Jamie Oliver's Ultimate Vegetable show

[Jenise]

A few weeks ago I checked into the one Canadian channel we get looking for an update on the fire situation and discovered that they were showing a Jamie Oliver series on vegetables. So I recorded it and am watching it now.

Except for his use of yoghurt, which I absolutely hate the taste of though I agree it is the healthiest alternative to creme fraiche or sour cream, I absolutely love this show and many of the dishes he demonstrates in each hour long episode are things I want to reproduce. Also, he's just a joy to watch. Great enthusiasm, fun dialog, you just can't not feel happier for watching him. Talented, original, enthusiastic and fun, what a gem of a human being he is. You just can't not feel happier for watching him

It's not vegan--he uses some dairy cheeses and the occasional egg, but each episode is thankfully an hour long which is long enough to undertake three to five recipes. I've already made a list of things I want to try and have had my own notions of how to go about certain things greatly expanded.

Maybe "vegetable show" refers to the intelligence of the viewing audience?

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Are you calling me stupid?

We lived in London for a bit and I watched him all the time. Totally agree that he is just a ray of sunshine and we could use more like him. I locked up 2 or 3 of his cookbooks and loved them. Speaking of Brits, cookbooks and vegetables - has anyone used the Nigel Slater book “Tender”? An awesome vegetable centric cookbook

[Jenise]

Glad to know there's another fan in the room. We 'vegetables' need to stick together.

Earlier this week, I bit the bullet and opened some cartons labelled DVD which have not seen the light of day for 10 years when we moved here. Inside I found a treasure trove of old cooking show DVDs, including the early Jamie Oliver, and a heap of Keith Floyd, and a myriad more. Given that there is not much on the telly of interest I probably will have an ancient cooking show binge, starting with Keith.

[Jenise]

I always liked Jamie, even early on, though he's clearly evolved and that makes him even more interesting. He's totally his own person, older and a father now, and he's acquired a lot of conviction about healthy eating along the way. the On the last episode of this I watched, he held up a head of iceberg lettuce and said, "I grew up loving iceberg lettuce, then I hated it for a long time, and now I love it again." Isn't that true of so many of us? We have all gone through phases of not liking something because it fell out of favor and then we regained our independence and decided once and for all what we can love.

I do remember, however, us here discussing the natural dark color of his lips. Somewhere between dark liver red and purple. He seems to have grown into those, too.