synopsis

For Jamie, Ministry of Food is without doubt the most important project he’s ever worked on and it's still ongoing, which is massively exciting.

Obesity has become a global epidemic, which threatens the health of almost every nation.  How we prepare our food and the food we eat has changed over the last 50 years. Generations are not having cooking skills passed on to them in the same way they used to, which may be why people are turning to takeaways or ready meals as an easy option for meals (or perhaps people aren’t passing on their skills because of the availability of cheap, processed convenience food). Jamie believes it's absolutely crucial to get people excited about cooking good food again, and passing it on to as many of their friends, colleagues & family as they can.

Jamie's Ministry of Food began in Rotherham in 2008. Julie Critchelow had become a figure of opposition to my School Dinners campaign, so he wanted to track her down and find out why she had been passing junk food through the school gates to kids inside.   When he finally met her Jamie discovered that she was keen to help him pass on the message about cooking from scratch and eating well. So they rounded up a small group of recruits to try and teach them ten simple meals that they could pass on to others who, in turn, would also spread the word. The idea was to get the whole town cooking and kick-off a nationwide campaign.

Some of the recruits were die-hard fast food fans so the challenge was a tough one. Along the way they got the local council to fund a Ministry of Food center in Rotherham town center so that they could teach even more people how to cook. Since then things have really taken off with a growing number of councils setting up centers across the UK and the initiative has even been picked up in Australia, where the first center opened in April 2011.

6 x 60 minute episodes
First aired in the UK in September 2008
Book published: UK hardback in October 2008

get involved

The restaurants and apprentice program that Jamie set up during the making of Jamie’s Kitchen is still running successfully today. To find out more about it visit www.fifteen.net.

The Jamie Oliver Foundation is a registered charity whose mission is to educate and empower as many people as possible to love and enjoy good food. This means learning how to cook, understanding where food comes from, and recognizing the power it can have on our health, happiness, and even finances. We do this through teaching, training and employment, and also by making good clear information available to as many people as possible. Visit http://www.jamieoliver.com/foundation/ to find out more about the charity and its various projects.

The restaurants and apprentice program that Jamie set up during the making of Jamie’s Kitchen is still running successfully today. To find out more about it visit http://jamieshomecookingskills.com/