Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution: Sneak Peek
A one-hour preview episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution aired last night ahead of the two-hour series premiere on Friday and it’s clear that this is going to be an entertaining show that will get people talking.
Jamie’s intervention took place in Huntington in West Virginia, on record as being the unhealthiest city in America, with almost half the adult population classified as obese and a high occurrence of obesity-related illnesses. The show kicked off with a shocker: the children featured belong to the first generation expected to live a shorter life than their parents, and Jamie showed them what the amount of fat consumed by their entire school for one year looks like. It looks disgusting!
In an attempt to get word of his campaign out to a wider audience, Jamie appeared as a guest on a local radio show with a DJ who was less than open to the idea of a food revolution: “I really take issue with a guy coming into town and telling us how we should conduct our lives. I don’t think Jamie’s got anything that can change this town.”
If that was depressing, he was just the first line in the Huntington Resistance. Jamie headed into one of Huntington’s elementary schools where he came face to face with what might prove to be his his biggest challenge: Alice, the most vocal of the school cooks.
Before he could start his intervention, Jamie needed to see what he was up against, and it made disturbing viewing: pizza for breakfast, flavoured milk, and reconstituted mashed potatoes. The school’s kitchens were well-equipped, but used mainly for reheating. The one food that was made fresh — bread — appeared to end up in the trashcan.
Jamie went head to head with the school cooks, offering a healthy alternative to the pizza on offer at lunch time. Unsurprisingly, most of the children chose the pizza, reinforcing the scale of the problem Jamie had taken on: educating staff who genuinely don’t see anything wrong with processed food, educating the children who don’t know any better, convincing the authorities that fresh food can be provided at a reasonable cost, working within nutritional guidelines he disagrees with, all the while trying to motivate the people he wants to help to help themselves.
The food revolution needs to take place in homes as well as schools, and we were introduced to several members of the Edwards family including an emotional mom, Stacie, who’s realised that she’s killing the children she loves with the food she’s giving them.
Jamie piled the kitchen table high to show the family just how much junk they’re eating, and then took them outside for a symbolic burial of the family’s deep fat fryer! This moment of levity turned into something more touching when it became clear that it could actually mark a turning point for this family.
The Edwards family came over as immensely likeable, in particular Justin, a youngster with an interest in being a chef, so it’s easy to immediately be on their side. It was at this point of the show, when we started to meet some of the real people involved, that I realised I’ve been hooked in: I need to know what happens next week! Particularly as Stacie’s husband is working away and doesn’t know about the deep fat fryer yet. That could spell trouble!
I loved the preview show so I definitely recommend tuning in to watch the rest of the series … I’ll definitely be watching to find out whether Jamie persuades the elementary school kids to eat his healthy lunches and if Justin’s dad returns home and exhumes the deep fat fryer.
The two hour premiere is this Friday at 8/7c on ABC and if you’re in the US, please consider signing Jamie’s petition.
