Christmas advert with Jamie Oliver for Sainsbury's

I love this new advert - Sainsbury's Perfect Christmas, starring Jamie Oliver with the beautiful voices of the Colne Valley Male Voice Choir singing, "All Through The Night":



The advert was filmed in the Yorkshire Dales village of Halton Gill, near Skipton. It's a beautiful advert - very English and the feeling it creates is very Christmas-sy indeed!

Competition from Sainsbury's: Win The Perfect Christmas For You And Your Neighbours 

Jamie's Family Christmas - Channel 4 special

Tonight was the first two episodes of a new five-part series called Jamie's Family Christmas with Jamie Oliver sharing his secrets for preparing Christmas food with tips to make it easy and fun, and most importantly, stress-free. And what a delightful series it is too! So often I get bored by cookery shows or I'm too overwhelmed with all the fussy details to even consider tying a recipe they recommend but Jamie's series is like a breath of fresh air. I learned a lot and enjoyed watching as well. My husband and 18-year-old son watched too. The bonus is that you get to see his lovely family (Jamie's wife, Jools, and their three daughters, Poppy, Daisy and sweet baby Petal plus Jamie's Nan and Jamie's sister and Mum and Dad) It's a real old-fashioned kind of Christmas special. I can't get over how comfortable all the members of his family are in front of the camera. And very natural as well. They are all stars! There was a very funny scene during a moment in their kitchen (the show is filmed at their home in Essex) when Jools handed Petal to Jamie and he swung her around and she looked very happy - until Jools took her away from Jamie! She cried and cried. Jools handed her back to Jamie and she instantly stopped crying. Jamie looked so pleased. Such a proud dad. I loved it. And another sweet moment was when Jamie was showing his daughters, Poppy and Daisy how to make American pancakes. It was just such a charming scene to watch. Jamie's Family Christmas is an excellent series! I think it's one of the best cookery shows I've seen on TV. And there's still three more parts to be shown this week (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening). If you missed the shows tonight, be sure and watch the rest of the series.

Jamie Oliver plans new reality series in USA

Ryan Seacrest and British chef Jamie Oliver team for food reality show on ABC Via his burgeoning production company, Ryan Seacrest Productions, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest is partnering with British chef Jamie Oliver to create an unscripted series that aims to give healthy food makeovers to America's unhealthiest cities (link via Entertainment Weekly) I hope this show will be broadcast in the UK too. I would love to watch it.

Jamie Magazine launched by celebrity chef

Jamie Oliver to launch own magazine (link via guardian.co.uk) I'm a big fan of Jamie Oliver but I rarely buy any magazines now. They are just too expensive for what you get. I also used to subscribe to quite a few magazines but the only one I continue subscribing to is Mslexia magazine. I'll be very surprised if Jamie Oliver's magazine does well, considering the current financial crisis. I might buy the first issue out of curiosity though. Have you stopped buying and/or subscribing to magazines? If not, which magazines do you still buy or subscribe to?

Jamie's Ministry of Food - Pass It On

Did you watch Jamie Oliver's new series called, Jamie's Ministry of Food, on channel 4 tonight? It was both fascinating and disturbing to watch. (If you missed it, you can watch it again via Free Catch-Up on Channel 4 Shows) This is how the Channel 4 website describes it: In Britain we spend more than £2 billion a year on ready meals. Fewer people than ever before are cooking from scratch and obesity is at record levels. Now, inspired by the wartime Ministry of Food that helped people to make the most of their rations, Jamie Oliver wants to start a food revolution to get people in Britain cooking. Jamie travels to Rotherham to meet one of the fiercest critics of his school dinners campaign, so-called ‘Burger Mum’ Julie Critchlow, who passed junk food through school railings to hungry children. Jamie wants Julie, who is actually a good cook herself, to help him to inspire others to cook at home. The plan is to teach a small group ten simple meals that they can pass on to others who, in turn, will also spread the word. If it works, he wants to get the whole town cooking and kick-off a nationwide campaign. Jamie's Ministry of Food The show highlighted the problem regarding how many adults can't cook - at all. The most distressing scenes were with Natasha who admitted she never cooked any meals for her two children. They were just given takeaways and would sit on the floor to eat the food with their fingers (no cutlery was used at all). I felt so sad for those children especially when Natasha opened her fridge and showed the bottom drawers (where fruit is usually kept) were stuffed full with sweets (candy). It's no wonder that her five-year-old has already had to have rotten teeth removed by the dentist! How sad is that?! It's true that eating healthy isn't cheap (Natasha is on benefits) but it is possible to spend the money on real food instead of junk. Even Jamie seemed overwhelmed by the prospect of teaching Natasha and the other adults how to cook when they were all struggling with minimal skills (they didn't even know how to judge when water was boiling or what simmer meant!). And of course their low income and depressing life style, made everything more difficult. I have huge respect for Jamie Oliver and his ambitious campaigns that he is always so passionate about. I think this new idea for people to learn how to cook and teach others (Pass it On) is quite inspiring. Let's hope it is successful. It certainly won't be easy as was evident in the first show tonight but I'm sure Jamie will meet the challenge.