Publisher Puffin compiles a list of 70 titles said to be the best children’s books of all-time.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Publisher Puffin compiles a list of 70 titles said to be the best children’s books of all-time.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Publisher Puffin compiles a list of 70 titles said to be the best children’s books of all-time.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The recession has hit the restaurant business hard.
Gordon Ramsay, whose company announced an 87% fall in profit in July 2009, and Antony Worrall Thompson, whose AWT Restaurants was put into administration last February, are among high-profile chefs who’ve suffered.
Their TV rival Jamie Oliver, meanwhile, appears to have bucked the trend.
His Jamie’s Italian chain, launched in June 2008, now has nine restaurants and is still growing while his Recipease food and kitchen shops, which offer cookery lessons in London and Brighton, are among other recent enterprises.
"I’ve got about 5,000 staff now and over 4,000 have been employed in the last 18 months – that’s in the darkest, toughest financial time in 50 years," he says.
"You’ve got to have courage and belief and beautiful people around you to go anywhere near doing that."
Essex-born Oliver has come a long way since he was the "cheeky kid" plucked from the relative obscurity of the River Cafe kitchen by a BBC documentary crew, before landing his 1999 Naked Chef series and accompanying book.
Fast-forward 11 years and viewers of his latest British series, Jamie Does… on Channel 4 have so far watched the 34-year-old make his recipes in the beautifully-shot landscapes of Marrakech and Andalucia.
The equally glossy book features the "easy twists on classic dishes inspired by my travels" which appear in the series.
His tried-and-tested formula of making good food simple continues to sell on a huge scale – his publisher says he is the biggest-selling non-fiction author of the past 10 years.
"Even from the Naked Chef days on the Beeb, even back then, there was a tone and a level and it was always accessible things," he says.
"Me and my Mum used to test the crap out of all the recipes."
‘Tempo and beats’
Oliver’s ethos of "accessibility, relevance, helpfulness and ease", pervades all his output.
"I use words, moving pictures or stills to hand-hold the public as much as possible," he says.
"But, at the same time, as far as the tempo and beats of what I do are concerned, you’ve got to have aspirational pieces – you’ve got to have a carrot that pulls your audience or your nation up a bit.
"You don’t want to be banging out the same stuff for 10 years otherwise the public doesn’t go anywhere."
His seemingly never-ending series of projects includes campaigning US show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which follows on from his British programmes School Dinners and Ministry of Food.
"In my head, I don’t know what I’m doing in the next two or three years," he insists,
"I know what I’m doing for the next year, but thereafter I don’t.
"I literally chop and change and everyone would like to think I’ve got it all mapped out but I really haven’t."
Food education
The contagious enthusiasm which has helped Oliver to do more than anyone since Delia Smith to bring good food to the masses is never in short supply.
But it is when he talks about his Fifteen restaurants – which fund chef apprenticeships for disadvantaged young people – and his plans to spend his own money on improving food education in schools that he comes alive.
"I think it’s really exciting and it gives you purpose."
He adds: "Ultimately, genuinely, I’ve got everything I want.
"I don’t want a massive mansion in the country. I’ve got my farmhouse with a bit of land and that’s all I need."
But while everything appears rosy, his detractors – and a quick internet search reveal there are some who are passionate – may be pleased to hear that not all is as it seems in the Oliver garden.
"I’ve got less in my bank now than I had 10 years ago," he says.
The millions who have bought his cook books and eaten his food may find that difficult to believe.
But he insists: "To employ that quantity of people alone – let alone if the business requires warehousing or product or whatever it is that you need – you need cash.
"I don’t have anywhere near enough cash to do, necessarily, the things I want to do so you go to the banks."
He complains that, despite his track record, banks are so unresponsive that he recently borrowed "a small amount of cash" from friends and family.
"The banks are crap and, if you’re not keen on venture capitalists and taking it from people who don’t have cultural care, that means being really brave and that means putting everything on the line, which is what I’ve done," he says.
"It could break easily. Easily," he adds before saying he is not worried "in the slightest".
Ever the optimist he says that "the minute a team knows it’s make or break, everyone’s totally engaged and wants to make it a success".
"I’ve tried to beat my way out of the recession by being positive when everyone’s closing up and stopping and culling and making redundancies.
"I’ve just tried to say, ‘come on, if we’re going to do it, it let’s do it’. I think that’s the attitude and I’ve done a lot of growing up in the last two years because of it.
"It all comes down to people again."
Jamie Does… Stockholm is on Channel 4 on Wednesday night at 2000 BST. The book Jamie Does… is out now.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The recession has hit the restaurant business hard.
Gordon Ramsay, whose company announced an 87% fall in profit in July 2009, and Antony Worrall Thompson, whose AWT Restaurants was put into administration last February, are among high-profile chefs who’ve suffered.
Their TV rival Jamie Oliver, meanwhile, appears to have bucked the trend.
His Jamie’s Italian chain, launched in June 2008, now has nine restaurants and is still growing while his Recipease food and kitchen shops, which offer cookery lessons in London and Brighton, are among other recent enterprises.
"I’ve got about 5,000 staff now and over 4,000 have been employed in the last 18 months – that’s in the darkest, toughest financial time in 50 years," he says.
"You’ve got to have courage and belief and beautiful people around you to go anywhere near doing that."
Essex-born Oliver has come a long way since he was the "cheeky kid" plucked from the relative obscurity of the River Cafe kitchen by a BBC documentary crew, before landing his 1999 Naked Chef series and accompanying book.
Fast-forward 11 years and viewers of his latest British series, Jamie Does… on Channel 4 have so far watched the 34-year-old make his recipes in the beautifully-shot landscapes of Marrakech and Andalucia.
The equally glossy book features the "easy twists on classic dishes inspired by my travels" which appear in the series.
His tried-and-tested formula of making good food simple continues to sell on a huge scale – his publisher says he is the biggest-selling non-fiction author of the past 10 years.
"Even from the Naked Chef days on the Beeb, even back then, there was a tone and a level and it was always accessible things," he says.
"Me and my Mum used to test the crap out of all the recipes."
‘Tempo and beats’
Oliver’s ethos of "accessibility, relevance, helpfulness and ease", pervades all his output.
"I use words, moving pictures or stills to hand-hold the public as much as possible," he says.
"But, at the same time, as far as the tempo and beats of what I do are concerned, you’ve got to have aspirational pieces – you’ve got to have a carrot that pulls your audience or your nation up a bit.
"You don’t want to be banging out the same stuff for 10 years otherwise the public doesn’t go anywhere."
His seemingly never-ending series of projects includes campaigning US show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which follows on from his British programmes School Dinners and Ministry of Food.
"In my head, I don’t know what I’m doing in the next two or three years," he insists,
"I know what I’m doing for the next year, but thereafter I don’t.
"I literally chop and change and everyone would like to think I’ve got it all mapped out but I really haven’t."
Food education
The contagious enthusiasm which has helped Oliver to do more than anyone since Delia Smith to bring good food to the masses is never in short supply.
But it is when he talks about his Fifteen restaurants – which fund chef apprenticeships for disadvantaged young people – and his plans to spend his own money on improving food education in schools that he comes alive.
"I think it’s really exciting and it gives you purpose."
He adds: "Ultimately, genuinely, I’ve got everything I want.
"I don’t want a massive mansion in the country. I’ve got my farmhouse with a bit of land and that’s all I need."
But while everything appears rosy, his detractors – and a quick internet search reveal there are some who are passionate – may be pleased to hear that not all is as it seems in the Oliver garden.
"I’ve got less in my bank now than I had 10 years ago," he says.
The millions who have bought his cook books and eaten his food may find that difficult to believe.
But he insists: "To employ that quantity of people alone – let alone if the business requires warehousing or product or whatever it is that you need – you need cash.
"I don’t have anywhere near enough cash to do, necessarily, the things I want to do so you go to the banks."
He complains that, despite his track record, banks are so unresponsive that he recently borrowed "a small amount of cash" from friends and family.
"The banks are crap and, if you’re not keen on venture capitalists and taking it from people who don’t have cultural care, that means being really brave and that means putting everything on the line, which is what I’ve done," he says.
"It could break easily. Easily," he adds before saying he is not worried "in the slightest".
Ever the optimist he says that "the minute a team knows it’s make or break, everyone’s totally engaged and wants to make it a success".
"I’ve tried to beat my way out of the recession by being positive when everyone’s closing up and stopping and culling and making redundancies.
"I’ve just tried to say, ‘come on, if we’re going to do it, it let’s do it’. I think that’s the attitude and I’ve done a lot of growing up in the last two years because of it.
"It all comes down to people again."
Jamie Does… Stockholm is on Channel 4 on Wednesday night at 2000 BST. The book Jamie Does… is out now.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jamie Oliver plans to spend millions of pounds of his own money over 10 years to improve food education and meals in UK primary schools, he has revealed.
Individual schools could bid for "literally hundreds of thousands of pounds" to take measures including "building gardens" and "new kitchens".
He said he wanted to "touch 1,000" of the UK’s 20,000-plus primary schools.
Although plans were at "an early stage", he said hoped the scheme would provide a model for government policy.
Last month, a study by Oxford University and Essex University found that Oliver’s campaign for healthy school dinners had boosted pupils’ test results.
He started his Feed Me Better Campaign in 2005 because he was appalled by the junk food being served at many schools in England.
Aggressive approach
He told the BBC he hoped his new scheme would tackle childhood obesity in "the most unhealthy country in Europe" which had "the first generation of kids expected to live a shorter life than their parents".
Oliver, 34, was speaking after it was reported that he will appear in 22nd place on the Times Giving List, which estimates he has given £2.7m to charity.
His Fifteen restaurants support a charitable foundation which funds chef apprenticeships for disadvantaged young people.
"Probably what I am going to do over the next 10 to 15 years is literally have a percentage of profits from every single company that I have which hives cash down."
The pot of money would be used to create "a mechanism of food that the schools can bid for".
"If, in terms of parents and teachers, they can put all their ducks in a row then literally hundreds of thousands of pounds will be able to jump into that school.
"It will build gardens, build school kitchens, give them seeds and fruit trees as well as teaching collateral including web sites, DVDs and conferences."
‘Tangible change’
Mentors provided by Oliver would be help to provide "full food education support", he said.
Oliver, who has made a new Channel 4 series Jamie Does and written an accompanying book, said he hoped to start off with "20 to 40 schools a year", building to "80 to 100".
He hoped eventually to introduce the project to 1,000, or about 5%, of primary schools, he said.
"It only takes 2% to change anything," he added.
"We’ll use that private, entrepreneurial, idea – that is obsessed by relevance and making a true, real tangible change – to then come up with a model.
"And we’ll say to government, ‘now we’ve proved it – just do it’."
He added: "It’ll work, just give me 10 years."
In March, researchers reported that primary pupils in Greenwich, London, who took part in the Feed Me Better scheme, achieved better results than those in neighbouring boroughs and were less likely to be off sick from school.
Schools replaced junk food and processed dinners high in fat, salt and sugar, with healthy school lunches.
Another Oliver TV show, Jamie’s Food Revolution – based on a similar campaign on the other side of the Atlantic – is currently being shown in the US on ABC.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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