Jamie Oliver's Fave Burger - Key - © Sobey's

Jamie Oliver: Observations On Cooking – 7,000 Recipes Later…

He didn’t go away after his burst of popularity, back around the Millennium. He just got to work building a culinary empire. Now, as Jamie Oliver tours to promote his latest cook book, he reflects on Home Cooking in the 21st Century…

Oliver’s latest release, titled Simply Jamie: Fast & Simple Food, a Random House book on the Appetite imprint, is out now. And he’s on the road promoting it as if it was his first. But it’s actually his 28th. And the perennially punk-kid-looking super chef will turn 50 this coming May!

We came across an interview he recently gave The Toronto Star, and have plucked from it some of his most poignant and pointed comments…

A matter of perspective…

But in his latest release, he gets back to his roots, focusing on simplifying recipes in an effort to entice readers back into their kitchens. “In a world where ordering takeout has never been easier, Oliver says it comes at the cost of eroding basic kitchen cooking skills and nutrition.”

Sounds a lot like what I’ve been doing all along, here at the Fab Food Blog!

Too easy to avid cooking

“The world is changing a lot. This book was written because the data says we’ve never cooked less than now,” Oliver laments. “Cooking skills are dying, but never have we had more choices in food, and never has the world been a smaller place. The ‘UBER-ization’ of food and delivery in the modern day world is really interesting.”

“[Entire cultures] don’t see value in teaching cooking in school, and they know kids are not getting taught at home because everyone’s at work now,” Oliver observes. “If you look at a 200-year-old cookbook they presume a lot, because everyone cooked back then. Simply Jamie is a solution book. I’m trying to make the steps really clear, cap the ingredients at 10, and you can buy them from a regular supermarket.”

Social media has changed everything

“I’m going to be 50 this year and I’ve been doing this for 25 years, half of my life I’ve been publishing and broadcasting. The audience is changing and the way the audience gets access to the information and the shows and the food has changed.,” Oliver acknowledges.

“The old way had […] checks and balances. In my point of view, if you have a declining skillset of cooks on the planet, having a billion free sh***y recipes is not a gift. TikTok and Instagram are great because you get all kinds of ideas and nudges, but TikTok is riddled with ideas and concepts that don’t work.”

My take

“I vividly remember you making a tomato and spaghetti dish on Oprah in the early 2000s — it was actually one of the first things I learned to make,” interviewer Liu recalls at one point in the Oliver conversation. “I noticed you have a similar recipe in the new book, but there’s the addition of garlic, olives and capers for that hit of salty-brine…”

I can just imagine Oliver’s eyes lighting up…

“Good man! The dishes are like cousins. That’s cooking, really. In some respects it’s like chords in music. It’s not what you play but how you play it…”

And that’s what I often say about so many of the recipes and techniques I showcase in this space. Specific recipes are not as important as the techniques and processes they demonstrate. The under-lying principles of cooking you can apply hundreds and thousands of times in the future to make your home-cooked meals just as good as, or better than what you could buy ready-made from the store. Or order in a restaurant.

It’s flattering to know that the great Jamie Oliver is, in a way, a fan of mine!

~ Maggie J.

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