I discovered the British chef Jamie Oliver when I was in high school. The Food Network used to air his show, The Naked Chef, at really weird hours so it was always a treat when I could catch an episode. I fell in love with him because he was just this young, spunky chef who seemed really unpretentious and just wanted to make some good food. Probably being cute, driving a Vespa, and having a British accent didn't hurt either. On my return from Paris my friend Melissa took me to Jamie's restaurant Fifteen in London for my 21st birthday dinner. I was sooo exciting. It was like a dream come true. We had dinner at the Italian trattoria style restaurant upstairs, rather then the more haute cuisine that was served downstairs. We enjoyed our meal so much that we came back the next morning for breakfast! Next time I'm in England again, I will definitely be returning. Jamie's restaurants are unique in that the majority of chefs that work in his restaurants are basically at-risk kids. There was a big TV special in England about it. Jamie basically takes poor and usually poorly educated kids in England with an interest in cooking, and trains them to become chefs in his restaurants. If your into cooking like me, it was a really interesting program.
My favorite Jamie Oliver book is Jamie at Home. The book is all about cooking seasonally, and is split up into four chapters each pertaining to, yup you guessed it, the different seasons. What's really great about the book is that each chapter contains information about what fruit and vegetables grow in that season, how to grow them, and then how to cook them. It's all about the farm to table, but in this case your farm. It really inspired me to starting growing some of my own veggies. My first attempt was last year and I grew some super sweet and crunchy sugar snap peas. I ate them right off the plant and they were awesome. This year I'm going to be more ambitious and grow tomatoes, sugar snap peas, pumpkins, dill, arugula, garlic, and lavender. I'm hoping I might have space for a couple of other things as well. I love the idea of just picking the food fresh from your own garden. Nothing tastes better than when its that fresh.
Jamie has grown up a bit since his early Naked Chef days, and now has a new show on ABC called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. It's all about trying to change the awful food culture prevalent in a large portion of our country. It's no secret that America is seriously over weight, and that American's eat tons of awful fatty, chemically, artificially produced foods all the time. Jamie's show is all about trying to expose the terrible food habits to a community called Huntington, the fattest city in all of the US. There have only been two episodes so far, but it's pretty scary, sad, and entertaining all at the same time. I hope Jamie can make a difference because there are a lot of people out there that need to change. Check out this clip if your interested.
I am jealous of your impending vegetable garden. There's nothing better than snatching a tomato, straight from the vine and hot from the sun, and biting into it like an apple. Oh summer, where are youuuuuuuuu?
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