Chefs back Christmas pudding drive - Nov 23 2007
Jamie Oliver and Raymond Blanc have backed a campaign to get youngsters involved in cooking at Christmas.

They put their names to the Year of Food and Farming's bid to bring back Stir up Sunday.

The day is the last Sunday before Advent when Christmas pudding mix was traditionally made.

The publicity push follows research which showed 46% of youngsters never got involved with making the Christmas dinner and 60% never stirred the pudding.

Jamie said: "Stir up Sunday is a great way for families to start cooking together - it's high time we brought the tradition back into our kitchens."

Michelin-starred chef Raymond donated his favourite Christmas pudding recipe to the campaign in a bid to get children involved.

The recipe involves just 10 minutes of preparation followed by up to five hours of cooking time.

"Getting kids to understand where their food comes from is one of the greatest favours we can do for our young, to help them establish lifelong patterns of good eating habits," he said.

The Government-endorsed Year of Food and Farming promotes healthy living by giving children access to farming and the countryside. It was developed by the charity Farming and Countryside Education.

Research into children's attitudes to cooking was based on a survey of 1,000 eight to 13-year-olds carried out in July.

Jamie: Government failed to keep promises - Nov 1 2007
Celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver has launched a scathing attack on the Government for failing to honour its promises on school dinners.

In the exclusive interview for Channel 4 News at Noon, Jamie said Government reform was "slow, painful, un-strategic, unmethodical" and "badly invested in".

He also said he thought it would take 10 years to change.

Jamie, who tackled the state of the UK’s school dinners in his series Jamie’s School Dinners, defended his efforts saying it was not that his menus weren’t working but that the Government hadn’t kept its promises.

He said he didn’t think the children were the problem.

Three years ago Tony Blair set out a £500 million package to transform school dinners across England following Jamie’s TV series but an Ofsted report earlier this month claimed the number of pupils opting for school lunches has dropped by up to 25 per cent in some areas.

Asked about the findings of the report and why the initiatives didn’t appear to be working, Jamie said: "As far as love, care, strategy and most importantly training of our girls (dinner ladies)... nothing. When I saw Tony (Blair) last he promised he would create a fund that would re-build kitchens that are falling down or build them for schools that didn’t have them... haven’t seen that either."

He continued: "The school Food Trust don’t have enough money.... and we’re not training the dinner ladies quickly enough...."

"I think it’s going to dribble on for another three years and will take 10 years to turn around."


Pupils shun Jamie’s dinners revolution - Oct 4 2007
Jamie Oliver’s school dinners revolution has backfired as pupils turn their backs on increasingly expensive canteen food, inspectors suggested.

Ofsted warned that the Government’s £477 million overhaul of school food will have a "limited" impact if children keep shunning healthier food.

In a new report, the inspectorate said some teenage girls were eating nothing during the day to stay slim, while younger children at primary school couldn’t use a knife and fork properly.

Some pupils felt the healthier meals were too expensive while others preferred the chip shop at lunchtime.