Here are my comments from the 1st episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, airing on Fridays on ABC and also available to watch via Hulu
When I saw an ad for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, I knew I had to bring it up on my website. Part of what I am trying to do here at Eat Like No One Else, is encourage people to do just like “eat like no one else”. It’s about not just putting in your grocery cart what every other American is doing. Jamie Oliver came over from England to Huntington, West Virginia to help the people there to “eat like no one else” by getting rid of the processed foods (the frozen pizzas, the chicken nuggets, etc) and replacing them with fresh foods. The show is about his trials and tribulations in trying to make a change.
Jamie beings his revolution in the kitchen of a local elementary school. They show the school serving a special breakfast pizza in the morning and chicken nuggets for lunch. When Jamie speaks to the cooks about the food not being good for the kids, the cooks become very defensive. I think some people are so use to turning to the processed convenience foods because they are easy and when confronted come up with every excuse in the book, without really looking into the basic fact that what they are eating is not good for them. People don’t like to admit they are wrong.
Jamie also made a visit to a family to look into their diet. You can view the clip at the link below.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/136779/jamie-olivers-food-revolution-grassroots
When all that food was put down on the table it was amazing to see the reaction of the mother that the food she was eating and feeding to her family every week, when put together, she said it was gross. If you were to pile all the food you eat in a week, what do you think you would think?
Back in the elementary school, Jamie got to learn what potato pearls were. Watch this clip.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/136780/jamie-olivers-food-revolution-potato-pearls
The cooks though this potato pearls were a great invention for the cook. That is if you don’t care anything about what your food tastes like and what is in it. It’s not a bad idea to try to save time in the kitchen. But when I save time in the kitchen it’s with using kitchen tools that make a job easier or quicker, not using inferior ingredients that produce an inferior product.
I think Jamie is doing a wonderful thing and though the odds are against him to turn the schools from processed to fresh food, he is out there fighting for what he believes in. It will be interesting to see what if any long term effects he can have on the city. I think he succeeds even if he just helps turn around the lives of one family.