Finally! Here is TED video of Jamie Oliver spelling out his wish.

Jamie Oliver’s Wish
“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

The situation may not be so serious in India, but the rate at which we ape food and lifestyle habits of the ‘developed nations’, we might just be the third in line. We are a nation of hypertensive, diabetic and obese people, with a host of new lifestyle related diseases are being added every year. With fast foods, frozen meals, and kitchen cupboard loaded with emulsifiers, additives and preservatives, we are almost there.

While Jamie’s talk and wish is centered around USA and England, we have some key messages to take home.

Watch. Contemplate. And ACT before it is too late. It is the health of your children in your hands.

Jamie Oliver’s Plan
Set up an organization to create a popular movement that will inspire people to change the way they eat. The movement will do this by establishing a network of community kitchens; launching a travelling food theater that will teach kids practical food and cooking skills in an entertaining way and provide basic training for parents and professionals; and bringing millions of people together through an online community to drive the fight against obesity. The grassroots movement must also challenge corporate America to support meaningful programs that will change the culture of junk food.

The Plan’s Needs
>> Help to establish the organization, with funding, office space and facilities.
>> Find partners to equip and run the community kitchens, and food suppliers to provide the fresh ingredients.
>> A partner to build and maintain a fleet of food theatre trucks.
>> Education experts, graphic designers, artists and writers to develop and produce creative, fun teaching materials.
>> Communications experts to create messaging for the movement.
>> Web designers and developers to create and build the website.
>> Establishment of a food line that generates a sustainable income for the movement.
>> Corporate partners to invest in cooking and food education for their customers and champion honest food labelling.
>> Your names added to the petition to challenge our leaders to make change now: www.jamiesfoodrevolution.com/petition

“Every child should be taught to cook in school, not just talk about nutrition all day. Good food can be made in 15 minutes. This could be the first generation where the kids teach the parents.” 
Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver wins $100,000 for Wishing Something Big!

Jamie Oliver has won the TED Prize for 2010 for making a big wish! 
Hurray!
But what is his wish?

 Whatever it might be, the TED community will make it come true. 

Here is a snippet of what Jamie hopes for: “My wish is for you to have a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity,” said Jamie, in a speech at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. 

Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef and the poster boy for fighting against junk food and obesity in kids, has been announced as the recipient of the 2010 TED Prize, an award granting $100,000. And with this award comes a bigger opportunity to realize his wish to change the world. With the big money, TED grants great organizational support. But the real impact of the prize is phenomenally magnified by the backing of the influential audience attending the conferences. 

“We’re thrilled to award the TED Prize to Jamie Oliver. His work directly tackles one of the most distressing issues the world faces… the obesity epidemic. In this year in which his TV show launches in the United States, we look forward to helping him achieve even greater impact,” says TED Curator Chris Anderson. 

Jamie, apart from his repertoire of cookery shows and cookbooks has been speaking up against bad food practices, junk food revolution, unhealthy eating habits in children, diet related lifestyle problems, obesity and more. His campaigns ranging from School Dinners/ to Feed Me Better, pressured the UK government to focus on overhaul of school lunches to improve nutrition. 

This TED award will further fuel the good food movement Jamie started long ago. This award should help him achieve his ambitious goal for improving health and wellness of children, getting them to eat right, and living a healthy life. Its possibilities are immense. And we know for sure that Jamie is not going to be wasting this most coveted opportunity in any way. 

This is the most exciting time for Jamie’s fans – world over, including me. From cookbooks, television shows, to raising his voice against real issues, Jamie has got all the ingredients right in making way into anyone’s heart. 

Wishing Jamie good luck and wish that his wish comes true. Three cheers to Jamie for championing the cause of eating right and rightful nutrition for kids. Lets now tune into CNN and hear/ watch his wish. 

Watch this space for Jamie’s WISH and the excitement that comes with it

When was the last time you saw a cookery show that did not use a clinically clean kitchen top, used no measures and to top it, the chef continually tasting the food to get his ingredients flavored right? Probably never!

Jamie Oliver with tomatoes at his kitchen garden in Essex

Jamie at Home is one such cookery show that takes the bling out of cooking. He gets down to earth to help us savor the finest tastes, textures and aroma that good cooking and good food has to offer. The keywords for this show would be fresh, green, kitchen garden, slow cooking, rustic, organic, and many more such aromatic and delicious words that seem so distant in this advancing mad world.

The catch of this incredible show is that this guy walks up to his garden, plucks or digs out the vegetables, heads to the kitchen to dish out this incredibly yummy food cooked the traditional way using the best of ingredients in the simplest manner possible.

From making a make shift smoking oven from a old biscuit box, growing potatoes in a old sack to using his hand as a measuring bowl, Jamie is unbelievably down to earth in his approach to cooking. Having had plethora of ultra modern airbrushed cooking shows, Jamie at home indeed comes across as fresh breath or air (or rather aroma) making us sit back, notice and once again aspire for simple joys of cooking and living. No other show, till date has urged us to take this reversed route in time. It is the kind of cookery show that not only sates your quest for good food but leaves you with lingering food for thought. And this means the quality of life that one yearns for.

The show does not start with a basket of vegetables on the kitchen counter, ready to be cut. Take one step behind and you are in Jamie Oliver’s farm patch. Jamie takes you through the process of growing the vegetable and offers tips and tricks on growing them right. Another feather in cap are his organic gardening practices. His gardener, Brian, guides Jamie in growing the vegetables and shares his words of wisdom on keeping the garden bountiful and green. And this gardening angle is the show’s USP.

Picked fresh from the garden, its journey into the kitchen, to its preparation and presentation, the show is delightfully entertaining, inspiring and happy-go-lucky. It kind of makes us appreciate the contribution nature does to keep us all sustained and the kind of living ecosystem we thrive in. Every little ingredient has a role to play.

Jamie at Home focuses on one ingredient at a time. He picks up one vegetable, loves it, and lives it, while we watch. That one vegetable or ingredient is the star of the week and all recipes of that episode revolve around it. The entire journey is laced with down-to-earth processes, tips and tricks and makes on feel as if he/she is sitting along with him and following his instructions. He not only shows some incredible recipes but also educates on how that one vegetable or ingredient rules the table and what should be done to get the most out of it.

Jamie at Home - Jamie Oliver with his bunch of organic root vegetables from his garden (Pix-David Loftus)

The charm of watching Jamie at Home, is the use of words that are utterly unconnected with cooking, kitchen or recipes. Once in a while you are taken aback thinking – what did he just say? A blob, glob, swig? Hugh! That’s cute! He even wears a sock-cap in the kitchen and hosts the show. The only make-up visible on Jamie is the garden dirt and some fallen twigs in his ruffled hair. LOL. Jamie must be in his mid 30s but still retains his boyish charm, and present his shows just the same way. His lively presentation, full appreciation for food and its flavors, the fun, joy, excitement, is all in good humor and good taste. His energy and enthusiasm is very infectious and heartwarming. And I am not surprised that this guy may soon be seen as a cartoon character called Little J.

Jamie at home looks rugged, rustic and very country – as if the camera was rolled in dirt before filming the episodes. And this is exactly the best part of the program. We get a heartwarming trip of his patch of land in Essex. I love his garden that seems to have everything that one needs for sustenance. Added to this is the lovely rustic kitchen, vintage tools and crockery that simply lend in the old world charm. Even the outdoor kitchen where he cooks and bakes under the open sky is so inviting. It is quite a scene to watch Jme grill the colorful vegetables under the overcast skies forming a magnificent backdrop for simple pleasures of life.

A good drizzle of olive oil, followed by a generous handful of grated parmesan to handful or processed cheese are mouth watering highlights of Jamie at Home. There is no restraint in picking up and using these ingredients which are a dieter’s nightmare. And this generosity is exactly what binds us all to the show. It’s a guilt free trip down the good food lane without adding more calories I only wish that this show was a little lengthier… for the added goooo-iness.

I dig for garden fresh vegetables and spices. When I was small, mom would ask me to pluck some curry leaves for what she was cooking at that moment. I still remember the aroma of the fresh leaves, freshly plucked and running back to the kitchen. That act must have stayed in my subconscious with respect to garden fresh cooking. Whenever I come across people growing their veggies, spices and condiments in their garden, they have a fan in me. And it’s no different with Jamie Oliver.

Jamie at Home is devoid of glamour, airbrushing, rehearsed scripts, and well-lit sets. Some of his dinner recipes are indicated by the use of lanterns and candles in the kitchen – to give that much needed warmth. This tele-series has audience hooked with delightful green visuals, recipes, tips and tricks and more. One can actually feel happy watching the show for it is not about worrying clinical precision or weight watching plans or calorie charts. Its about the whole experience of making your food – right from sowing the seeds to sprinkling the garnish. It is about taking in the aroma, feeling the wholesome life-giving and life sustaining experience.

Jamie at Home is also available as a book and I have asked my friends to it pick up on their next trip to UK. I am sure I will dig into those pages whenever I need some soul food and when the show is not on TV. Another reason for getting this book is to present it to my mother, who is as mad as I am when it comes to rustic living and cooking.

Jamie at Home = zen + garden + food + nut host. It is a very different show, with a very different chef and a very different soundtrack. Here is the soundtrack for closing credits.

“My World” lyrics by Time Kay for Jamie at Home TV Show
take time to make yourself feel good
and you do whatever you want
cause you can now, in my world
make it up for losing so much time
cause you can now, in my world