Apr 01 2005

Jamie Oliver wins school food fight

category: friends & idols
scribble tags:

UK TV cooks #3: 1990’s thru now

Jamie Oliver. 

Jamie Oliver wins school food fight is the title of a March 30th item in the London Times.   The title made me giggle.  A pun where food fight could be either fighting for food or fighting with food. 

Its inspiring to think that a ‘celebrity’ chef with a passion for health and social planning can influence government school-food funding policy.  The article does point out that this could be the government playing for the popular vote in the upcoming May elections.  Disappointing that they didnt remove junk food.  They merely “introducing complicated nutritional standards” which will likely increase the cost of effective regulation. You can track his current activities on the blog on his own website: http://www.jamieoliver.com/

Jamie shot to fame in the UK with his friendly cheeky, chirpy, cockney chef’s program called “the naked chef”.  Named because of the “principle of stripping down recipes to their bare essentials”.  Hah, and we all tuned in because he was a pretty boy with a sense of humour who was good in the kitchen….

Mar 28 2005

Fanny Cradock

category: friends & idols
scribble tags:

UK TV cooks #1: 1950’s thru 1970s

Fanny wore ball-gowns in the kitchen, she barked orders at her meek husband Jonny and sheepish assistant Sarah.  In the same breath she would turn to the camera and smile as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.  Fanny’s fake eyelashes looked like they would support the nest of a small bird.  Her lipstick and eye shadow were applied with the same firm dramatic hand.  One website suggests that she looked, sounded and behaved more like a man in drag than a man in drag.  Her comments often offended people. 

As a child I remember that people either really appreciated Fanny or they couldn’t stand her.  I was not interested in the art of cooking.  I thought that she looked like a pantomime dame.  Her offensive comments made me giggle.  That made her programs worth watching.  Several plays have been written about her.  I’ve not been lucky enough to see any of them.  If you know, or find, some interesting stories about Fanny let me know! 

Meanwhile Wikipedia publishes Fanny’s story. 

Wendy