Jamie Oliver

[Lissy]

Well, it happened - I actually watched some TV last week!!
Saw the first episode of Jamie Oliver's new series, I think it was called Jamie's kitchen. He's taken a group of unemployed youngsters and is turning them into chefs to staff a new restaurant.
Interesting story regardless, but it was a fascinating and very honest look at Jamie himself. An incredibly forceful personality, it gave some inkling as to why he's become the success he is.
I always enjoy reading/watching stories on successful people, I always learn heaps about how they tick, no matter what their field of endeavour.
I'm looking forward to episode 2! It will be interesting to see how these kids, given the opportunity of a lifetime, will deal with that.

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

I know what you mean. It was interesting to see what he's like behind the scenes.

The dish they cooked looked pretty good too. The next time I see some nice salmon steaks...

 

[Kevmeister]

My wife and her mum wanted to watch it, so I sat down and watched it also.

The funniest part were all the clips of people doing their interviews. The guy who couldn't describe the taste or texture of the food in his mouth, etc.

I think he's gonna have a real hard time with these kids - I couldn't believe that after telling them not 20 minutes earlier how to prepare the salmon, they were getting it wrong.

 

[Lissy]

It was amazing, too, how WRONG they were getting it! I mean, you could accept minor muckups because after all it was a fairly pressured dish to prepare (in terms of watching time and temperature) but they were really mucking it up big time. I had to wonder whether any of them actually made any notes at all???!
I think he's going to have a REALLY hard time.
I particularly liked the guy who served the dish differently because he thought Jamie had it wrong, and then the comments of the food writer - is this the sort of attitude you want in your kitchen? I wonder if the guy seriously believed he knew better, or was hoping that by being "creative" he might make a better impression.
I think he got ditched.

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

I was actaully a bit disappointed with the comments of some of the woman evaluating their dishes. The kid who got ditched did everything else right, but because he forgot the serving details and then tried to justify it, she ditched him.

She also wanted to ditch the other kid who did everything right and was really eager to make a good impression, simply because he was too eager. Fortunatly the second eveluator came to his defence.

It was interesting to see how they were stuffing up the cooking test, but remember that most of these kids were from the dole queue with little education, almost zero life experience and their cooking experience is limited to stiring a pot of pasta sauce form Mum. For some of those kids it could stack up to becoming a life changing experience, which was what one of Jamies original goals was.

 

[Kevmeister]

Originally posted by PT_Bear
It was interesting to see how they were stuffing up the cooking test, but remember that most of these kids were from the dole queue with little education, almost zero life experience and their cooking experience is limited to stiring a pot of pasta sauce form Mum. For some of those kids it could stack up to becoming a life changing experience, which was what one of Jamies original goals was.

I agree to a point, but education does not imply intelligence (or lack of it). The guy who misarranged his vegetables made the simplest of mistakes in my opinion (but was stupid for trying to argue his failure was his own "style").

But remember we had people cutting their salmon steaks on the wrong side, people putting oil in the pan when Jamie specifically said DON'T, or it will smoke up, a guy who threw away the good part of the asparagus, etc.

Jamie said the difficult part of the task was heat control and timing. I expected burnt Salmon, undercooked Salmon, under/overcooked vegetables etc.

But the other mistakes bordered on unforgivable - there wasn't even that many steps to remember. In short, some of these students were either not paying attention or they have a very bad short-term memory.

 

[Robert]

Hehe...

I am really enjoying Jamies latest show. And being an X-Chef I see all the undercurrents that most do not see.

Cooking is not something that is learnt per-say. Great chefs simply "just have it", the ability that is. Jamie is one of these chefs, having worked with him in London in '97 was a great learning experience for me. His mind races at terminal velocity all the time in a kitchen and only the best can keep up.

One of the first priorities in learning commercial cooking is to get a rythm, you need co-ordination and an understanding of how long things take to cook. And that is just a start of things....

The fact that the trainees didn't quite get it all together on the first show wasn't to suprising, but there will be some shining lights out of them.

Chefing is not a glamorous profession and is only for the young. I only ever worked with one other chef that was older then 40. There is a high exit rate in the industry due to high pressure stress which is constantly on you.

It will be interesting to see how these trainees go when the stress of service time starts. This will be the telling factor on whether they keep going in the industry or not.

Cheers
Robert

 

[Jas]

I love the fact that some of the kids picked won over thousands of others, and now don't bother turning up. Al it was for them is the competition, nothing else.

Which sadly means others who want to work, haven't got the chance...

Jas

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

Originally posted by Jas
I love the fact that some of the kids picked won over thousands of others, and now don't bother turning up. Al it was for them is the competition, nothing else.

Which sadly means others who want to work, haven't got the chance...

Jas

It's kind of sad, but you can see where some of their attitudes are coming from, such as the girl who wasn't turning up due to a lack of funds to get there each day. Dispite this, when she was phoned (on a mobile), she as at the mall with her Mum.

I can appreciate that some of these kids might come from home environments which do not encourage there efforts, but in this case, it seemed like her Mum was activly supporting her failure.

 

[Olly]

Just as an aside - I got an email yesterday with a word doc attached and it's The Naked Chef 2 complete! Seems someone from the publishing house emailed it to a friend who emailed it to a friend etc and now its whizzing around the net and being printed off left, right and centre.

Heads rolled at the publishing house and there's lots of $$$ involved which someones gonna be liable for.

Yikes! Poor Jamie

Olly

 

[crunch]

hehe everyone at work has that word doc with the cook book, it has some very good recipes in it. Well look at the bright side for Jamie a lot of people are getting exposed to his creations who never whould have bought the book anyway! Have a look at a book shop on the net he has other books out as well, so i dont think he will be lining up in the dole que anytime soon.

 

[saucy gibbon]

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/nakedchef.asp


Apparently the email is a hoax. They are still Jamie Oliver recipes but not from an unreleased book. Just a collection of recipes from previously released books.

 

[Lissy]

And silly me went to a meeting on Tuesday night and forgot to tape the final episode.......
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH