Book Review: Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution
Author: Indy Food Geek | Filed under: Book ReviewsI’m going to dig up a review category that Would I Buy It Again has not seen in quite some time… a book review.
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution
Whether you know him as the Naked Chef or as that guy who cried a lot on ABC when talking about school lunches, you probably don’t like Jamie Oliver. I mean, I know I certainly don’t. I’ve never been able to nail down what I don’t like about him, I just know that I simply don’t care for him or his plethora of shows and cookbooks. It’s probably that ridiculous hair or the crying…
So why review his cookbook after telling you that I don’t like his books? Well kind reader, the Geek was wrong about this particular book , at least in that I actually like what it stands for. I believe Food Revolution is the reading companion to Jamie’s wildly crap-tacular ABC series of the same name. While the series was an utter flop (in that it really didn’t achieve its goal of changing a school’s lunch system), the principle behind it lives on in this book and it’s pretty simple: care about what you eat and what you cook for others. Now I’m not saying that this is a healthy cookbook, it just has an emphasis on wholesome ingredients. He pushes free-range organic meats whenever possible, and I’m pretty sure that curry paste and soymilk are the only processed ingredients I ever see him use.
Food Revolution presents a wide array of simple, easy to prepare recipes that beg to be cooked and eaten. Literally every recipe is joined by a full-color collage of step-by-step pictures of the preparation. My dog can make stuff out of this book. But that’s not to say that the recipes are so simple that they don’t taste like much. Every recipe I’ve tried (and I’ve tried many) has been incredibly flavorful and in some cases moan-worthy.
I have passed this book around to every kind of home cook. I have passed it to mothers who have been cooking for their families for decades, I have given it to people who claim they can’t cook Pop Tarts and every single person has given it back raving about the results.
My copy of this book looks battle-worn. It has sauces splattered on it, the binding has been chewed up by my darling dog (presumably because she wanted to eat the aforementioned sauces), pages are earmarked and it has been photocopied more times than I can count.
One of the things that I like best is that he has provided several suggestions for substitutions. This tends to be my biggest gripe about cookbooks. Say you want to cook a particular recipe and it calls for five really good looking zucchini. You drive to the store only to find out that the available zucchini, now no longer in season, looks awful. Now you have to scrap that recipe all together. Jamie had the foresight to provide substitution ideas for some items that fluctuate in quality, price, or availability. Specific example: his stew recipe. He gives the standard stew recipe, then provides four alternatives based on the type of protein (chicken-white wine, beef-brown ale, lamb-red wine, or pork-hard cider) that you have available to you. There are several other examples in the book, and I think this is something that you just don’t see enough in modern cookbooks.
Would I Buy It Again? Stupid question for a book review, right? Not really…I actually would buy it again. YES, and I have! My wife and I have given out as a gift on a number of occasions. It’s the kind of cookbook that you want to share and according to the foreword, that’s the whole point. If you like to cook, either for yourself or a whole family, I highly recommend this book.
-Indy Food Geek
Tags: Cook book, Food, Food Revolution, Jamie Oliver, wholesome
I didn’t dislike the TV show. In fact, I loved how pissed he got at the ladies that were fighting him the entire time and how they vilanized (I know, not a word) the radio dj.
I would agree that modern cookbooks should be able to adapt. Buy a Gordon Ramsay cookbook and 20% of the ingredients are not readily available in Indiana.
I have flipped through the majority of his cookbooks and haven’t found one that I wanted to buy. I will take a second look at this one though.
For as much as I razzed his show, I still watched every episode… I agree wholeheartedly with the premise, I just think he was the wrong person and Huntington was the wrong location for their first attempt at school lunch reform. The noodle recipe that he makes EVERYONE cook isn’t actually in the book, but there is something fairly close.
And yeah, I don’t like any of his other cookbooks. This one just stuck out because it was so approachable, and it has some great ideas. One highlight that I should’ve mentioned is the Chicken and Leek Stroganoff. It is far and away the best recipe in the book and has completely surpassed the old comfort-food standby from my childhood…
I am no fan of mr. oliver or his ilk. yes, I like cooking and eating natural, local foods and vegtables. who wouldnt. but the sad fact is, when you must feed four or more on fifty bucks a week or less you often dont have the option of chosing “organic, unprocessed, localy grown natural foods” sure, I’d like to buy free range eggs and organic milk, with artisan bread made from only natural, organicly and sustainable wheat and oats, and pure pork sausages in natural casings, with certified homemade jam , made with only clean hand picked berries, and add some grade aaa butter, from cows that eat only clover, and are hand milked. but there goes my 50 bucks on one meal. what am I supposed to do the other six days? the sad fact is we eat mass produced eggs, the cheapest bread for toast, whatever sausage is on sale, smuckers or store brand jam or jely, margarine ( no trans fat though) and 2% milk. store brand. and it is not the best for us, but we dont starve, either. I seems many of the authors of cook books have lost touch with reality. most people that eat cheaper foods eat it because they must. of course Id rather have fresh pinapple than canned crushed. but that might be all I can afford. and that is the problem I have with mr, oliver. anybody can feed four for 50 bucks. try feeding 4 for 5 bucks. I would buy that cookbook.
Tom… we all have to start somewhere. Farmers and food makers are beginning to respond to the change Americans are insisting be made to our food supply. As we all know, if there is a market for a product, someone will make it. I do not make good money and cannot afford a $5 gallon of organic milk. However, with some planning and spending some extra time shopping at alternative grocers like Trader Joe’s, you can get many items you might by in mass for nearly the same price in organic form. I pay similar cost for organic frozen vegetables, organic rice, organic condiments like ketchup or salsa, cereal and even some fruit. The more everyone can buy even the smallest of items are organic, the more the food supply will change.