33 year-old celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has a new interview in Paris Match Magazine in which he rips on the British working class as drunken materialists who don’t appreciate good food. The Naked Chef thinks his fellow countrymen are drinking too much beer, eating too much crap, and buying too many gadgets. By Oliver’s estimation they’re all a bunch of louts who are wasting their time by not preparing healthy meals and wiling away their hours drinking pints in pubs instead. Oliver wants to put out a cooking show in France and he praises the love of good food and wine that’s endemic to French culture, which he says the UK lacks:
Commenting on the fact that 80 per of the British do not even bother sitting round a table for dinner any more, Oliver says: “It’s true in the centre of London and in the big northern cities. It’s linked to the new poverty.
“It’s nothing to do with famine or war - quite the opposite. England is one of the richest countries in the world.
“The people I’m telling you about have huge TV sets - a lot bigger than mine! - they have state-of-the-art mobile phones, cars, and they go and get drunk in pubs at the weekend - their poverty shows in the way they feed themselves.
“I found the cooking of the inhabitants of the slum in Soweto in South Africa a lot more diverse than ours. It’s true! I’m going to be harsh, but I think a lot of English people’s food lacks heart. It’s bland.” When it was suggested that the English can’t savour food because they drink too much, Oliver says: “It’s true. Historically we’ve never produced wine. We have a culture of alcohol and we’re more beer orientated: the only people who drink more than us are the Irish and the Scottish.”
Asked by French interviewer Mariana Grepinet how British cuisine compared with French cuisine, Oliver says: “In the past British cuisine was similar to Italian cuisine nowadays, without the pasta and risotto. Steam cooking, grilled meat, herbs, spices - we used to cook fabulous dishes. It’s all in the past!
“Unlike French people, and I regret it, we lost our traditions. In gastronomy, the world evolves and changes. And right in front of us, isolated from everything, you have France where nothing changes.
“It’s not a judgement, it’s an observation. In terms of grand restaurants, it seems to me that only one country competes with France, and that’s Japan.”
Significantly Oliver is planning a TV show in France. Asked what his links were with France, he says: “I don’t have many. But I would like to shoot a TV programme soon.
“The French-English relationship amuses me. As neighbours, we criticise each other. We mock each other, but behind all this, we appreciate each other and we respect each other.
“I’d like to watch French women and observe them behind their ovens in their kitchens. “I’m sure that the rest of the world would love a series on French cuisine directed by an English chef! It would be crazy!” Oliver was born in Clavering, Essex, and learning to cook in his father’s local pub. He is now said to be worth an estimated £25 million.
[From Telegraph.co.uk]
Nothing good can come of so broadly dismissing an entire class of people’s taste in food and drink. It’s also really short-sighted to say that people are chosing to drink beer and watch TV instead of cooking meals. People all over the industrialized world have less free time now and when they chose to spend their time vegging out instead of preparing vegetables - and I’m constantly annoyed by how long it takes me to make a salad with all that chopping, peeling and washing - you can hardly blame them for it. It’s a partially cultural thing that may need to be changed but Oliver is just going to draw ire by being so obnoxious about it.
Some of the comments for this story on The Telegraph article’s website are supportive of Oliver’s abrasive opinion, but many people call him out as a hypocrite and an attention-seeker who is dismissing the very people to made him as rich and famous as he is now:
Yet another attempt to revive a his flagging career. If Jamie genuinely feels so strongly, perhaps he will also attack the supermarkets who supply cheap booze. eg Sainsburys. But Oh no - that might endanger his multi million pound contract with them. This story is just a PR stunt to win attention from rival chefs and get his podgy face back onto our screens. He’s yesterday’s man. - Mike Baess
didn’t realise I was in such a minority sitting down to dinner with my family! Whatever his views, it’s unfair of Jamie to bad mouth the whole nation in a foreign paper. - Con
Saint Jamie has been happy to overcharge ‘drunken materialists’ in his very average restaurants for some time now. Nothing like biting the hand that feeds you! - Keith
[Comments from Telegraph.co.uk]
Maybe Oliver thought that if he was talking to a French Magazine his comments wouldn’t get widely publicized, or maybe he’s rich enough now that he feels like saying goodbye to England and moving on to France. A lot of British are likely to say good riddance to him.
Oliver also insulted Germans last week by making a terrible holocaust joke during a show about the poor treatment of commercially farmed chickens. He said that only German people complained about a scene in which chickens were gassed to death.
Jamie Oliver and his wife are shown at the Bafta Awards on 2/10/2008 Credit: Solarpix / PR Photos
