He helped us through lockdown, he helped us celebrate afterwards… and he helped Penguin crank out yet another cookbook. Now Jamie Oliver has another cause: helping a cash-strapped nation cook on the cheap.

Jamie’s £1 Wonders (Channel 4, 6 March, 8pm) – sponsored by, erm, Waitrose – gives the chef a pleasingly straightforward brief: delicious recipes for under a pound a portion. He’s been studying ingredient costs across “four big supermarkets”, he told us.

First up was the ‘time-saving chicken roast’ – made with thighs on the bone and wonky small onions. He made deboning look simple, convincingly arguing that having the skills to do so helps boost taste, as well as save cash. Oven time was managed with impressive efficiency.

His recipes – we got a cheesy pancake stack, a no-oven pizza and a chilli con carne – never lost the focus on frugality, but it all looked good. Oliver also drafted in his pal Gennaro Contaldo, who prepared fancy-looking tortellini from scratch. The “principle of Italian food”, we learned, is “use whatever you ’ave and mek it a-da best”.

Oliver’s beautiful kitchen and quality equipment undoubtedly make the job easier – and many will baulk at taking money-saving advice from a millionaire. But we got a lot of methodology on the recipes, clearly designed to stave off social media nitpicking about cost claims (with limited success).

As with his lockdown show, Oliver’s heart is in the right place. And the simple set-up allows him to do what he does best: cooking with passion.

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