Pukka

I remember seeing Jamie Oliver interviewed around the time of his first TV show. He told a story about a big, tattooed bloke who shouted across the street, “Oi! Jamie!”, and started walking towards him. Jamie’s initial, and understandable, thought was that he was going to get abused, verbally and possibly physically. But low and behold the man in question reached out his hand and said (along the lines of) “I cooked your linguini for the missus. She loved it. Nice one”. So, did Jamie single handedly make cooking cool? I certainly think the modern celeb chefs have a lot to thank him for. Before him, Delia was the queen of culinary entertainment. She made it accessible and homely, but not what you would consider cool. The other chefs on the telly at the time, Gary Rhodes and Rick Stein for example, tried their best to bring more entertainment, but still maintained that crisp, chefs coat exterior. And it often felt like they were trying too hard (Ainsley anyone). It was still about instruction, not experience. OK, Keith Ffloyd certainly stands outside of these, but Ffloyd was not a chef, he was a reporter, turned army lieutenant, turned failed restaurant owner who made very successful and fun travel programmes with food in them. In this case it was all about the experience.
Jamie brought youth and fun to cooking. And also the right balance between instruction and experience. You wanted to be hanging out in that kitchen with your mates, eating good food and having a beer. What is interesting of course is that all this was realised by a TV producer who read the trends, saw a gap and happened to see Jamie in a brief snippet from the River Cafe TV series. Marketing savvy people formed and directed Jamie, which helped create the mega brand he is today.
So why the blog? Well the latest addition to the Jamie Oliver Brand juggernaut is, as it turns out, a juggernaut. The truck will be bringing the Food Revolution message all across the states using its eight kitchen stations and an inflatable band shell. Brands do grow up, sliding down railings gets replaced with serious food issues, but rock and roll never dies…not if you have a tour bus like this.

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