JAMIE OLIVER'S FOOD REVOLUTION

ABC has a new show out called Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.  It airs on Friday nights, but you can always just do what I do and watch it online:

For all episodes and other short clips, go to Hulu’s “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” Channel.

Episode 1

PREMISE

There have been three episodes so far, and I must say I’m hooked!  It’s like a car wreck…you just can’t look away!  The premise is pretty simple, so I’ll just steal it straight from ABC’s website:

“Jamie Oliver is here to start a revolution. The impassioned chef is taking on obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the USA, where our nation's children are the first generation NOT expected to live as long as their parents.

The series is loosely based on Jamie Oliver's U.K. series, Jamie's Ministry of Food and Jamie's School Dinners, which saw his successful grass-roots efforts improve the school lunches in communities there. For the latter show, it resulted in a total overhaul of the school dinner program in the U.K. In America, he's turning his attention to helping people of all ages eat more balanced meals and cook with fresh ingredients, not only at schools, but also homes, and workplaces.”

RECAP

EPISODE 1

Huntington, West Virginia was named the unhealthiest city in America, so Jamie decides to use this town as the starting point of this grass-roots movement.  The local school district gives him one week to take over the kitchen at one of the elementary schools to see if he can provide the kids with healthier options while staying within the current budget.

A couple of interesting points about the current food system:

·       They serve the kids pizza for breakfast

·       There is only 1 thing made fresh in the school kitchen…rolls (but the kids never eat them and they are thrown away).  Everything else comes pre-cooked, packaged, and all the lunch ladies have to do is heat and serve.

Later on in the episode Jamie was introduced to a family of 6…all obese.  He discussed their typical eating habits with them and went through their fridge and pantry to assess the situation and, needless to say, it was pretty grim.  He decided to give them a shopping list and even paid for 1 week’s worth of groceries along with cooking lessons and recipes that they can make for the week.  Their progress will be revisited in a later episode.

An interesting note about the family:

·       Their most-used piece of kitchenware was a deep fryer!  Jamie buried it in the backyard.

Finally, at the end of this episode, we get to see Jamie’s trial run at the elementary school cafeteria.  On the first day, the kids will be given a choice between their usual fare (pizza, bread, and chocolate milk) or Jamie’s special menu (roast chicken, brown rice, salad, yogurt and fruit).  As I’m sure you would guess, virtually all of the kids chose pizza.

A few of my favorite tidbits from this part:

·       Jamie’s meal was deemed nutritionally insufficient by the person in charge of food for the school district!  His meal had protein, fruits, vegetables, and yogurt…but guess what it was lacking…MORE BREAD!  In order to conform to the current guidelines, his meal would have to feature TWO bread items (the rice counted as one).  WTF??

·       To comply with the rules, he just used the fresh made bread from the cafeteria, but the kids didn’t choose his meal and they don’t eat the bread anyway!

·       I’m amazed at the amount of food waste that they showed from this one elementary school.

After the first episode, this show looks promising!  If all it does is raise awareness about the horrendous situation in public school cafeterias then it will be a win!