You have to like Jamie Oliver even if his fortune, his advertising for Sainsbury's and his profit motivated franchise Jamie's,(more later) annoy you just a bit. He is so genuinely enthusiastic about food. And he piles it up on the plate as a tower with a splurge of decorative sauce alongside, in the cheffy fashion but completely without the pretension or the pernicketyness. He makes your mouth water just because his so obviously is. Jamie in Marakesh last night was delightful. He wanders around the throngs of traders and foodstalls, prepared no doubt thoroughly in advance by all his team but still managing to give the impression of someone engaging with surprise and amazement with the shock of such a different culture. He doesn't attempt to appear an expert and tastes everything going including cow's udder, ugh. He tries his hand at traditional skills like the specialised pastry making which is done with stretchy dough on a hot saucepan lid and lets the camera see what a mess he is making of it. Then he makes 'snake cake' with the thin filo like results, rolling up no less than 2 metres of it around a delicious sounding frangipane and dried rose petals. Quite impractical on my kitchen table but immediately I want to have a go. He makes it look fun. And very very tasty. He rubs spices from the alleyways of the market into chicken and beef with exuberance and then adds more tastes with pickled lemons and fresh herbs. Yum, he crows - or almost. And you do too. I am going to look up his recipes and try some.
But - Jamie's the Italian franchise. Hmm. His enthusiasm for Italian food is no doubt genuine and the restaurant we went to was very pleasant inside, with prompt service and a lovely 'you are somewhere nice in Italy' decor. The food was good quality too. But I feel uncomfortable when it is so obvious that everything is shaved down to the profit. You want bread? You will pay a remarkable sum for a tiny container of four kinds of fancy bread - hardly enough for one and yet the price of a tableful. In Italy of course you get the bread for a minimal sum and as much as you want without question.When three of the same starters are put onto one platter and you can only see enough for maybe one and half portions, well then Jamie's grin is not quite so charming.
But - Jamie's the Italian franchise. Hmm. His enthusiasm for Italian food is no doubt genuine and the restaurant we went to was very pleasant inside, with prompt service and a lovely 'you are somewhere nice in Italy' decor. The food was good quality too. But I feel uncomfortable when it is so obvious that everything is shaved down to the profit. You want bread? You will pay a remarkable sum for a tiny container of four kinds of fancy bread - hardly enough for one and yet the price of a tableful. In Italy of course you get the bread for a minimal sum and as much as you want without question.When three of the same starters are put onto one platter and you can only see enough for maybe one and half portions, well then Jamie's grin is not quite so charming.
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