Jamie Oliver Knows What They Should Be Eating

Jamie Oliver clearly has good intentions. The celebrity chef visited Huntington West Virginia, a city that has been ranked at the very bottom of the scale in healthy eating across the US.

He makes a bunch of mistakes, calling every woman ‘hon’ and pissing off a local radio station DJ by assuming that he knows best about what to eat.  He probably does, but at the same time he has that way about him as someone who thinks he knows better than anyone else, which grates on both the locals and me, the viewer.

He surveys the scene in the local elementary school, where he decides to start his Quixotic crusade to make America weigh less.  He eviscerates the cooks, calling them ‘lunch ladies’ and criticizing their instant potato mix that’s full of canola oil and hydrogenated oils and their penchant for serving pizza for breakfast.

He’s on a mission, and tells the five incredulous school cooks that they have to use real ingredients instead of mixes, and cook things as if they’re in a restaurant.  Processed, processed, and even flavored milk, chocolate and strawberry. None of the kids want milk that isn’t flavored. Most of the food ends up being thrown away, Oliver says, hearing the thud, thud against the trashcan. “That’s your money,” he says, playing the old taxpayer lament.

I know television formula well enough to know the patterns. FIrst the Brit pisses off everyone, and by the end, they’re hugging and telling him that he’s changed their lives. I wish Oliver the best of luck, he’s got an uphill battle here, starting in Huntington West Virginia.