A quick chat with Jamie Oliver

A quick chat with Jamie Oliver
A quick chat with Jamie Oliver (Image credit: Contract Number (Programme))

Jamie Oliver tackles the eating habits of one of America's unhealthiest cities Having spread his gospel of healthy eating to British schoolchildren, Jamie Oliver is heading Stateside to try to win over the residents of America's fattest city – Huntington in West Virginia – in new Channel 4 show, Jamie's American Food Revolution. So can he convince our American cousins to swap their shakes for salads? TV&Satellite Week magazine caught up with the pioneering chef to find out more about his Emmy-nominated series... America is the fattest nation on earth... I couldn't believe the Huntingdon kids were having pizza for breakfast, and nuggets, hot dogs and sugary, flavoured milk every day. Those mums were killing their kids with junk food... I met one woman whose 12-year-old son weighed more than 300lbs. I buried her deep-fat fryer in the garden and got her cooking healthier food. I cried in Huntingdon... It was hard being away from my family and staying in a town where nobody liked me. But we turned it around. Nobody knew who I was in America... But the US TV network wanted me to present the series, and I had all the know-how from doing Jamie's School Dinners. I don't care about being famous in America. I couldn't say what drives me... I just know that, when I decide to do something, I'm very single-minded. I see it as my duty to change things if I can. My next show for Channel 4 is called 30-Minute Meals... I've come up with a way of making a whole meal, sometimes with dessert, in 30 minutes or less. As long as you follow the rules, it works. Jools and I are having another baby... I never expected to be a father of four, but it was a really nice surprise. Jamie's American Food Revolution is on Monday September 13 at 10pm on Channel 4.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.