The Big Food Fight C4

No doubt you've seen the ads on TV (Hugh, Gordon and Jamie running through some woods), well, here we go, Channel 4's "The Big Food Fight" all starts tonight with part one of a three-part documentary called "Hugh's Chicken Run" showing what happened when Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall *attempted* to investigate the intensive poultry farming industry (basically the door was slammed in his face), forcing the producers to go through the process of setting up their own (with Hugh at the helm)...quite how he copes with this (following his idillic time at River Cottage) remains to be seen, but I suspect it's going to be an extremely messy (and disturbing) ride designed to further shame the supermarkets into buying proper free-range stocks instead of 2p or 3p-per-carcas genetic freaks...

Good.

Also on the agenda is to get all products that contain egg (like mayo) to display the source of it clearly on the package, at the moment Hellmann's apparently uses battery eggs (update - whoops -sorry NFU-that should be "intensively farmed eggs"), even though it is a premium product, I have to say that suprised me a little...and they are obviously serious about it too, Jamie Oliver today firmly bit the hand that feeds him by slamming Sainsbury's for not turning up to a public debate on the subject he had organised...again good...his shows follow Hugh's on the 11th of January...

Looks like something might be about to happen about battery farming as finally the pressure is being brought to bear in the right place (i.e. not the farmers), just a shame it's taken so long, and so many other fearful documentaries (and RSPCA investigations) that have been largely ignored by the public in favour of cheap meat (I'm guilty here too, free range prices do make me think twice before choosing quality and cruelty-free chicken for my table) but if the basic benchmark for "acceptable" levels of cruelty in husbandry could be raised a just a little then buying premium meat won't be the *only* option...

On a less sticky note, Gordon Ramsay is going to be running some "how to cook" webinars to get your skills up to scratch followed by a one-hour long one-off live show (on the 18th of January) called "Cookalong live" where you literally cook alongside the master in real-time to create a 3 course meal...!

It's all terribly exciting, so well done (albeit a little prematurely) Channel 4...sounds fantastic! ;)

Jamie's Journal - Jamie Oliver loses the plot

This, in my opinion, is an absolute disgrace, Jamie Oliver has clearly completely lost it (including any respect for the public) if he expects anyone in their right mind to pay £12.99 for a completely empty notebook!

The blurb on the back, which I really should have read more carefully in the shop (at least I only paid £4, and all of that went to charity). I hereby reproduce the only words that Jamie Oliver had to type to earn his £12.99 per copy (if he even bothered to type them himself) -

"Hi guys... I absolutely love old cookbooks. You know the ones, they are a bit tatty, they've got stains all over them, and smudgy fingerprints where your mum or Nan held the page in the middle of mixing up some ingredients. Some of the ones I've found have scribbles in them - little notes or hints to make the recipes even better. Now, I believe that anyone's capable of writing the next cookbook. I mean, look at me, who would have thought that the kid worst at English in school would be writing cookbooks for a living one day? So have a go in this journal! Who knows, your scribbles might one day be treasured by your great-grandkids..."

Well, was that worth the cash? Happy with your purchase? To quote Gordon Ramsay "You've got to be taking the f*cking piss, haven't you?"