manámaná

A year ago I saw in a satellite channel a cooking program performed by a unusual chef. He was Jamie Oliver and I felt in love with his way of cooking. His recipes and cooking techniques are original, practical, smart, delicious, healthy, realistic and even funny. Moreover, he is one of those young chefs who is transforming gastronomy world, not with expensive and difficult recipes and techniques, that is very well and of course I’m proud that many of the better chefs in the world are spanish (see Arzak or Adrià), but with a more realistic, reachable and further-than-the-flavour philosophical scope. Jamie is not only a young chef with a very personal but attractive way of working in a kitchen, but also a really smart person and businessman who exploits his profession and way of understanding the world to the most. I’ll just list some of many examples about his professional universe:

+ He runs TV programs of all kind: Jamie At Home, where he cooks at his own home with everyday ingredients (sometimes from his own garden), Jamie’s School Dinners for rising the quality of the food served at schools maintaining the same price (se his most advanced student in the matter and also a really funny person, the dinner lady Nora), or Oliver’s Twist, a really funny program where he invites people he finds around the world to eat.

+ He empowers the School Dinners / School Standards watch. A quote about Jamie’s manifesto: “Make cooking and life skills classes compulsory for ALL kids so they learn about food and good eating habits while they’re young. Our kids need to be equipped to understand food, cook and shop on a budget, which are essential life skills”.

+ He founded and run Fifteen, a foundation, a cooking school and a restaurant chain altogether. It’s what is called a social enterprise, and it may very well be the shape of companies to come.

You can see an interview at Enough Rope, but one of the best ways of knowing a person is looking at what and how they cook (and eat, of course), so I really recommend you to have a try to any of his wonderful recipes or watch him in action at YouTube.