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| Jamie Oliver, you haven't tasted real poverty. Cut out the tutting | Jamie Oliver, you haven't tasted real poverty. Cut out the tutting |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| I like Jamie Oliver, on the whole. Yes, occasionally I find him annoying, but no more than any other artificially chirpy, positive people with mockney accents. But somewhere along the way, his passion for good, fresh food – admirable and infectious in every respect – appears to have transformed into evangelical life-coaching. In the words of Albert Camus, he seems "to have dispensed with generosity in order to practise charity". | I like Jamie Oliver, on the whole. Yes, occasionally I find him annoying, but no more than any other artificially chirpy, positive people with mockney accents. But somewhere along the way, his passion for good, fresh food – admirable and infectious in every respect – appears to have transformed into evangelical life-coaching. In the words of Albert Camus, he seems "to have dispensed with generosity in order to practise charity". |
| "I'm not judgmental", he says in his recent Radio Times interview. If only that were true, of course, it would signal the end of the interview. He continues "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 fucking TV. It just didn't weigh up." | "I'm not judgmental", he says in his recent Radio Times interview. If only that were true, of course, it would signal the end of the interview. He continues "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 fucking TV. It just didn't weigh up." |
| I have had the misfortune and privilege (mixed in both cases) to exist in affluent and destitute circumstances – and every shade between the two. However much time Oliver has spent in "poor communities", he is but a tourist there, looking at fire walkers and whirling dervishes and wondering "why on earth would they choose to do that?"; taking snapshots for his album and reducing entire lives to captured instances of chips and giant tellies. | I have had the misfortune and privilege (mixed in both cases) to exist in affluent and destitute circumstances – and every shade between the two. However much time Oliver has spent in "poor communities", he is but a tourist there, looking at fire walkers and whirling dervishes and wondering "why on earth would they choose to do that?"; taking snapshots for his album and reducing entire lives to captured instances of chips and giant tellies. |
| What I had not understood before I found myself in true poverty, and what Oliver probably does not, is that it means living in a world of "no". Ninety-nine per cent of what you need is answered "no". Ninety-nine per cent of what your kids ask for is answered "no". Ninety-nine per cent of life is answered "no". Cinema? No. Night out? No. New shoes? No. Birthday? No. So, if the only indulgence that is viable, that is within budget, that will not mean you have to walk to work, is a Styrofoam container of cheesy chips, the answer is a thunderous "YES". | What I had not understood before I found myself in true poverty, and what Oliver probably does not, is that it means living in a world of "no". Ninety-nine per cent of what you need is answered "no". Ninety-nine per cent of what your kids ask for is answered "no". Ninety-nine per cent of life is answered "no". Cinema? No. Night out? No. New shoes? No. Birthday? No. So, if the only indulgence that is viable, that is within budget, that will not mean you have to walk to work, is a Styrofoam container of cheesy chips, the answer is a thunderous "YES". |
| When their daily entertainment consists of sitting in a 4ft by 6ft semi-basement living room watching TV, you can rest assured people will make any sacrifice they must to at least get "a massive fucking TV". In a world of "no", you are grateful for every "yes", no matter how illogical or how unhealthy. "When I was poor, I smoked," said a friend recently, "but that was all I had for me. Cigarettes were the only thing I owned. I was a non-person." | When their daily entertainment consists of sitting in a 4ft by 6ft semi-basement living room watching TV, you can rest assured people will make any sacrifice they must to at least get "a massive fucking TV". In a world of "no", you are grateful for every "yes", no matter how illogical or how unhealthy. "When I was poor, I smoked," said a friend recently, "but that was all I had for me. Cigarettes were the only thing I owned. I was a non-person." |
| But I have been on the other side as well. The side where well-off, middle-class people are apparently sensible with how they spend their hard-earned money. The side where people like Jamie, Delia and Nigella club together with lucrative sponsors to explain what the latest must-have item is. Produce with pedigree. Vinegars with vintages. Olive oils with lineage. Pasta-makers, steamers, woks, griddle pans, copper pots, juicers, egg timers, skillets, multi-mixes, palette knives, frothers, basters and thermometers gathering dust in countless attics. The evidence of my lack of thrift and the source of Oliver's fortune, neatly out of sight so that he cannot judge my life on a surprise inspection. | But I have been on the other side as well. The side where well-off, middle-class people are apparently sensible with how they spend their hard-earned money. The side where people like Jamie, Delia and Nigella club together with lucrative sponsors to explain what the latest must-have item is. Produce with pedigree. Vinegars with vintages. Olive oils with lineage. Pasta-makers, steamers, woks, griddle pans, copper pots, juicers, egg timers, skillets, multi-mixes, palette knives, frothers, basters and thermometers gathering dust in countless attics. The evidence of my lack of thrift and the source of Oliver's fortune, neatly out of sight so that he cannot judge my life on a surprise inspection. |
| Oliver observes: "The poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods." If only he could travel back in time and advise the homeless me of 2009 how to replace a Tesco Value lasagne or Tesco Value chicken curry, both under £1, with something healthy that I can buy from the King's Cross Tesco Metro (the only supermarket within walking distance) and cook in a microwave (the only cooking apparatus at my disposal). | Oliver observes: "The poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods." If only he could travel back in time and advise the homeless me of 2009 how to replace a Tesco Value lasagne or Tesco Value chicken curry, both under £1, with something healthy that I can buy from the King's Cross Tesco Metro (the only supermarket within walking distance) and cook in a microwave (the only cooking apparatus at my disposal). |
| Maybe he can. Looking at his website, I don't think Tuesday's seafood risotto, Wednesday's sizzling chicken fajitas or Saturday's mojito fruit salad would quite "weigh up". Because the missing factor in all of this, is that the majority of the industry – cooking shows, recipe books, foodie displays, trendy markets – are aspirational. They are not concerned with who you are, but push an image of the much better person you should aim to become. And becoming that better person involves buying a whole load of useless cack, which poor people cannot afford. | Maybe he can. Looking at his website, I don't think Tuesday's seafood risotto, Wednesday's sizzling chicken fajitas or Saturday's mojito fruit salad would quite "weigh up". Because the missing factor in all of this, is that the majority of the industry – cooking shows, recipe books, foodie displays, trendy markets – are aspirational. They are not concerned with who you are, but push an image of the much better person you should aim to become. And becoming that better person involves buying a whole load of useless cack, which poor people cannot afford. |
| I like Oliver, on the whole. I think his heart is in the right place. If he genuinely wants to help, he needs to continue campaigning for better availability of good produce, better nutritional teaching in schools, healthier ready meals, less advertising targeted at children and a culture that educates rather than judges. He needs to stop publishing books, the last one of which was judged one of the unhealthiest on the market, while internally tutting at the deplorable lack of quinoa in "poor communities". He needs to understand that the choice between having a TV or a mojito fruit salad is a bogus one, for the 13 million people living in poverty in the UK right now. | I like Oliver, on the whole. I think his heart is in the right place. If he genuinely wants to help, he needs to continue campaigning for better availability of good produce, better nutritional teaching in schools, healthier ready meals, less advertising targeted at children and a culture that educates rather than judges. He needs to stop publishing books, the last one of which was judged one of the unhealthiest on the market, while internally tutting at the deplorable lack of quinoa in "poor communities". He needs to understand that the choice between having a TV or a mojito fruit salad is a bogus one, for the 13 million people living in poverty in the UK right now. |
| Promising that you will show brilliant recipes that utilise stale bread is all very well. But poor people's bread does not go stale, Jamie. It goes mouldy. And if you had ever been poor, you would know that. | Promising that you will show brilliant recipes that utilise stale bread is all very well. But poor people's bread does not go stale, Jamie. It goes mouldy. And if you had ever been poor, you would know that. |
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