Join the Revolution!

As a Food Network junkie, I have long been a fan of Jamie Oliver's. He is a famous chef in England who grew up cooking in his parents' pub at the age of 9 and has since opened several restaurants of his own. One of his cooking shows "The Naked Chef" features him cooking with extremely fresh and local ingredients...the segments show him in his own garden snipping herbs and pulling vegetables out of the ground. As a sucker for a good British accent, I love him. But I would have loved him anyway, because he has a great message about food.

In his native England, Jamie started a food revolution. Appalled by the food that was being served to school children (processed, fatty, no fresh fruits or vegetables) he set out to change things. He endorsed getting rid of processed foods and introducing locally-grown and fresh produce to school children in order to help combat the epidemic of childhood obesity. Now, he's bringing his mission to the United States. His show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, kicked off last night.

Previous to watching the show, Carl and I bought his latest cookbook by the same name several months ago. In it, he gets to the heart of his mission. In addition to introducing children to fresh vegetables, fruits and home-cooked meals, he really drives home the importance of cooking. Sadly, cooking skills are being abandoned in England and the US in favor of fast-food and quick meal options of all kinds. What that translates to is processed food filled with chemical additives that people are consuming like it's going out of style. He reasons that if everyone can learn at least two or three recipes from scratch and teach them to someone else, a food revolution will begin taking over the country. Ideally, people will return to cooking meals from scratch at home and using fresh, locally-grown produce, and by extension, health problems and obesity rates will begin to decrease.

The show is extremely eye-opening and sad. He went to a classroom of first graders in a town in West Virginia, and none of the kids could identify any fruits or vegetables. They had no idea what a tomato looked like, or even a potato. When he showed them chicken nuggets and french fries and pizza, though, they all shouted out the answers without a problem. This generation of children is the first generation not expected to live as long as their parents. It's really sad.

I believe in the Food Revolution on both counts, but especially from the home cooking front. As someone who has embraced cooking from scratch and using fresh ingredients, I know how much my life has changed since becoming a fan of home cooking. I agree with Jamie completely that cooking skills should be revived and people should sit down to dinner together enjoying the food that they created in their own kitchens.

So, join the revolution! Visit Jamie's website and sign the petition saying you agree with his mission, which he will take to the White House after his series airs. Also on the website, you will find information about the state of school lunches in America and England, and discover easy, from-scratch recipes to make at home. You are encouraged to learn them and pass them on to someone else to really get the ball rolling on a local level and preserve the culture of cooking. Go, Jamie!