Jamie Oliver: The Message of Food for the G20

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The saying goes: the way to a man's heart might be through his stomach - the way to a politician's brain just might take the same path. Last weekSuper Chef reported (see Obama's Pukka Lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen) that the UK's Gordon Brown would be dining with Barack and Michelle Obama at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant in London. That turned out to be a hoax, but not far from the truth. It turns out that Jamie will be cooking for all the G20 leaders, including the US president, in London next week at the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street. He's been asked to make a "credit crunch lunch" with his cook apprentices from Fifteen with ingredients available on any British"High Street". The idea is to avoid the egg-on-the-face situation that the Ministers encountered last year when they were caught dining on a lavish feast while discussing the world food shortage. Jamie is known for cooking healthy meals using locally-sourced ingredients - which is sure to appeal to the Obamas: I'm hoping that the menu I'm working on will show that British food and produce is some of the best in the world but also show that we have pioneered a high quality apprentice scheme at Fifteen. Fifteen is also a model for what the Ministers will be talking about - creating jobs. Apprentices at Fifteen are young people from broken homes, or who have been in trouble with the law or involved with drugs. The restaurant, supported by a charity, turns them into cooks and chefs. Newspapers quoted Jamie as saying: "Many of these young chefs were unemployed a couple of years ago. But in a few days they will be cooking for the Prime Minister and the President of America." Let's hope Jamie also has a chance to highlight his work transforming British school food, and tackling the poor quality of the nation's food supply. Eat well and pay attention to the message and the messenger who cooks your meal. Previous articles: Obama's Pukka Lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Jamie Oliver: Recipease American Road Trip What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver Branding: Jamie Oliver - Watching the Salt Jamie Oliver & Paul McCartney: - Anti-Landmine Campaign Jamie Oliver Label: Sainsburys v. Tesco Jamie Oliver: Chicken Out! Jamie Oliver: Jamie At Home Jamie Oliver: Cook with Jamie Jamie Oliver Cartoon By Aardman Jamie Oliver Betters British School Food FOOD PIX: Jamie Oliver Fat Suit Nora Sands: Nora's Dinners Jamie Oliver Signs Sainsbury's Jamie Oliver New Year: School Lunch Jamie Oliver on Vodafone Live! Jamie Oliver: Real Guts Fat Lady Sings Jamie Oliver Jamie Oliver: School Lunch [Chefs & Branding - complete] [Chefs & Politics - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, cookbook reviews, Jamie Oliver --> back to Super Chef

A New Day

I slept so good last night! I didn-t wake up until 7:30 this morning!! Yes, that is sleeping in for me.. so it was amazing to wake up and look at the clock and realize what time it was! (since when did 7:30 become sleeping in? since when have I turned into an old granny? haha.) I got about 9 hours of sleep, so I was ready to take on the new day refreshed and ready to tackle the list for our move! I have to make lists when I have a lot of things to accomplish, if I don-t then my mind goes crazy. A list helps me settle my scatter-brained thinking and set up a busy day in a timely manner, and it also allows me to get a bit more done. And let-s just say that our moving list is huge! I haven-t been craving my normal oatmeal lately since it is Spring weather in Tulsa now. I have been choosing lighter, cooling foods for breakfast rather than hot, dense foods, like oatmeal. I made a super delicious yogurt bowl for breakfast this morning!! I could probably eat yogurt and cereal for every meal and be completely satisfied! But I wouldn-t do that since it would make for a very boring food blog! haha.. anyway, in my yogurt bowl was about 1 cup vanilla yogurt (not the nasty sweet kind, eew) w/ a small banana, a handful of PB Puffins and 2 tbsp of musli, and of course.. my breakfast would not be complete without my spoonful of Mighty Maple PB and coffee! (I decided to stop boring you guys with the endless coffee photos, so I didn-t take a photo of it this morning, just know that it was thoroughly enjoyed along with my breakfast and will be every single morning, and probably afternoon too!!) Yogurt bowl with vanilla yogurt, PB Puffins, 2 tbsp musli and a spoonful of Mighty Maple PB (or PB heaven as I like to call it): Mid-morning we decided to run some errands for our upcoming move (on Monday, might I add!!! So freakin- soon!!). We ran to the health food store that is nearby and I picked up some bars for the 15 and a half hour drive to Charlotte. I don-t like to replace meals with bars (although some make for a great snack) but I have no idea what will be available on the road trip so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry and come prepared! Here-s the loot: a few Clif bars, some GNU bars and a Clif Nectar bar. I have never tried any of these flavors so I am excited to have an excuse to finally try so many!! For lunch, I wanted a light salad, so I was rummaging through the fridge and saw a whole bunch of frozen veggies so I decided to make a stir fry instead! I added asparagus, green beans, half of an onion, carrots and probably some other stuff that I forgot to mention. I sauteed the veggies with a little olive oil and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder! On the side, I had 1/2 cup of cottage cheese with salt and pepper. Very filling lunch! It kept me full for a solid 4 hours until I decided that I needed to try my new afternoon snack! "¦A Pure Bar!! I picked it up at the health food store about 2 weeks ago and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to try it, and well what better day than today? So, why not? It tasted like a fruity brownie, very similar to a Lärabar. (Lära in Swedish means learn, cool huh? I wonder if there is any connection? I doubt it but still cool!!) I would buy these again because they taste fantastic and the nutrition info is pretty impressive but only as a special treat and not as an every day snack, they are just too expensive. Vegetable stir-fry: 1/2 cup of some non-photogenic cottage cheese (sorry CC I still love you but you can just not take a photo!): My first Pure bar as an afternoon snack: For dinner, I wanted something quick and easy. I found a frozen Amy-s Indian entree that I bought a long time ago, like as soon as I moved back from Sweden and haven-t had the chance to try it yet. I heated it up in the microwave and the rice was looking a little questionable so I threw it out (I hate throwing away food, but it just did not look good.) I decided to take the rest of the vegetables and dal from the entree and wrap it up in a Flat Out! I also added some baby spinach to bulk it up a little. One of the best decisions that I made all day! It tasted delicious eaten this way, Yum!! This was my first Amy-s frozen entree to try, gasp! I know"¦ I am a bit skeptical when it comes to frozen dinners, they just don-t look or taste like something any one should eat, but this frozen dinner was amazing! It was spicy and I could make out what the meal was supposed to be opposed to other frozen entrees in which you open it up and can-t make out what type of food it is! I will definitely be buying some more Amy-s frozen entrees in the future! Flat out with Amy-s veggies, dal and added spinach: For dessert I had a few grapies: Today has been pretty stressful for me, and I have to admit I am not one that deals with stress very well. I get agitated easily when I am stressed and I am just not a very fun person to be around. I am trying my best to deal with it in a good manner, but it is difficult. I think I have done okay but I could definitely do better. Usually when I am stressed, I try to hit the yoga mat as soon as possible but that just hasn-t been the case today. I just wasn-t feelin- it, my mind is wandering at 90 mph so I am hoping for a short yoga session this evening but we-ll see! I do get to use up the rest of my yoga package before we move which means 2 yoga classes at the yoga studio this week instead of my normal 1! Sweet!! I will leave you with a question for today: Do you like any type of frozen entrees? What is your go to dinner meal in a time crunch? The weekend is just around the corner!!