You’d be forgiven for thinking that culinary darling and father-of-five Jamie Oliver had been confused with fellow UK chef, the more potty-mouthed Gordon Ramsay, when you hear what Oliver recently had to say about parents who feed their kids junk food.
In a show about to air on UK TV called Jamie’s Return to School Dinners, Oliver has this to say:
“I’ve spent two years being PC about parents, now is the time to say, ‘If you’re giving your young children fizzy drinks you’re an arsehole, you’re a tosser. If you give them bags of crisps you’re an idiot. If you aren’t cooking them a hot meal, sort it out.’ If they truly care they’ve got to take control.
“I have seen kids of the ages of four or five, the same age as mine, open their lunchbox and inside is a cold, half-eaten McDonald’s, multiple packets of crisps and a can of Red Bull. We laugh and then want to cry.”
Apparently his wrath was stoked by an off-screen exchange with a mother he met during filming who was giving her one-year-old child Coca-Cola and said she would not make shepherd’s pie because it was “too posh”.
He is now calling on the Government to give teachers the power to confiscate junk food at the school gates, adding that 70% of packed lunches given to schoolchildren were “disgraceful”.
Oliver, whose wife Jools gave birth to the couple’s fifth child a few weeks ago, has long campaigned to get families eating healthier and kids having nutritious packed lunches at school. He’s obviously decided that his “lovely chubbly pukka” approach is no longer working.
