Beyond the Bolognaise, November 11, 2005
Reviewer: Budge Burgess - www.budgeburgess.com from Kilmarnock, Scotland
Jamie Oliver has earned a reputation trying to revitalise school dinners and popularise cuisine (sorry, cooking) as an appropriate activity for young males. "Jamie's Italy" is a beautifully packaged volume - thick, robust, beautifully illustrated, and packed with a wide range of Italian recipes. It's the sort of book which should sell to a young audience and which might just lift student cooking out of the Bolognaise fixation.
The recipes aren't obscure or too difficult for even a novice. The quality of a cookbook can't be judged simply on the novelty value of its recipes - a good cookbook should encourage you to experiment, and this book will do just that. What seems to have been happening with a number of television chefs is an attempt to promote interest in food, not just blind obedience to recipes. Oliver has skills in popularising food and motivating the inexperienced to try their hand. This title confirms this.
"Jamie's Italy" is an effective volume. He runs through a wide range of starters, main courses, salads, soups, and sweets. The essence of the book is about getting a feel for Italian cookery, but at its core is encouragement to get a feel for cookery in the broadest sense. Given Britain's dependence on the monopoly of the supermarket, Oliver is making a statement about a European cooking tradition which has vast regional variety and which still supports local markets and local producers.
In Britain, a lot of the ingredients for these recipes will inevitably be bought from a supermarket, but it might just encourage you to make greater use of local butchers, fishmongers, and greengrocers. The success of supermarkets is in packaging food, making it easy to buy. A butcher's shop can be intimidating if you don't know which joint of meat you want. Oliver makes it clear that part of the joy of cooking is talking to your local butcher, asking advice - Oliver encourages you to think about and talk about and learn about food бн and that really is where he's at his best.
It's an encouraging, optimistic volume which has a youthful, dynamic feel to it. It's the sort of book which should find a place on many a student shelf, but it's not simply to be monopolised by the young. Here is a wide range of well-illustrated and lucidly explained recipes and ideas for meals which should stimulate both your gastric juices and your brain cells. Excellent value.