With over 20 books to his name, you’d think Jamie Oliver could rest easy on the publishing front.
But the chef extraordinaire is back with yet another culinary offering, this time zoning in on the universal cuisine we all love – Italian!
Jamie has teamed up with his mentor and best mate, Gennaro Contaldo, for an Italian odyssey.
Jamie Oliver’s new cook book
Dubbed Jamie Cooks Italy, the 400-page tome looks to the oracles of Italian cooking: nonnas!
“So the idea of this book was to go around Italy to reference the last generation of nonnas and get their wisdom and their inspiration,” Jamie explained on Twitter.
“All the nonnas were concerned that the next generation of Italians were not cooking the same as their generation so they were really passionate about us, me and Gennaro, sharing these recipes on TV and getting people excited about food again.”
The book took the Naked Chef two years to create, with Jamie and Gennaro looking for inspiration “from the top to the toe of Italy, via the mountains and islands, and across all the seasons.”
Jamie Oliver’s family
When he’s not exploring the nooks and crannies of Italy for authentic recipes, Jamie is the proud father to five beautiful children with equally beautiful names!
Jamie’s kids are daughters Poppy Honey Rosie, 16, Daisy Boo Pamela, 15, Petal Blossom Rainbow, nine, and sons Buddy Bear Maurice, seven, seven, River Rocket Blue Dallas, one.
But don’t expect the Olivers to be getting all Brady Bunch on us, Jamie says he has no desire for a sixth child.
In an interview on the Fitzy & Wippa radio show last year, the 43-year-old admitted he had thought of a vasectomy, but he’s scared of the operation.
And it doesn’t help that wife Jools wants to even the family out with one more child.
“She did say it was an unlucky, uneven number, which frightened me,” he explained.
“But I think, you know what, I would go and have the operation if I wasn’t frightened about face time live and how easily pushed over surgeons are in the UK, you know what happened to Michael Jackson,” he joked.
He’s got his hands full! Jamie says the shop is shut with five children.
Jamie Oliver’s wife
Jamie has been married to his high school sweetheart Jools Oliver since 2000.
The pair met when they were just 17 and Jamie wooed his would-be wife with love letters after she moved to Tokyo.
“When I was 17 I worked in Tokyo for three months and every single day Jamie sent me a letter or a fax without fail! These are only half of them,” Jools revealed on Instagram of her romantic husband.
She continued: “Bought back just the best and happiest memories.”
Opening up about their marriage, Jamie once told The Telegraph: “Jools is an amazing mum and she’s all over it like a rash, but she also likes me to be involved with it as much as possible. Really I’m a weekend dad if the truth be told.”
How Jamie Oliver gets his kids to eat healthily
“I don’t want to be oversimplistic, but you only eat s—t at home if you buy it in the first place, and we don’t buy it,” he told The Weekly last year.
“It really is as simple as that. My wife [Jools] is even more hardcore than me, but if my boy wanted to grab a Coke, I would let him have one as a treat, at the fair or on holiday, of course. It wouldn’t get past my missus, but I’m fine with it. Do we have any at home? Absolutely no way! Why would you? We’ve got real food.”
“We buy food and we buy veg and we buy tins and preserves. It’s really hard to eat badly when you’re buying the food.”
Hear, hear!
Treats aren’t off-limits in the Oliver household but Jamie is all about serving fresh, nutritious meals to his little ones.
