The crusading adventure of English “Chef and Food Activist” Jamie Oliver has nearly met its end, at least, as far as U.S. schools and the resulting television program are concerned. The second-season ratings for “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” have ceremoniously dropped, and ABC has pulled the reality program from its sweeps lineup and looks unlikely to renew it for a third season. Those familiar with the program will know that the first season featured Jamie allegedly transforming the eating habits of Huntington, West Virginia. This season, he moved onto bigger pastures and set his sights upon infiltrating the school system of Los Angeles (where, conveniently, Oliver has recently opened his own restaurant), which just wasn’t having him.

After the L.A. school board banned Oliver from directly accessing schools, he largely resorted to dressing up like a tomato, standing outside school entrances, and attempting to persuade commuting parents to take his food and insert it into their children’s lunch boxes. While I do believe that Oliver’s heart was initially in the right place, he certainly didn’t approach people in a friendly manner and was rather pushy about the whole thing to the point of shouting. If I were one of those parents confronted by Jamie Oliver, I’d probably have given him the finger and rolled up my window. While I already try to put healthy wrap sandwiches and fruit in my daughter’s lunch bag, Oliver’s superior attitude would have immediately alienated me. It seems that I’m not alone in my sentiments, for viewers have tuned out Oliver’s television message too:

Bad news for chef/TV personality Jamie Oliver.

ABC has pulled the the Ryan Seacrest-produced reality series, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, from the schedule during May sweeps.

The show, which follows Oliver as he tries to change the way kids and adults eat at home and in school, will air its four remaining episodes beginning Friday, June 3 at 9 p.m.

ABC says the Dancing With the Stars recap was a better complement to the DWTS results show on Tuesday nights, though emphasizes it is still behind the anti-junk food series. The network had pre-empted the third episode of Food Revolution for a DWTS-related hour last week.

Food Revolution has dropped in the ratings in its second season, with the premiere slipping nearly 40 percent from last year’s series debut.

[From Hollywood Reporter]

Some people will undoubtedly decry the disappearance of “Food Revolution” as a sign that Americans just want to remain fat and lazy as a whole. Then again, Jamie Oliver himself is not exactly a picture of outward physical health, and I’d like to yell at him to hop on a treadmill before he deigns to lecture any of us on what we should feed our children. Yes, our kids should eat more whole foods and avoid too much sugar and fat, but there are more effective approaches than Oliver’s way of doing things; he could have worked out a system of distributing educational pamphlets to parents through the PTA before accosting them by basically throwing his meals into their faces. Of course, pamphlets don’t make for good television; as it turns out, neither does “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.”

Here’s a clip of Oliver lecturing/harassing some cafeteria ladies (as if they could control anything) before he got banned from accessing the school system.

And here’s a full episode (wherein he tries to talk a fast food proprietor into cooking healthier food, whatever the cost) from a few weeks ago, if you can stomach it:

Photos courtesy of WENN

Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef and father of four, is taking on celebrity children in a new interview. According to Oliver, celebrity kids are for the most part “little sh-ts” and that “I think few children of famous people succeed.” The newspaper points out that he was mostly directing his comments at people like Peaches Geldof (ha) and Calum Best (who is the son of a famous footballer, I believe). Of course, I want to point out that Jamie Oliver’s kids are not only too young to be included in Jamie’s diatribe, but that Jamie and his wife Jools have given them added headaches by naming them: Poppy Honey Rosie (born 18 March 2002), Daisy Boo Pamela (born 10 April 2003) and Petal Blossom Rainbow (born 3 April 2009); and son Buddy Bear Maurice (born 15 September 2010). I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if my parents named me something like Poppy Petal Bear, I MIGHT have a drug problem.

JAMIE Oliver has branded celebrities’ children “little sh*ts”. The gobby telly chef, 35, claims most of them do not have a clue how to behave.
He admitted his own brood will have to work harder to get around the stigma of having a well-known dad.

And he fumed over celeb sons and daughters such as Calum Best, 29, and Peaches Geldof, 21, who are often accused of doing nothing but leeching off their parents’ fame.

Jamie stormed that “most of them are little sh*ts”, adding: “I think few children of famous people succeed.”

He went on to say he was petrified about how his own kids would deal with his celeb status. Jamie, who is worth £65million, recently became a father for the fourth time after wife Jools, 35, gave birth to son Buddy Bear.

He said: “My kids are always going to be labelled as ‘Jamie’s child’ so they will need to work harder than anyone else. I think my children are very lucky, apart from having me as a dad.”

But he did cite one example of a great celeb kid, Stella McCartney, 39, fashion designer daughter of Beatles legend Sir Paul, 68.

He said: “I think Stella’s an exception. That would be nice if my kids could be independent and creative and happy like that.”

As well as their newborn son, Jamie and Jools have three other daughters, Poppy Honey, eight, Daisy Boo, seven, and 17-month-old Blossom Rainbow.

[From The Daily Star]

Okay, so Stella McCartney is obviously cool in Jamie’s book, but what about the other McCartney kids? Didn’t Paul and Linda have, like, three other kids? I guess they’re all crap. As are all people with famous parents who don’t manage to become famous fashion designers with enough money to eat at one of Jamie’s fancy restaurants. Whatever.

Header: Jamie in May, credit: WENN.

The Naked Chef Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools have welcomed another daughter, their third. Baby Petal Blossom Rainbow was born at 2:46 a.m. Friday in England. I actually know that Petal was due on Wednesday – because it was the same day that Jamie Oliver was asked to cook for the G-20 leaders at 10 Downing Street (the British Prime Minister’s residence/office). Security precautions meant that Oliver had to give up his cell phone for the duration of his time in 10 Downing Street – so he had no idea if his wife had gone into labor. Thankfully, baby Petal knew her dad had some important work to do, so she chilled out an extra two days.

It’s a third girl for celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who became a father again on Friday.

Oliver’s wife, Jools, gave birth to Petal Blossom Rainbow at 2:46 a.m., PEOPLE has confirmed. The baby, who weighed 6 lb., 10 oz., joins sisters Poppy Honey, 7, and Daisy Boo, 5, in the Oliver household. Her anticipated arrival was first announced in September.

Oliver, who only two days ago was cooking for world leaders at 10 Downing Street, was at his wife’s side at London’s Portland Hospital for the birth

A statement from a rep for Oliver, who is best known in the U.S. for his Naked Chef TV shows, said, “Both [Petal] and Jools are doing well. The Olivers would like to thank midwives Linda Ordish and Elaine Porter and also obstetrician William Dennis for their wonderful help and support.”

It went on to say: “Jamie and Jools are both completely smitten with Petal already, and Jamie is looking forward to two weeks paternity leave to spend quality time with his four beautiful girls.”

News of the baby’s delivery first broke Friday morning in Britain’s The Sun.

[From People Magazine]

So their girls are Poppy Honey, Daisy Boo and now Petal Blossom Rainbow. Hippies! No, they’re perfectly lovely names – certainly not the worse. Personally, I always love a husband and father who can’t get away from being surrounded by women. It’s so sweet – Jamie has his wife and now three daughters. He’s probably going to be covered in glitter for the next 12 years. Congratulations to the happy family!

Here’s Jamie and Jools Oliver heading to the doctors in London on Tuesday. Images thanks to INF News and Features.

Does anyone around here spend their days obsessing over pork? I do, but probably not in the way PETA wants me to obsess. My obsession is bacon. Every morning, I wake up, brush my teeth, shower (where I may or may not pee), and then another bacon-obsessed day begins. I don’t even eat bacon that often (maybe once or twice a month), but I find myself thinking about it every day. Like one of those dogs in the Beggin’ Strips commercials, my internal monologue is a constant refrain of “Bacon bacon bacon bacon… Angelina Jolie… bacon bacon…” It’s some weird OCD thing with me.

Anyway, this story just re-booted my bacony internal monologue. PETA is targeting British chef Jamie Oliver for his pork promotion. Oliver just did a television show investigating the pig welfare standards in Britain, in which Oliver came to conclusion that Britons should strive to buy British pork rather than imported pork. Bacon. Peta of course has a problem with this, saying the answer is actually “to go vegetarian”. The Telegraph has more:

Animal rights group Peta has targeted Jamie Oliver’s flagship restaurant Fifteen in a protest against the celebrity chef’s promotion of British pork.

The move will surprise many, as the chef’s television show investigating pig welfare standards urged people to buy British rather than cheaper pork produced abroad under poorer conditions.

But Peta argued: “The answer to saving pigs is not to buy British pork, it’s to go vegetarian.”

Mr Oliver’s spokesman said the chef was a “big supporter” of animal welfare, while his London restaurant Fifteen served pork products from “the happiest pigs you can get”.

“They do seem to be protesting against somebody who is trying to help the situation,” he said. “It’s a slightly odd place for them to be protesting but nonetheless they are welcome to do that. My main concern was that they would get cold.”

He added: “In the programme we never said that the British pig farming industry is completely whiter than white, we did a very balanced programme.”

Under a banner reading “Unhappy Mother’s Day for British pigs”, pregnant protesters crouched in crates outside Fifteen in north London, in an attempt to show the conditions sows can face before giving birth. Protester Lynzi Waddington said: “Peta is asking people to have a heart for animal mums this time of the year and avoid meat that comes from such misery.”

In Jamie Saves Our Bacon on Channel 4, the chef highlighted factory pig farm conditions in continental Europe, showing the use of sow stalls, where pregnant pigs are kept in cages for up to four months at a time without room to turn. The stalls are banned in Britain, but sows can be moved to individual crates about a week before they are due to give birth, to prevent the sow crushing her piglets.

The sows usually remain in these farrowing crates until the piglets are weaned at about four weeks old. Peta wants to stop UK farms from putting sows in the “narrow metal stalls barely larger than their own bodies”.

Comparing pig welfare on the continent and in Britain, a spokeswoman said: “We are talking about something that’s cruel and something that might be a little less cruel, so why would you want to have any part of it?”

She said the crates meant sows could not turn around or nuzzle their newborns, causing “extreme” distress to the animals.

The sows spend one month out of every five in the crate before they are killed at around five years old, according to Peta.

From The Telegraph

That’s devastating. If you actually read it. I’m one of those “see no evil” meat-eaters, so I’ll admit, I just skimmed the article for the basics. Something about crate sizes and piglets being crushed, but I don’t want to think about it.

I totally understand the idea of buying meat that is “cruelty-free”, but when you get down to it, isn’t any animal death for the sake of human consumption cruel? is PETA’s goal for every animal to die of old age? That’s a serious question, and I’d really like to know the answer. It’s extremely sad what’s happening to those pigs, but my inner monologue is still crying out for bacon.

Jamie Oliver is shown signing copies of his magazine on 12/17/08. Credit: WENN.com

33 year-old celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has a new interview in Paris Match Magazine in which he rips on the British working class as drunken materialists who don’t appreciate good food. The Naked Chef thinks his fellow countrymen are drinking too much beer, eating too much crap, and buying too many gadgets. By Oliver’s estimation they’re all a bunch of louts who are wasting their time by not preparing healthy meals and wiling away their hours drinking pints in pubs instead. Oliver wants to put out a cooking show in France and he praises the love of good food and wine that’s endemic to French culture, which he says the UK lacks:

Commenting on the fact that 80 per of the British do not even bother sitting round a table for dinner any more, Oliver says: “It’s true in the centre of London and in the big northern cities. It’s linked to the new poverty.

“It’s nothing to do with famine or war – quite the opposite. England is one of the richest countries in the world.

“The people I’m telling you about have huge TV sets – a lot bigger than mine! – they have state-of-the-art mobile phones, cars, and they go and get drunk in pubs at the weekend – their poverty shows in the way they feed themselves.

“I found the cooking of the inhabitants of the slum in Soweto in South Africa a lot more diverse than ours. It’s true! I’m going to be harsh, but I think a lot of English people’s food lacks heart. It’s bland.” When it was suggested that the English can’t savour food because they drink too much, Oliver says: “It’s true. Historically we’ve never produced wine. We have a culture of alcohol and we’re more beer orientated: the only people who drink more than us are the Irish and the Scottish.”

Asked by French interviewer Mariana Grepinet how British cuisine compared with French cuisine, Oliver says: “In the past British cuisine was similar to Italian cuisine nowadays, without the pasta and risotto. Steam cooking, grilled meat, herbs, spices – we used to cook fabulous dishes. It’s all in the past!

“Unlike French people, and I regret it, we lost our traditions. In gastronomy, the world evolves and changes. And right in front of us, isolated from everything, you have France where nothing changes.

“It’s not a judgement, it’s an observation. In terms of grand restaurants, it seems to me that only one country competes with France, and that’s Japan.”

Significantly Oliver is planning a TV show in France. Asked what his links were with France, he says: “I don’t have many. But I would like to shoot a TV programme soon.

“The French-English relationship amuses me. As neighbours, we criticise each other. We mock each other, but behind all this, we appreciate each other and we respect each other.

“I’d like to watch French women and observe them behind their ovens in their kitchens. “I’m sure that the rest of the world would love a series on French cuisine directed by an English chef! It would be crazy!” Oliver was born in Clavering, Essex, and learning to cook in his father’s local pub. He is now said to be worth an estimated £25 million.

[From Telegraph.co.uk]
Nothing good can come of so broadly dismissing an entire class of people’s taste in food and drink. It’s also really short-sighted to say that people are chosing to drink beer and watch TV instead of cooking meals. People all over the industrialized world have less free time now and when they chose to spend their time vegging out instead of preparing vegetables – and I’m constantly annoyed by how long it takes me to make a salad with all that chopping, peeling and washing – you can hardly blame them for it. It’s a partially cultural thing that may need to be changed but Oliver is just going to draw ire by being so obnoxious about it.

Some of the comments for this story on The Telegraph article’s website are supportive of Oliver’s abrasive opinion, but many people call him out as a hypocrite and an attention-seeker who is dismissing the very people to made him as rich and famous as he is now:

Yet another attempt to revive a his flagging career. If Jamie genuinely feels so strongly, perhaps he will also attack the supermarkets who supply cheap booze. eg Sainsburys. But Oh no – that might endanger his multi million pound contract with them. This story is just a PR stunt to win attention from rival chefs and get his podgy face back onto our screens. He’s yesterday’s man. – Mike Baess

didn’t realise I was in such a minority sitting down to dinner with my family! Whatever his views, it’s unfair of Jamie to bad mouth the whole nation in a foreign paper. – Con

Saint Jamie has been happy to overcharge ‘drunken materialists’ in his very average restaurants for some time now. Nothing like biting the hand that feeds you! – Keith

[Comments from Telegraph.co.uk]

Maybe Oliver thought that if he was talking to a French Magazine his comments wouldn’t get widely publicized, or maybe he’s rich enough now that he feels like saying goodbye to England and moving on to France. A lot of British are likely to say good riddance to him.

Oliver also insulted Germans last week by making a terrible holocaust joke during a show about the poor treatment of commercially farmed chickens. He said that only German people complained about a scene in which chickens were gassed to death.

Jamie Oliver and his wife are shown at the Bafta Awards on 2/10/2008 Credit: Solarpix / PR Photos

Gordon Ramsey, famous for using bad language on his restaurant kitchen reality show Hell’s Kitchen, actually has a reason for his potty-mouth today – he’s burned his testicle.

“The other day I was standing to close to the hob when I was cooking. I was wearing cotton trousers and underneath I was going commando. Then suddenly I felt this searing heat – my balls were burning,” Ramsay told The Sun.

Ramsay admitted that he was in “absolute agony” after the accident last week.

AHN

Through pants? You were seared through your pants? Do not share this with my husband or he’ll never go near the stove again, commando or not.

Ramsey’s not the first celebrity chef to burn his bits – the by far more charming and attractive celebrity chef Jamie Oliver burnt his private parts cooking in the nude for his wife Jules on Valentine’s Day. I’m no anatomy expert, but I imagine these kinds of burns put a stopper on other Valentine’s Day plans too!

Jamie later treated his wife to a weekend in Paris to make up for the ruined evening. Gordon Ramsey just swore a lot.

Gordon Ramsey picture from The Wreckoning. Jamie Oliver picture from Ananova.