Jamie Oliver‘s crusade into improving the nutritional value of school dinners started in 2005 with his ‘Feed Me Better’ campaign.
Almost a decade later, and the British TV chef, 49, shows no sign of slowing down, having unveiled what is being called his most ambitious school dinners mission yet – lessons teaching students how to cook from scratch.
Dubbed ’10 Lessons to Save Your Life’, the 10-week programme is now being offered at 320 schools across the UK, taken up by about 80,000 pupils.
But Jamie’s journey has by no means been easy, as revealed by the 2011 clip of him attempting to discourage children from eating processed chicken nuggets, which still does the rounds on social media.
In Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, the father-of-five thought that by showing a group of children the ‘horrible’ process of how nuggets are made, it would put them off the snack, but in reality, it had the opposite effect.
Jamie Oliver’s journey into discouraging school children from eating processed foods hasn’t always been easy, as revealed in a 2011 clip from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (pictured)
While holding up a whole chicken to a group of six children of primary school age, he asked: ‘Who knows what this is?’
After they answered correctly, Jamie continued: ‘When you get a chicken like this, there’s bits on it that are worth lots of money. The breasts are the most expensive part, they’re the biggest and white meat.
‘Chicken wings are worth quite a lot of money,’ he continued while cutting up the meat.
In a piece to camera, Jamie explained: ‘I showed them where all the nice cuts of meat came off the chicken, and then you’re left with a carcass with all the bits of giblets, blood, and skin, and stuff like that’.
Going back to the children, Jamie held up the carcass and asked: ‘What do you think happens to this?’ The children shouted out their thoughts, with answers including ‘it gets thrown away’.
Jamie’s asked if any of the children would like to eat the remains, which was met with squirms from the group confirming their answer was no.
‘So, I’m going to tell you a little story about how you can use all the leftover bits to make food…watch me,’ Jamie said as he aggressively hacked at the remaining pieces of chicken, causing disgust among the children.
He continued: ‘Some of the processed foods that you love are made from the bits you don’t like, bone, all the connective tissues, little bits of bone marrow and stuff like that, they even add chicken skin.’
The celebrity chef attempted to put children off eating chicken nuggets by showing them how they can be made
Children looked shocked as Jamie showed them the often-gruesome cooking process behind chicken nuggets
Jamie added the remains into a blender, saying: ‘Put a load of chicken skin in here as well’.
After blending the remains, he said: ‘So, once they’ve done that, they pour the wound-up meat and bone and skin and the horrible bits, and they put it into a massive great machine that squeezes all the soft stuff away from the gangly hard stuff.
‘Look at it,’ he said to the children, who responded with phrases of disgust. ‘What’s the good meat?’ Jamie asked after placing the breast and the ‘horrible bits’ side by side, with the children picking the former option.
‘Because this has got loads of connective tissue and things that aren’t really meat to be honest, you’ve got to put loads of stuff in it, stabilize it with stabiliser, add flavouring in there to make it taste of something nice instead of something horrible.
‘Once they’ve done that, they mix it all up, and make this big load of gunk… and then we can get a cutter, and cut out our very own patty, just like that, put some breadcrumbs on it, and there you go ladies and gentlemen, our very own patty.
‘And all we do is put it in a pan, now, who would still eat this?’ he asked the children confident that they’d decline.
But one by one, all seven children raised their hands and admitted that they would still eat the chicken nugget made of ‘gunk’.
Jamie, who has since developed his own chicken nugget recipe made up of pnly breast meat, immediately looked downcast, sarcastically responding: ‘Great’.
Despite Jamie’s efforts, all six children raised their hands and said they would still eat the chicken nuggets
The celebrity chef is now hoping to expand his food and nutrition teaching programme, which is currently used in 320 schools across the UK
Despite Jamie’s apparent failure in putting children off chicken nuggets in the 2011 show, he is today hoping to massively expand his initiative to teach schoolchildren about food and nutrition – and get the Government to restore an A-level in the subject, which was dropped under ex-Prime Minister David Cameron.
Oliver has set up a Ministry Of Food foundation, offering lessons teaching students aged between 11 and 14 how to cook from scratch.
The 10-week programme dubbed ’10 Lessons to Save Your Life’ is now being offered at 320 schools across the UK, taken up by about 80,000 pupils.
But his Jamie Oliver Group organisation now hopes to ultimately reach as many as 4,000 different secondary schools.
Pupils taking the programmes are given practical advice on skills such as chopping and frying, as well as being given nutritional information.
Lesson plans, recipes and worksheets are delivered to students, while they are also shown videos featuring Oliver and his 13-year-old son Buddy.
The restaurateur told the Times: ‘I’ve never lost my passion for improving school dinners, both in terms of how many children can access free school meals and in setting high standards for what’s being offered.
‘But having worked with eight different prime ministers over the years, what I’ve learnt is that making progress at that level is tricky.
‘Which is why, as well as pushing for legislative change, I want to be proactive and show how things can be done in a really positive, celebratory way.’
He called for ministers to stop what he called ‘the bombardment of junk food ads’ and also bring in new laws demanding ‘clear, honest labelling on food packaging’.
Oliver added: ‘The UK is in the grips of a health crisis, which makes it an economic crisis too.
‘Obesity rates are rising, the levels of child tooth decay are frightening, and the NHS is buckling under the strain – and all of this is being exacerbated by a cost of living crisis that’s forcing more people to buy cheaper, processed foods that are missing the vital nutrients they need to thrive.’
Oliver has called for ministers to stop what he called ‘the bombardment of junk food ads’ and also bring in new laws demanding ‘clear, honest labelling on food packaging’
His teaching scheme’s impact has been assessed by a nutritional epidemiology group at the University of Leeds, based on 20 schools taking part.
Researchers say 98 per cent of children agreed that learning to cook was important – and 76 per cent told of making at least one of the meals they were taught at home following the lessons.
The most popular suggestions were fajitas, pancakes and pasta, while others which were highlighted included fishcakes, soup and stir fries.
Oliver’s foundation is now campaigning for food and nutrition to be restored as a standalone A-level subject, having been discontinued in 2015 although it is available and proving popular with students as a GCSE.
Oliver told the Times: ‘Food teachers are doing a brilliant job. But the subject is not being given the support or recognition it deserves, and therefore it has inadequate funding.
‘This is about teaching kids a fundamental life skill that’s just as important as English or maths. It should be at the heart of education. Food is so much more than just what we eat.’
The Department for Education said a curriculum and assessment review will publish recommendations next year, with a spokesman adding: ‘The government will consider changes to the national curriculum, including in relation to food education, in the light of the recommendations of the review.’
Among the schools taking part in Oliver’s teaching scheme is King Edmund School in Essex, whose associate assistant head teacher Michelle Woodard said it offered ‘essential skills that students need’.
Lesson plans, recipes and worksheets are delivered to students, while they are also shown videos featuring Oliver and his 13-year-old son Buddy (pictured)
Oliver’s foundation is now campaigning for food and nutrition to be restored as a standalone A-level subject, having been discontinued in 2015
She added: ‘It’s really manageable because it covers everything in the curriculum and it’s all in one place.
‘But also it helps that it’s Jamie Oliver – they’ve seen him on TV, and they love that he cooks with his son too.’
Oliver’s firm is said to be investing £450,000 per year into the project.
He first launched his ‘Feed Me Better’ campaign to improve schoolchildren’s nutrition in 2005, most prominently protesting against Turkey Twizzlers which he criticised for containing just 34 per cent meat.
The rest of the content was water, pork fat, rusk and coating along with additives, sweeteners and flavourings.
Under the weight of public disapproval, manufacturer Bernard Matthews axed Twizzlers in 2005 – but they returned to supermarket shelves in 2020 based on a new recipe.
Oliver himself first rose to fame when his series The Naked Chef launched in 1999 on the BBC.
He and his wife Jools share five children Poppy, 22, Daisy, 21, Petal, 15, Buddy, 13, and River, eight.
Oliver’s firm is said to be investing £450,000 per year into the school teaching project
Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools, pictured attending the Wimbledon tennis tournament on July 10 this year, have five children together
Buddy appears to be following in his father’s footsteps, and even launched his own Let’s Cook recipe book in July and featured in a CBBC show.
His new programme show Cooking Buddies, which followed the teenager winning success on YouTube, will be co-produced by his father’s media company and will also feature ‘surprise appearances’ from the Oliver family.
Meanwhile, earlier this month Oliver launched his own range of frozen meals, including dishes named the Mighty Moussaka, the Comforting Cottage Pie and a Chicken Tikka Masala.
The frozen meal mains, priced from £4 a serving, have already gone on sale in Iceland stores and will be made available in Waitrose branches next month.
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