It is time to go quite hard and on veg
FAMED for making home cooking approachable and achievable for millions of people, and for lobbying for better children’s public health, Jamie Oliver’s influence doesn’t seem to be wavering – even 20 years on from the Naked Chef first appearing on our TVs.
His restaurant chain may have recently gone into administration in the UK, but a few months on, he’s “moving on, dusting down” after a “very, very painful” time and focusing on his next venture – and this time it’s plant-based.
So is the man who brought us the ‘insanity burger’ turning off meat altogether? “No. No way José!” he quaffs and although a self-confessed meat-lover, it might surprise you to learn that he eats meat “probably only twice a week” these days.
His new Channel 4 show Meat-Free Meals and cookbook Veg feel bang on the zeitgeist. It’s no coincidence that social consciousness around food is changing; we all know that cutting down on meat is better for the environment, as well as for ourselves.
“Yes it’s trendy at the moment, that’s cool,” Jamie, 44, says, as if pre-empting any assumptions that he’s jumping on any bandwagons. He wrote (and shelved) this book eight years ago, in fact. “I could be wrong but I hope that now is the time to go quite hard and mainstream on veg,” he says, and in true
Jamie Oliver style he’s determined to normalise it, to get all of us cooking it, all of the time.
“We’ve made it [vegetarianism] more faddy than it needs to be. Veg has been depicted as quite a divisive thing, like football, gangs,” he muses.
“Vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian – what are you? It doesn’t really matter how you look at it, humans are absolutely deficient in veg, legumes and fibre.
“Maybe it’s because I’m a bit older,” he adds, “maybe because it’s 20 years down the road, but I hope it feels like: If Jamie
Oliver is doing a vegetarian book, it’s sort of saying
Kalfu Molu Chardonnay 2017
(starting from £9.99, thebottlebank.co.uk, frontierfinewines.co.uk and drinkfinder.co.uk).
This chardonnay is so-named “kalfu” from the native Chilean language meaning “blue”. This is because grapes are sourced from vineyards along 600 miles of cool Chilean coastline.
It’s one of those wines where I constantly “nose-dip” to sense more aromas. I sipped and kept the wine a little while on my palate, enjoying the texture. My friends think I’m a bit loopy.
Winemakers allowed the wine to rest on its lees for six months before bottling.
Some of it was aged in something [about] where we’re at and where we’re going.”
The new TV show sees Jamie travel to countries where vegetables are front and centre of the cuisine, such as India and Israel.
“Meat has always been an expression of progress, it’s always been a luxury or a sense of cash or commerce – but when you haven’t got much of it, humans are beyond genius,” he says, on the food he discovered travelling. “The diversity of textures and colours, for really affordable – onions, carrots –
French oak. Both factors help to deliver a concentrated wine, with a subtle creaminess and delicious notes of tropical fruits.
My final contribution to our gathering was a sauvignon blanc, but with a twist.
Krasno Sauvignon Blanc Ribolla 2018
(£9.99,or £7.99 in a buy six deal at Majestic) is a blend of sauvignon blanc and the local grape variety ribolla gialla. It hails from Brda region of Slovenia not far from the Italian border and Friuli, home to many Italian whites.
This wine has a bite of gooseberry, a zest of lemon, with fresh, newly-sliced green apples. It was perfect chilled and then poured with some nibbles of spicy flash-fried prawns. We everyday things like pickles and fritters, things that give you the same hugging feeling as a burger or a pizza. You’re kind of sitting there going, ‘I don’t want any [meat], I’m really happy’.”
He even visits a meat-free school: “The idea of schools going veggie is brilliant – it would save loads of money.”
Jamie says he wanted to go back to focusing on “Monday to Thursday eating, busy working people” for his Veg cookbook, pictured below, (which is incidentally 30-40% vegan) and it certainly harks back to the style of 30-Minute Meals and 5-Ingredients. It’s not rabbit food though. “It’s a celebration, not commiseration,” says Jamie.
There’s food that is hearty (crispy cauliflower katsu), comforting (Indian-style chip butty), nutrient-dense (veg tagine) and naughty (cheesy kimchi toastie) and even ‘Friday night nibbles’.
“Generally, what a family needs is the same as what the planet needs – more veg, more nuts, more seeds, more legumes,” says Jamie. “If I had a magic wand, I’d love to go to David Attenborough and say, ‘Can we do a show called My Health, My Planet?’ Because I think that’s the conversation now.” weren’t thinking about foodmatching but one pal said “wow”, so that’s good enough for me.
Also in my glass...
(£7, down from £9 until September 13 at the Co-op) is a wine created from tempranillo grapes hand-picked from 30-year-old vines at Bodegas Navalon in the Valdepeñas region of Spain. Tempranillo is the black grape at the heart of Rioja wines.
It isn’t a hearty wine that demands lots of concentration, but a medium-bodied and relaxing glass with a midweek meal. Vanilla and spice are the tell-tale signs of oak ageing (18 months) and there are red fruits, and a little coffee.
Clasico 8 Year Old
Anciano Gran