Jamie Oliver starts his new cookbook Simply Jamie (Penguin Michael Joseph, rsp: £30) explaining how people are much savvier with their time these days. They’re also hungrier for global cuisines thanks to the countless recipes available in every corner online.
Despite that proliferation of cooking content, he laments that “we cook less and less” as a nation, and quantity often overshadows quality.
So the chef is back in old territory. Following on from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals, One: Simple One Pan Wonders and his 5 Ingredients series, he’s promising “fast and simple food” to make Brits of all ages fall in love with simple, nutritious food again.
You will not find say, a Ottolenghi-style recipe for an intricate fig, ricotta and za’tar filo pastry among the dishes, but you will find a speedy salsa spaghetti, a tinned fruit granita, and a 10-minute noodle chicken broth.
No fuss, no stress, and sometimes even no cook.
Recipes require only three to five ingredients on average, and most are ready to eat in under 25 minutes. As Oliver puts it: he’s helping “make cooking work for you”.
His quick-fix recipes take the same ‘shamelessly simple’ approach evident in his new ready meal frozen ranges, which launched in Iceland and Waitrose, to the everyday cook.
The chef’s come a long way since The Naked Chef in 1999, but his ethos has held firm and is the leitmotif of his newest 150 recipes: anyone, even the most time-pressed of us, can cook. And should.
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