JAMIE OLIVER’S FOOD REVOLUTION

USA / ABC / 1×120 minute episode 4×60 minute episodes / Broadcast 26 March – 24 April 2010 / Fridays @ 9.00pm

Director: Brian Smith / Executive Producer: Ryan Seacrest

Having taken his brand of food knowledge to the north of England to revolutionise the way that British schools and even an entire town Jamie Oliver decides to tackle one of the most overweight countries on Earth and in particular the town of Huntington, W.V. which has been labelled by the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention as the most unhealthy city in the USA. Not surprising when we learn in the first episode that the kids are served Pizza for breakfast at school.

Jamie is determined that he can use the same techniques that he brought to bear in England to work on his American town, it isn’t long though before he has got the towns back up and an awful lot of them are none too happy about having someone telling them they are fat and eat all the wrong foods.

It’s a staggering fact that today’s generation of kids is, for the first time in over two hundred years, expected to have a shorter life span than their parents, it’s all hugely symptomatic of the disposable world we live, from the over packaged products we buy to the massive amounts of fast food we consume. Jamie is very, very good at this kind of thing and it isn’t too long before his natural charm and sound ideas about eating healthier are winning over the populace of Huntington.

Oliver is hopeful of starting a grassroots revolution and is trying to collection a million signatures for a petition to take to the White House to try and bring about change to the school food system.

One of the key things about Jamie is that he is genuine in his desire to persuade people to adopt a healthier lifestyle especially when it comes to food. We’ve had forty years of getting ever more dependent on supermarkets and their convenience food empires. Our grand parents grew a lot of their own food but as we have moved into this fast paced technological age we all seem to have forgotten what real food is.

Thankfully there really does seem to be a growing movement, led in part by people like Jamie and fellow Chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, towards returning to a simpler way of food production and cooking.

As entertaining as Jamie’s cooking shows like Jamie Does… it’s the human interest angle that makes Food Revolution so watchable. Oliver never finds it easy, especially when it comes to dealing with beaurocracy and facing up to the challenge of locals actually unhappy with what he is initially doing. Not too sure about Jamie’s relationship with local DJ Rod who when it comes to displaying genuine emotion doesn’t quite cut it.

Bottom line though is, despite his terrible haircut, Jamie is a good man and should be applauded for what he is doing.