so obviously the cost of living will be lower. Their wages tend to be lower too though, so it does even itself out. But its not fair to compared our prices to theirs really..without addressing this

When I lived in greece, a weeks shopping (including fags) cost me about a tenner. Here, its pushing £50. Mind my wages were 600 euro per month. Which was about £400 or so.

Exactly Vicky
The food here has gone up & up, in fact everything has but in the main wages have not or if they have it is not enough to cover how much food prices have risen. Im sure most of us have seen an increase in our food bills but not so much in our wages.
I would quite like to see Jamie live on a low budget without all the help he gets, gardener/home help/nanny/well stocked herb & veg garden/well stocked larder,cupboards and see how he gets on working a 5-6 day week, looking after a house, feeding his family day in day out.

[Marsh.]

Eating healthy is a constant expense, buying a TV isn't. It's not as if it's a choice of one or the other either.

Flat screen TVs are hardly as expensive as they were years ago. How does he know these people haven't bought it second hand? Been given it by family? Got it on credit?

Do people have to sit in an empty room in the house (because they can't afford to go out to places) just to make people like him feel confident that "Oh, yes, these people are in fact poor". Does he want them to sell their few luxuries and belongings to pay for food bills? What happens when all their belongings have been sold and they still struggle through their food bills? Why deny what is sometimes a little bit of happiness in an otherwise tough life. God forbid they want a TV or computer to provide a little entertainment and escapism from the daily situation.

He's so quick to make out the majority of the poor are the very small minority who cheat the benefits system (just like there are cheats and criminals in all walks of life).
It's Daily Mail bull****ting at its worst.

If he doesn't like supermarkets then don't spend 10 years ****ing endorsing them.

When he's curbed his gluttonous eating and got himself to a healthy weight then I'll be able to take it seriously when he lectures others on a healthy diet.

Middle class prick who has no idea what it means to struggle.

[Kizzy]

I have to say Jamie does seem to have done more than most to raise awareness especially of the slop that was being dished to children at school lunchtimes.
However unlikeable he may be I feel his heart is in the right place, and wouldn't say his comments are patronising.
His example of a healthy meal is something that is local and cheap to the area, I doubt he meant we should al be eating mussles.

Comments like this make me annoyed...
''The Department of Work and Pensions insisted it had taken steps to address the cost of living, such as increasing the income tax threshold and freezing council tax and fuel duty''

What good is that to low income families, those who earn less than 10k?
Then we have £125 council tax for all when previously those on benefits paid nothing,
as well as bedroom tax.
Those on the lowest income can't afford to run a car either.... This is how out of touch the DWP are.

[arista]

"I feel his heart is in the right place,I feel his heart is in the right place"



Yes he needs to do more Docu's Ch4HD
helping young cooks learn more, again.

[Kizzy]

I don't know why he gets such a bad press tbh, he has done some great things to raise awareness in areas of nutrition, health and education.

[joeysteele]

I do get rather irritated by people like Jamie Oliver who are in the main very well off themselves making these odd comments as to people who have far less wealth than they have.

The TV comparison is ridiculous, once purchased it is bought, no more outlay, obviously if you have sky there will be some outlay each month and the detestable Licence to pay for but why do these sort of luxuries seemingly have to be denied to the people at the lower end of the scale.
These things can be got for rather small weekly payments,they are not always bought outright by people with very low incomes.
Also, I know of someone who was handed a large screen TV when one of their family upgaded to a newer one,they also as a christmas present pay for the licence each year too for them so in that one case there is really no outlay to get the TV.
That is just one instance.

He does talk sense though as these meals people buy that are ready meals are mostly fine for a snack or the odd time but not nutritious enough and can be more costly than making meals by cooking.
Wherein lies another problem, I can cook enough,having watched my Grandmother and Mum doing so from being little.
I do find it surprising how many people I come across who haven't an idea as to how to prepare or cook a meal for several people.
Cooking dinners is almost out the window I find too,yet that doesn't have to cost that much to do and can feed a good few people too.

So for me, I think cooking should be taught in schools.to both sexes.
It is true vegetables and fruit,for instance, can be bought cheaper on markets than at a supermarket and it is amazing how cheaply you can make meals by shopping around more at such places.
All the ingredients shown by Jamie in his programmes, are not all necessary to the dish he makes so the cost can be reduced that way too.

A female friend of mine at Uni, had no idea how to make mashed potato for instance, I really believed she was joking me.
She always bought the frozen packets of it.

I will resist the temptation to go into too much as to the DWP and universal credit, this Govt,has hammered people on the lowest incomes, everyone is going to be worse off in 2015 than they were in 2010 but they have been absolutely sledgehammered by this Govt.
The welfare reforms have caused massive difficulties on already difficult situations for people on benefits and universal credit will cause many more too.
The move to paying all benefits monthly will make for more problems too.

However, Jamie does make some good points and I would welcome anything and anyone that may set out to help advise and ease the food and cost of living burdens on people, especially those on the lowest incomes and ensure they get good nutritious meals.
Without though having a dig at them having TVs,so to then belittle those good points such people may be making at the time.

[Ammi]

..ooops he did it again...

The television chef, Jamie Oliver, has said that if his restaurants had to rely on British staff rather than European immigrants they would close.

Oliver said that immigrants were "stronger" and "tougher" than their British counterparts who tended to "whinge" about too long hours.

He said that he had mothers telephoning him to say that their sons were “too tired”.

His controversial comments come just 24 hours after he sparked anger by saying that families trapped in "modern-day poverty" forked out on giant televisions instead of healthy food.

In his latest comments, the 38-year-old told Good Housekeeping magazine: "The average working hours in a week was 80 to 100. That was really normal in my 20s. But the EU regulation now is 48 hours, which is half a week's work for me. And they still whinge about it!

"British kids particularly, I have never seen anything so wet behind the ears!

"I have mummies phoning up for 23-year-olds saying to me, 'My son is too tired'. On a 48-hour-week! Are you having a laugh?"

He told the magazine: "I think our European immigrant friends are much stronger, much tougher.

"If we didn't have any, all of my restaurants would close tomorrow. There wouldn't be any Brits to replace them."

Oliver, whose restaurants include Fifteen, which helps the young unemployed, and more than 30 UK branches of Jamie’s Italian, said: "It's all very well when people are slagging off immigration and I'm sure there are problems.

"Older people always complain about youth and I think it's a good thing because it is always changing. The young will be better at different things. But long hours in hot kitchens is not one of them!"

[Scarlett.]

I wonder how much hard work he actually does? I bet he just works in one of his kitchens every now and then, the ****.