Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Jamie's revolution stalls
By Michael Hill |
April 10, 2011, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TURNS out Jamie Oliver's revolution won't be televised - at least not from Los Angeles school kitchens.
The second season of the crusading Brit's healthy eating reality show, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," started poorly when the city school district barred his cameras, a serious snag for a program that focuses on school lunches.
"I think we swam into a minefield," Oliver said this week. "I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get in there at all. I'm disappointed that as public servants, they feel they have the right to not be transparent."
But the trouble didn't end with school officials. There are signs in the first episode (airing on ABC in the US on Tuesday) that the people of Los Angeles - the city where Fatburger was founded - aren't fully embracing the revolution either. Only a modest crowd comes out to watch Oliver fill a school bus with a week's worth of the sugar added to the flavored milk served in LA schools (actually 57 tons of white sand).
Oliver dejectedly tells the camera: "This is cold-shoulder stuff."
So did LA prove too much for the chef? Hardly.
Oliver remains focused on the multi-national healthy food campaign that has consumed him for more than five years.
"You only have to affect 2 percent of the population to make radical change," he said, "and that's what we're talking about, really."
In a TV landscape cluttered with sudden-death cook-offs and flamboyant chefs, Oliver's latest show has an unusual recipe for success - asking strangers to do what's good for them.
For the second season of "Food Revolution," that entails Oliver jousting with school bureaucrats, trying to help parents and kids make better choices and lobbying for healthier food at a local hamburger joint. It's not easy. In one scene, the fast-food operator goes wide-eyed when Oliver suggests he make burgers with grass-fed, black Angus beef that costs US$1.30 per 170g patty (Oliver said he eventually was able to get the price down to 65 US cents).
Oliver had better luck in Huntington, West Virginia, where he first took his healthy food crusade. At least there he was allowed into the schools. But there were bumpy moments, too, as he tangled with reluctant school officials and kids who preferred pizza and chicken nuggets to his fresh-made coleslaw.
A Huntington school district spokesman later said that though the show was an ordeal, the process was worth it. Oliver calls his first US stop in the food revolution a success.
"The dream was to do what we did. And eventually we pulled off everything we wanted to pull off," he said. "In LA, you know, it's a completely different kettle of fish. I was banned from every school before I even touched down on the airport."
Still, he plans to go back to Los Angeles later this month. He wants to check in with families he worked with. Also, a new school superintendent starts later this month and Oliver, ever the optimist, wants to meet with him. Maybe they can start a dialogue, or maybe something more.
"I'd be lying if I told you there was a big master plan," he said.
The second season of the crusading Brit's healthy eating reality show, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," started poorly when the city school district barred his cameras, a serious snag for a program that focuses on school lunches.
"I think we swam into a minefield," Oliver said this week. "I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get in there at all. I'm disappointed that as public servants, they feel they have the right to not be transparent."
But the trouble didn't end with school officials. There are signs in the first episode (airing on ABC in the US on Tuesday) that the people of Los Angeles - the city where Fatburger was founded - aren't fully embracing the revolution either. Only a modest crowd comes out to watch Oliver fill a school bus with a week's worth of the sugar added to the flavored milk served in LA schools (actually 57 tons of white sand).
Oliver dejectedly tells the camera: "This is cold-shoulder stuff."
So did LA prove too much for the chef? Hardly.
Oliver remains focused on the multi-national healthy food campaign that has consumed him for more than five years.
"You only have to affect 2 percent of the population to make radical change," he said, "and that's what we're talking about, really."
In a TV landscape cluttered with sudden-death cook-offs and flamboyant chefs, Oliver's latest show has an unusual recipe for success - asking strangers to do what's good for them.
For the second season of "Food Revolution," that entails Oliver jousting with school bureaucrats, trying to help parents and kids make better choices and lobbying for healthier food at a local hamburger joint. It's not easy. In one scene, the fast-food operator goes wide-eyed when Oliver suggests he make burgers with grass-fed, black Angus beef that costs US$1.30 per 170g patty (Oliver said he eventually was able to get the price down to 65 US cents).
Oliver had better luck in Huntington, West Virginia, where he first took his healthy food crusade. At least there he was allowed into the schools. But there were bumpy moments, too, as he tangled with reluctant school officials and kids who preferred pizza and chicken nuggets to his fresh-made coleslaw.
A Huntington school district spokesman later said that though the show was an ordeal, the process was worth it. Oliver calls his first US stop in the food revolution a success.
"The dream was to do what we did. And eventually we pulled off everything we wanted to pull off," he said. "In LA, you know, it's a completely different kettle of fish. I was banned from every school before I even touched down on the airport."
Still, he plans to go back to Los Angeles later this month. He wants to check in with families he worked with. Also, a new school superintendent starts later this month and Oliver, ever the optimist, wants to meet with him. Maybe they can start a dialogue, or maybe something more.
"I'd be lying if I told you there was a big master plan," he said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
