Normal Person Vs... Jamie Oliver

Very entertaining, and sufficently funny in places that I had to be quite carefull of not spitting out my drink in the wrong way.

I was somewhat surprised to see you discribe Steve as a ‘normal person’ although it might be a more reasonable statement in the context of cooking.

Was that a Scotmid I saw you guys going into? :)

And thanks for confirming my prejudices when it comes to the sleb-chefs!

@Justin – We got our semolina flour from Valvona and Corolla, which may indeed be one of the few places in Edinburgh to get it. Waitrose might have it too.

Steadycam – yeah, I think we’ll be investing for Series 1…

@Stuart – Yep, that was indeed a Scotmid!

@Sandra: as I understand it, Jamie’s an appropriate UK equivalent to Martha. He’s about at patronizing, at least.

As for cows—-there’s beef mince in the ragu.

As much as I loved your last show, this time you’re picking on the wrong guy. Heston, yes, however respectable he is, you can scold for requiring insane things of his followers. Jamie, on the other hand, is not doing anything particularly difficult. If “I don’t have a properly sized pasta pan to cook this” is the worst you can do, don’t bother. Really. They’re cheap.

It is, after all, proper science that cooking starchy substances should happen in very, very large pans (which are relatively, relatively cheap to buy).

Score for now: +1 -1.

@matthijs – I agree, the pasta pans thing is annoying, but it’s not a dealbreaker. The real problem with Jamie’s recipe was this – it wasn’t very good. (I was there producing, and also ate some of it.) It took a very long time, was a lot of effort, and produced something rather inferior to what I’d normally cook in half the time. The ragu sauce was adequate, although I agree with numerous commenters (both here and on LiveJournal) that it could have been better, but the pasta just didn’t really work. Hence, not terribly impressed.

The recipe was fairly clear, although I suspect we could have done with more information on making pasta. But the food produced wasn’t great.

@Ben – great minds think alike. Look for a piece tomorrow.

Hey guys,

Your videos are pretty funny and the cooking info is good as well. One thing I noticed is that your walking shots bounce around a ton. Being geeks, you may have heard of Make magazine. In one of the first editions, they published instructions for making a $14 steady cam. The parts list is here:
http://makezine.com/01/stabilizer/

You can find a picture here:
http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/2007/12/14-steadycam.html

Directions for assembly are here:
http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue1/steadycam.html

Keep up the good work!

Thanks, guys! Glad you enjoyed it!

Steadicams – we’ll look into it for Series 1 :) I’ve been aware of the micro-steadicams for a while – time for some testing, methinks.

I’ll leave the comments on cloaks and general attractiveness to Paul :)

We got our semolina flour (by which I mean Hugh’s semolina flour) from Valvona & Crolla, the incredibly upmarket Italian deli in Edinburgh. I’m advised that you can also get it in Real Foods, which means it’s probably available in any reasonably-sized health food shop.

@Hakuo – Exactly. I like how Heston Blumenthal tends to point out all the unusual equipment you’ll need at the start of his recipes, right down to immersion blenders or big pots. Jamie just assumes you have them. Likewise with the semolina flour.

(Nigella… well, you’ll see in a couple of weeks.)

Steve and Paul followed the recipe pretty much to the letter. It says to make noodles “as thick as cigarettes”, and they were darn close. And also, really darned doughey.

That was awesome! I loved it to bits and nearly snorted my drink out my nose during the onion ‘pealing’. Heh.

Terrific, loved it.

Main comment: amazed that Jamie Oliver recommends finely ground mince. Why? It’s so much nicer with coarsely chopped stuff. Get some texture in there. And maybe with a bit of chopped ham thrown in too.

The other main way to improve the sauce is just to cook it for several hours, which you did. But why? You’re geeks, you’re cooking with science, so it’d be great if you could tell us why, for instance, curries and stews in general always seem to taste better when either cooked for hours or when eaten the day after they’re made.

Oh, and by the way. Have you noticed how the sleb (thanks, love the spelling) chefs plug each others’ books? Couple of years ago in a big bookshop I saw Jamie’s and Nigel’s latest colourful tomes on display side by side. I picked them up and examined the back covers. Nigel’s book came with a cheery thumbs up from Jamie; Jamie’s had a glowing recommendation by Nigel. Blatant or what?

Fine straw man you have there chaps! It’s an interesting result considering the role-models you have in Blumenthal and McGee.

I was drawn into watching this clip based on your introductory phrase ‘Cooking the way real men cook: using Science’. In other situations, this clip -which was just an add hominem attack- might have brought a smile to my face. However, I was disheartened by the manner in which the clip was dressed up as a quasi experimental ‘trial’. It seems completely inappropriate to the scientific environment you are trying to promote. People like Blumenthal, McGee and This have urged the public to critically evaluate what they know about the culinary world. The fact that you are mixing these ideals with common slander is particularly disappointing.

gabo & Hugh: this is balancing on a rather sharp edge, and it’s not always easy to stay on top. I partly agree with gabo, but also must give credit to Paul for the fair try and honest conclusion. Be too serious, and you lose people’s interest (at least those that you seem to aim at reaching). However, too much slander-ish talk, and one loses credibility. In my opinion, the fair attempt at Jamie’s recipe was in fact somewhat encouraging (taken your previous comments about the same J.) If you stay in there and are able to keep the fine balance, this might end up gaining cult status in a few years (…maybe)

@Wheaty – In fact, we went to the Co-Op for two reasons, as far as buying food goes.

Firstly, this is meant to be a normal person’s test. Certainly, you can make some lovely stuff by spending £100 at Borough Market, but most normal people buy their food at supermarkets.

Secondly, in Scotland, Co-Op food has a reputation as being pretty high quality.

BTW, can you point out where we slander Jamie? We insult him a few times, but that’s not the same thing…

Thanks for the suggestions – we’ll bear them in mind.