Jamie Oliver on fame, failure and fighting obesity: 'I'm actually quite shy. I don't like a ruck'

Every time the chef talks about the UK’s diet, it gets him in trouble. Remember Turkey Twizzlers? But he’s too passionate to give up

Jamie Oliver appears on the Skype screen looking a bit harassed. He’s at Jamie Oliver HQ and his backdrop is a photographic mural of a giant waitress handing a menu to someone who, I finally figure out when he moves his head, is a young, carefree Jamie Oliver. The contrast between these two faces of the same man – I’m talking about mood, rather than the cruel weathering of time – is striking. He started out as the living embodiment of the carefree lad about town, and now has the frazzled look of a man who is being badgered by seven people at once.

It’s partly my fault. In many ways, I am here to harass him. Oliver’s absolute passion, besides food itself, is fighting childhood obesity, an issue that has just landed at the top of the news agenda thanks to the government’s new obesity strategy, which will include banning junk food advertising and putting calorie counts on restaurant menus.

I did the opposite of taking meat products away. I guaranteed a minimum of 65% meat!

I’m not saying don’t have a KitKat, because if you want one, God knows you should have one

Related: Jamie Oliver: the people's chef

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3hW5CaM