Last night I sat in Melbourne’s beautiful Regent Theatre to hear Jamie Oliver in discussion with Matt Preston. There is a lot of chatter about food at the moment – Jamie’s visit coincides with the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. But last night, he wasn’t throwing together a cheeky risotto. He was speaking about his project The Ministry of Food.
As Jamie explained, the Ministry of Food has its roots in a campaign from the Second World War. The British Government set up a team of cooking teachers whose role was to educate the public about food and teach people to use the available rations to produce healthy meals for their families. And ensure there was still cake at birthdays! (I liked that bit.)
Today, a lot of people don’t know how to cook. Fast food is easily and readily available. For every farmers’ market selling organic apples, there are a dozen supermarkets with weekly specials of cheaply-made biscuits. Throwing together a dinner of chops and three vegies has become too hard for some. And others simply don’t have the know-how. Some kids don’t know the difference between a turnip and a tomato.
I find this staggering, but then I love to cook. I want to know where my food has come from, and there is nothing I love more than baking a cake or a batch of cookies. And I am desperately trying to instil these values about food in my daughter.
Jamie Oliver says he doesn’t have all the answers. But he does make sense when he says that there are some simple things that can be done. Whilst acknowledging a previous business partnership with a supermarket chain, he believes that if a supermarket is going to have 100 items on a ‘buy one, get one free’ deal, then be fair and make sure that half of them are fresh foods. Make it as easy for us to choose the healthy option as the pre-packaged, not-so-healthy option.
He says that every child should be able to cook five meals by the time they leave school. Five meals. When I stopped to think about this, I remembered how I learnt to cook. On Friday nights, when there wasn’t the mad rush to get to bed early, read stories and pack our bags for school the following day, the kitchen was handed over to my sister and me.
With Mum watching and helping out as required, we would prepare dinner. We started with scrambled eggs – one of the simplest recipes possible. We learnt to make crepes, beef stroganoff (hey – it was the early ‘80s!) and pasta dishes. We learnt to throw together a salad to accompany all meals. By the time I left home at 21, I could cook. It wasn’t a big deal. It was just something I could do. My sister was the same – and I’m sure that if we’d had a brother he would have been in the same boat.
Jamie also believes that there needs to be some regulation in place, but he’s absolutely not the food police. I love the fact that he’s not militant (although I could sense members of the food police in attendance – there were numerous occasions of shock and horror gasps and judgey tsk-ing). Jamie eats chips! Jamie says it’s okay to eat pizza! Jamie says burgers are fine! But what he’s saying is don’t eat it every day. And add some vegies, for goodness sake!
None of what Jamie says is rocket science and he is the first person to admit this. He also knows that he has profile, he has a platform and he has the means to make a change. He has put these issues firmly on the social agenda through his television programs and his campaigns.
Jamie also believes in the importance of people power and consumer advocacy. His call to action last night was for every member of the audience to send a one line email to their local MP with the following: All children should learn to cook.
You think it sounds simplistic? You don’t think that you sending that one email will make a difference? What about if you, all your friends and family do? What about if you put it up on your Facebook page asking your friends to tell their friends?
Yes, this is a type 1 diabetes blog. But the reason that I went to see Jamie last night, and the reason I decided to blog about it today is because I know that for every child out there who has food knowledge, there are many who don’t. And I think we all have a responsibility in this. As individuals; of course. But also as a community.
Want to be part of an online community that can and does make a difference? Check out the Parents’ Jury website and become a member.
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 7, 2012 at 4:37 pm
ashiebee
I am all for Ministry of Food and can’t agree more with Jamie.
I think it’s a fantastic program. A lot of students rarely get the chance to do some cooking at home. Yes they have home ec classes in high schools and that’s a start but is it really enough for them? Everyone needs to know at the basics!
Surprisingly, a lot of kids are interested in cooking especially after the hype of shows such as Masterchef etc. And that gets them interested in what is in our foods and even nutrition!
And he’s right that it can’t just be targeted at schools, there needs to be a broader focus at the community level and seeing what supermarkets are up to. For so many people trying to get more for their buck, they will go for what’s on special that week and if majority are packed with high density carbs, there’s a higher chance they will buy those products!
I’ll be keeping a keen eye out for updates on this!
LikeLike
March 7, 2012 at 6:30 pm
mairi-anne
I don’t think its too hard to cook a “healthy” dinner option compare to buying something on the way home. Parents should be the role models, if you work full time like me, plan things!. I work out what i’m going to eat every night for the week, it takes me 20min. I ask my girls for input. We plan together. I have a T1, a vegetarian and a fussy eater, its tricky but not hard. The benefits out way the time it takes to plan….my children’s and my long term health. I dont agree that people are too poor to eat healthy…just too lazy. My opinion…nice blog Renza..very interesting. x
LikeLike
March 7, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Bronwyn Bell
Living with both diabetes and Coeliac disease, cooking from scratch is the most comman response as most Gluten free foods-necessary for the Ceoliac diet, are highly refined and very High on sugar (extremely detrimental on the ‘living with Diabetes’ diet) and cost 3-5x as much as their gluten equivalent. I do occassionally throw in these fast food gluten free items, especially when experiencing low blood sugar as getting my blood glucose in an acceptable range is vital. I encourage my boys and hubby to cook regularly, yet it mostly happens on the WE when school commitments are somewhat abated. Currently work part-time, though am hoping for full-time, so I’ve warned my boys aged 45, 15 and 8 – A LOT MORE IS EXPECTED!
LikeLike
January 9, 2015 at 5:36 am
Twitter outrage | Diabetogenic
[…] urging people to eat as much fresh food as they can and encouraging people to cook at home. ‘Teach your kids to cook,’ he says. That’s good […]
LikeLike
September 24, 2015 at 11:08 am
Parents Voice | Masterchef – a love or hate relationship
[…] packaged foods – will only assist her to build an arsenal of recipes to cook as she gets older. Jamie Oliver says that by the time kids leave home they need to be able to cook five meals . My seven-year old can do that now. She will not have to rely on take-away, fast foods or two […]
LikeLike