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Jamie Oliver: Turning Up the Heat: A Biography
By the age of eight Jamie Oliver was already cooking in his parents pub and restaurant. Helping no-hope kids get off the streets and training them to cook was only the beginning for this dynamic chef and author of "The Naked Chef."
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 24, 2016
17/11 - I love Jamie's recipes, have all his books and cook a Jamie recipe at least once a week. Jamie has always been pretty open about his background so a lot of the information here is stuff I already knew from the introductions in his cook books. The anecdotes Smith has gotten from his old friends, teachers and bosses are little gems that provide even more insight into the real Jamie, although Smith tells us that what you see on tv is who Jamie is in real life - there's no tv Jamie and then real Jamie, it's just Jamie - I love that about him. I'm also really enjoying the background information Smith has included about Jamie's friends, mentors and contemporaries. My favourite part of the book so far was learning about Gennaro Contaldo's first experience in the industry, in a fish and chip shop, and how they used to use...wait for it...WHALE BLUBBER to fry their fish and chips. To be continued...
18/11 - The last 2 chapters have revealed a much more ambitious and disturbing side to Jamie that I had hoped to never learn of. Smith writes about some of the underhand things he has done to the woman who really gave him his start in television, Pat Llewellyn. Cutting her and her production company out of the the deals for his second book The Return of The Naked Chef and the third series of the television show The Naked Chef, not even consulting her on his tv ad deal with Sainsbury's. Llewellyn is surprisingly unbitter about the whole thing, but I think he is really lucky he didn't burn all his bridges with her after the way he treated her. I hadn't heard about these episodes before, he had always seemed above such behaviour and I'm really disappointed to learn how he treated someone who gave him the opportunity to become the star he is today. But, as she says (I'm paraphrasing here) that's the way the entertainment industry works, people you count as friends stab you in the back and then move on as if nothing of import has happened. Glad I'm not in that industry. To be continued...
19/11 - This final section that I read focused mostly on Jamie's charitable efforts. I was a big fan of the tv show Jamie's Kitchen, and even more so Jamie's Dinners and as I read about the behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations that he went through personally to make both charities work I felt the anger that I had felt while watching the shows rise again. I still can't understand the parent's mindset of "In the past my child wouldn't eat anything but chicken nuggets, so I know he won't like Jamie's food." (despite not giving him a chance to try it for himself). The parents didn't seem to care that their children weighed twice as much as a child of their age should. They didn't seem to care that doctors were warning of type 2 diabetes within a few years if they kept feeding their children like this, or that 12 year olds were thinking about gastric bypass or banding surgery due to their ballooning weight. I'm Australian and I don't know of any school (at least not in Melbourne) that does lunch like this, my high school had a canteen and it served all the junk and a few pieces of fruit, just like the ones shown on Jamie's Dinners, but the vast majority of students had packed lunches from home. My brother and I got money every Friday to buy a canteen lunch as a treat, lasagne for me and hot chips for him, while Monday to Thursday we got no money and a lunch of a sandwich with some fresh fruit. A couple of years after we graduated I heard from people I still knew there that they'd cleaned up the canteen; no more hot chips, soft drinks, chiko rolls or hot dogs and the fruit selection was widened from a few mouldy looking bananas and apples to include all kinds of seasonal fruit, sandwiches on wholemeal bread, salads and other far more healthy options, and this has since been copied across the state, if not the country.
18/11 - The last 2 chapters have revealed a much more ambitious and disturbing side to Jamie that I had hoped to never learn of. Smith writes about some of the underhand things he has done to the woman who really gave him his start in television, Pat Llewellyn. Cutting her and her production company out of the the deals for his second book The Return of The Naked Chef and the third series of the television show The Naked Chef, not even consulting her on his tv ad deal with Sainsbury's. Llewellyn is surprisingly unbitter about the whole thing, but I think he is really lucky he didn't burn all his bridges with her after the way he treated her. I hadn't heard about these episodes before, he had always seemed above such behaviour and I'm really disappointed to learn how he treated someone who gave him the opportunity to become the star he is today. But, as she says (I'm paraphrasing here) that's the way the entertainment industry works, people you count as friends stab you in the back and then move on as if nothing of import has happened. Glad I'm not in that industry. To be continued...
19/11 - This final section that I read focused mostly on Jamie's charitable efforts. I was a big fan of the tv show Jamie's Kitchen, and even more so Jamie's Dinners and as I read about the behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations that he went through personally to make both charities work I felt the anger that I had felt while watching the shows rise again. I still can't understand the parent's mindset of "In the past my child wouldn't eat anything but chicken nuggets, so I know he won't like Jamie's food." (despite not giving him a chance to try it for himself). The parents didn't seem to care that their children weighed twice as much as a child of their age should. They didn't seem to care that doctors were warning of type 2 diabetes within a few years if they kept feeding their children like this, or that 12 year olds were thinking about gastric bypass or banding surgery due to their ballooning weight. I'm Australian and I don't know of any school (at least not in Melbourne) that does lunch like this, my high school had a canteen and it served all the junk and a few pieces of fruit, just like the ones shown on Jamie's Dinners, but the vast majority of students had packed lunches from home. My brother and I got money every Friday to buy a canteen lunch as a treat, lasagne for me and hot chips for him, while Monday to Thursday we got no money and a lunch of a sandwich with some fresh fruit. A couple of years after we graduated I heard from people I still knew there that they'd cleaned up the canteen; no more hot chips, soft drinks, chiko rolls or hot dogs and the fruit selection was widened from a few mouldy looking bananas and apples to include all kinds of seasonal fruit, sandwiches on wholemeal bread, salads and other far more healthy options, and this has since been copied across the state, if not the country.
February 9, 2016
Udah sering lihat nama Jamie Oliver di mana-mana. Tapi setelah baca buku ini baru tahu, ternyata dia bukan chef biasa. Dia bukan seperti Heston Blumenthal yang hasil karyanya memporak-porandakan sense, dia juga bukan terkenal spt Master Chef2 yang masakannya punya influence dari berbagai negara atau hebat dalau menggabung-gabung menu atau menciptakan kue2 dengan teknik absurd. Baru tahu, ternyata dia penggerak revolusi makanan. Mungkin sebagian besar persepsi kita terhadap makanan saat ini terpengaruh oleh sikap dia, selalu melihat ke sumber, merunut satu-persatu rantai produksi sehingga kita lebih connected terhadap bahan masakan. Masakan bukan sekedar yang tersaji, tapi ada ayam dari peternakan, sayur dari pertanian organik, ada orang-orang di belakangnya, yang benar-benar mencintai produk hasil bumi dan peternakan mereka, sehingga kita juga jadi menghargai dan punya koneksi dengan apa yang kita makan, lebih dari sekedar koneksi perut.
Hebatnya lagi, dia menggunakan ketenaran dan keahliannya untuk merubah dunia, to make it a better place. Membuat restoran yang tujuannya melatih anak2 jalanan dalam memasak dan memberi mereka kesempatan kedua, dan juga merombak total jenis makanan kantin di sekolah-sekolah Inggris yang tidak baik secara nutrisi. Tentu saja sampai dia harus berhadapan dengan perusahaan-perusahaan besar yang selama ini sudah nyaman memasok makanan, seperti Daud lawan Goliath...dan dia yang menang..Luar biasa. Superhero...baru tahu...Mengingatkan saya akan film Chang Gum dari Korea itu, yang suka masak, tapi kemudian membawa cintanya ke jalur medicine. Di buku ini juga dituliskan perjuangan Jamie sebagai seorang pribadi, menjadi orang super sibuk dan terkenal sehingga hubungan dengan keluarganya kadang harus terkorbankan.
Untuk penulis saya kasih 4 stars. Cukup mengalir, enak dibaca, dibahas dari berbagai sudut, penulis juga mewawancara orang-orang yang merasa dikecewakan Jamie. Ini suatu hal penting, satu hal yang saya catat sangat penting sebagai seorang penulis, bahwa walaupun menulis biografi, kita gak bisa hanya menunjukkan sisi baik org tersebut.
Karena tidak ada orang yang sempurna. Manusia itu terbatas, semua cuma dikasih waktu 24 jam, gak ada yang diistimewakan Tuhan dan dikasih ekstra. Kalau ada waktu yang didedikasikan untuk seseorang/sesuatu misi, pasti ada yang ditelantarkan dalam kurun waktu itu. Membuat saya teringat diri sendiri sebagai seorang working mum. Mungkin ada tujuan-tujuan besar dalam hidup yang memanggil kita dengan begitu kuatnya, yang gak bisa tidak harus kita lakukan untuk dunia, untuk kemanusiaan, untuk sejarah, dan di saat yang sama, mungkin anak mesti dititip ke orang dan waktu kita melihat mereka bertumbuh berkurang. Nobody is perfect.
But, sebagai manusia, kita cuma bisa berusaha untuk menjadi yang terbaik dalam konteks panggilan kita itu. Perlu juga untuk sadar, kita bukan superhero, mengakui kelemahan kita dan gak perlu merasa bersalah atau mendengarkan omongan orang yang nyalah-nyalahin kita. Karena...well..panggilan tiap orang beda, dan kalau dia berani nyalah-nyalahin kita...coba kita tanya...ok, saya sih begini, kamu ngapain? Apa iya kamu lebih baik dari saya?
Eh..kok jadi curhat ya..wahaha...
Hebatnya lagi, dia menggunakan ketenaran dan keahliannya untuk merubah dunia, to make it a better place. Membuat restoran yang tujuannya melatih anak2 jalanan dalam memasak dan memberi mereka kesempatan kedua, dan juga merombak total jenis makanan kantin di sekolah-sekolah Inggris yang tidak baik secara nutrisi. Tentu saja sampai dia harus berhadapan dengan perusahaan-perusahaan besar yang selama ini sudah nyaman memasok makanan, seperti Daud lawan Goliath...dan dia yang menang..Luar biasa. Superhero...baru tahu...Mengingatkan saya akan film Chang Gum dari Korea itu, yang suka masak, tapi kemudian membawa cintanya ke jalur medicine. Di buku ini juga dituliskan perjuangan Jamie sebagai seorang pribadi, menjadi orang super sibuk dan terkenal sehingga hubungan dengan keluarganya kadang harus terkorbankan.
Untuk penulis saya kasih 4 stars. Cukup mengalir, enak dibaca, dibahas dari berbagai sudut, penulis juga mewawancara orang-orang yang merasa dikecewakan Jamie. Ini suatu hal penting, satu hal yang saya catat sangat penting sebagai seorang penulis, bahwa walaupun menulis biografi, kita gak bisa hanya menunjukkan sisi baik org tersebut.
Karena tidak ada orang yang sempurna. Manusia itu terbatas, semua cuma dikasih waktu 24 jam, gak ada yang diistimewakan Tuhan dan dikasih ekstra. Kalau ada waktu yang didedikasikan untuk seseorang/sesuatu misi, pasti ada yang ditelantarkan dalam kurun waktu itu. Membuat saya teringat diri sendiri sebagai seorang working mum. Mungkin ada tujuan-tujuan besar dalam hidup yang memanggil kita dengan begitu kuatnya, yang gak bisa tidak harus kita lakukan untuk dunia, untuk kemanusiaan, untuk sejarah, dan di saat yang sama, mungkin anak mesti dititip ke orang dan waktu kita melihat mereka bertumbuh berkurang. Nobody is perfect.
But, sebagai manusia, kita cuma bisa berusaha untuk menjadi yang terbaik dalam konteks panggilan kita itu. Perlu juga untuk sadar, kita bukan superhero, mengakui kelemahan kita dan gak perlu merasa bersalah atau mendengarkan omongan orang yang nyalah-nyalahin kita. Karena...well..panggilan tiap orang beda, dan kalau dia berani nyalah-nyalahin kita...coba kita tanya...ok, saya sih begini, kamu ngapain? Apa iya kamu lebih baik dari saya?
Eh..kok jadi curhat ya..wahaha...
July 24, 2008
What can I say, I love Jamie Oliver! It was a good read, you really get to know who and what Jamie is all about.
April 9, 2011
i love jamie so much
October 27, 2017
A biography of Chef Jamie Oliver. Brings to the fore how much influence food can have in our cultures. This book helps me realize that having good cooks helps raise the profile of a city or a country as good food can be a big factor in better lifestyles. It also influences perception on creation of food as an art not just something to fill us up.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews