Jamie’s ‘jerk rice’ was a mistake, says Jamaican chef
BRITISH- JAMAICAN chef Levi Roots has said Jamie Oliver’s decision to launch a jerk rice dish was ‘a mistake’ – after Oliver was accused of cultural appropriation.
The TV chef was accused of hijacking Jamaican culture to sell his ‘Punchy Jerk Rice’ in supermarkets.
During an appearance on Good Morning Britain, Reggae Reggae Sauce creator Roots explained he had once shown the TV chef how to make ‘the real deal’ jerk chicken on his YouTube show.
Roots said: ‘I do think it was a mistake by Jamie – either by him or by his team. Maybe he wasn’t actually involved in this. I taught Jamie how to cook jerk, we made a fantastic thing many years ago in Clapham Common, close to where I live in Brixton. We got the ingredients from Brixton market, so it was the real deal.’
He explained that jerk had to have specific spices and flavours. Last night, Oliver hit back in the row, saying he named his new product just to show where he drew his culinary inspiration from. In a statement, he said: ‘ I’ve worked with flavours and spices from all over the world my whole career, learning and drawing inspiration from different countries and cultures to give a fresh twist to the food we eat every day.’
He added: ‘ When I named the rice my intention was only to show where my inspiration came from.’
Criticising Oliver’s product over the weekend, Labour frontbencher Dawn Butler, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, said that the packet product was ‘not OK’. In a furious Twitter outburst, she added: ‘I’m just wondering do you know what Jamaican jerk actually is?
‘It’s not just a word you put before stuff to sell products. This appropriation from Jamaica needs to stop.’
Cultural appropriation is using or adopting elements of minority cultures in a damaging way.
Miss Butler also suggested that the chef was using the word ‘jerk’ to increase the sales and his product was not faithful to the original Caribbean recipe – which is usually a marinade for meat such as chicken or pork.
Sold for around £2.30 by Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and other supermarkets, Oliver’s product is billed as ‘brown rice and red kidney beans with aubergine and bell peppers in coconut Jerk-Style sauce’.
But it does not contain allspice or Scotch bonnet peppers, considered to be key ingredients of an authentic jerk marinade.
Celebrity chef Rustie Lee, who specialises in Jamaican food, said that she tasted the microwaveable rice and it simply tasted ‘like Caribbean rice and beans’. She explained: ‘The jerk part of it is barbecue and you can’t barbecue rice.’
Reggae Reggae Sauce entrepreneur Roots first appeared on Dragon’s Den and has become the programme’s most successful contestant. His best-selling condiment is available in all supermarkets and is made from his Jamaican grandmother’s recipe.
‘I taught him how to cook it’