What is Jamie's Ministry of Food?

Jamie considers the Ministry of Food to be the most important campaign he has ever worked on. It is all about keeping cooking skills alive.

We've got a huge problem in the UK with more and more people suffering from obesity and diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Eating a balanced diet plays a big part in helping you to maintain your health and wellbeing. There is growing evidence that knowing how to cook for yourself from scratch can have an extremely beneficial effect on your long-term eating habits. Unfortunately, a lot of us just don't know how to cook anymore. We haven't been taught at school and we haven't been taught by our parents, and that needs to change.

Knowing how to cook from scratch means you'll be able to turn all sorts of fresh ingredients into meals when they're in season, at their best and at their cheapest.

Jamie's Ministry of Food campaign is based on a British initiative from Second World War, when the government set up a national network of food advisors and cooking teachers to educate the public about food and nutrition so they would be able to feed themselves properly with the rations available.

Taking inspiration from this, in 2008 Jamie decided he wanted to reintroduce this network of local food centres and cookery teachers. With support from funders such as the NHS and local councils, he started setting up Ministry of Food projects across the UK. Jamie's Ministry of Food has since gone global and there are now allied projects in Australia and America too. Find out if there is a Ministry of Food project near you and join up.