Having taken on the giants of the food industry in the past, Jamie Oliver appears to have found himself a new target: Washing-up liquid manufacturers.
I can think of no other reasonable explanation for his latest culinary project Jamie’s One-Pan Wonders, which encourages us to cook an entire meal in one pan – thus saving on washing-up.
Well, that’s not strictly true. I can think of one other explanation. Jamie was kicking around ideas from which he might squeeze a book and a TV show and he somehow convinced himself, his publishers and his TV pals that this half-arsed gimmick was worth running with.
The problem was that, as with most back-of-a-fag-packet ideas, his “less washing-up, less ingredients” plan nuked itself the moment it came to fruition –and that’s without us even getting into the “less or fewer” debate.
Of the three recipes Oliver cooked in Monday’s opener, one made more washing-up than a single pan, another used quite a lot of ingredients actually, while the third would have required a full Mr Muscle workout on his fat-splattered oven.
Essentially, as with many money-spinning revolutionary ideas, Oliver is “solving” a problem that doesn’t really exist. Firstly, there are already lots of hearty dishes that can be cooked in one pan – cheese and ham omelette, anyone?
Secondly, as anyone who has ever done a shift at a kitchen sink will tell you, if you’re already washing one pan it’s not that hard to wash another one or two.
The dream, Jamie, my friend, would be recipes that require ZERO washing-up.
And I’m afraid Deliveroo and Just Eat already have that one covered.
There was also a side issue: Oliver’s Mockney pronunciation.
Each time he said something like “this is a one-pan wonder” or “this is a one-pan roast dinner”, all I heard was “one-pound”.
Hey, here’s an idea. If Oliver and Channel 4 really want to help the “many struggling to put good homemade food on the table”, perhaps they should create Jamie’s One-Pound Wonders instead.
I’d watch that. Might even buy the book too.
