West Virginia eats Jamie Oliver for breakfast

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Pizza and chocolate milk for breakfast. Niiiiiice....




Chef reduced to tears by US reaction to his new show about healthy eating

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

He swaggered into town with a can-do attitude, a cheeky-chappie smile, and a burning desire to help the world's fattest schoolchildren. But less than an hour later, the impertinent English superchef was being reduced to tears as hostile locals told him to lay off their beloved nuggets, pizza, and chocolate milkshakes.

Jamie Oliver crossed the Atlantic on Sunday, hoping to administer the sort of wake-up call that five years ago saw him invited to Downing Street to explain what the nation's school canteens should do with their Turkey Twizzlers. But like many a British star before him, he found America to be a tough nut to crack.

The Naked Chef swapped his trademark scooter for a vintage SUV and rolled into the city of Huntington, West Virginia, to launch the ABC series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a hybrid US version of the various TV series in which he's attempted to educate Britain about the virtues of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Bringing that message to Huntington proved to be quite a challenge: the city was recently named by the Centres for Disease Control as the least healthy city in the least healthy state of America, the most overweight nation in the developed world.

Oliver's campaign got off to a tricky start. At the local talk radio station, the "shock jock" told him to take the busybody act elsewhere: "We don't want to sit around eating lettuce all day!" said the DJ. "Who made you king?"

Complaining that he "thought miserable bastards like that only existed in England", Oliver adjourned to the local school, where children were tucking into their daily breakfast: pizza and chocolate milk. "I have never seen pizza served for breakfast," he said, shocked. Oliver then watched aghast as the dinner ladies whipped up a lunch of chicken nuggets and reconstituted "pearls" of processed potato. "It's that kind of food that's killing America," he announced.

Oliver was introduced to the morbidly obese wife and children of a local truck driver, whose entire diet consisted of fried, re-fried, deep-fried and microwavable junk. "This is going to kill your kids," he declared. The mother duly broke down in tears.

If there's one thing middle America hates it's being lectured to by sniffy foreigners. And the tense atmosphere in Huntington reached boiling point when a newspaper quoted Oliver suggesting his host country's obesity epidemic might be due to ignorance.

True? Maybe. Oliver was promptly forced to issue a grovelling apology. "They don't understand me," he declared to the camera, breaking down in tears. "They don't know why I'm here!"

Sunday's show, a preview for a series that commences this Friday, received mediocre ratings: only 6.1 million viewers tuned in, fewer than such shows as Undercover Boss, Celebrity Apprentice and Family Guy. And the reviews were also mixed. The Washington Post said the show "has all the problems of most network reality pap".

The Los Angeles Times couldn't have been more effusive, though. "Despite an accent that is usually referred to in the UK as 'mockney' and the product-tousled hair men of his age inexplicably favour, Oliver is eminently and instantly likeable," said its review. "He may in fact wind up being reality TV's most engaging star."

The programme, which was filmed last year and has not yet been scheduled for broadcast in the UK, has drawn a mixed reaction in Huntington. "People think we're all morbidly obese, walking around eating pizza," a (rotund) local councillor, Brandi Jacobs-Jones, complained to CNN. "We have 5K [runs] every weekend... We have our teeth. We have master's degrees."
 
Times are changing, now the poor get fat.
 
Well, yes, people don't like it when you stand in front of them and say, "Damn! You're fat! Quit eating that junk!" Was he surprised that they were offended? Nobody explained American pride to him. Because "it's a free country, and we can do whatever we want to do." Whatever we do is automatically acceptable. There is a little-known line in the Constitution that gives us the inalienable right to massively bloated self-esteem. :o
 
That was a damn funny story, all around. "We have Master's Degrees".

I love how the writer says Americans don't like lectures from sniffy foreigners. Sure. Right. An American in Liverpool, Leeds or Birmingham would get three seconds into a Yankee-slanted lecture before having a beer mug smashed in his face.

Of course, that would never happen in the first place. Americans don't have to lecture the English because we already keep their Prime Minister on a leash. :D
 
There is a little-known line in the Constitution that gives us the inalienable right to massively bloated self-esteem. :o

Ironic that we have a Constitution and they have Magna Carta. Constitution is a lean-bodied jogger of a word. 'Magna Carta' is a pair of fat buttocks; it sounds like an exotic cream-filled pastry, doesn't it? Something you'd get at a Sonic or a Wal-Mart? "I'll have a Carta-- on second that, why don't you supersize that to a Magna Carta". :)
 
:lbf:
Ironic that we have a Constitution and they have Magna Carta. Constitution is a lean-bodied jogger of a word. 'Magna Carta' is a pair of fat buttocks; it sounds like an exotic cream-filled pastry, doesn't it? Something you'd get at a Sonic or a Wal-Mart? "I'll have a Carta-- on second that, why don't you supersize that to a Magna Carta". :)
 
"If there's one thing middle America hates it's being lectured to by sniffy foreigners."

Au contraire, at least when it comes to television stars. Bitchy, stern, condescending and just plain mean British folks have been wildly successful - and strangely beloved - by the American viewing public in recent years: Simon Cowell, Anne Robinson, Gordon Ramsey, that dancing judge who looks like Andy Summers, Jo the "SuperNanny" and the dogtrainer who dresses like Emma Peel.

Jamie Oliver is a different kettle of fish, of course, but his cooking shows have done well here and I think his "Cor, but you're fat" program should catch on too.
 
Simon Cowell, Anne Robinson, Gordon Ramsey, that dancing judge who looks like Andy Summers, Jo the "SuperNanny" and the dogtrainer who dresses like Emma Peel.

QUOTE]

You mean Victoria..not that I watch her program or anything :o

victoria-stilwell-its-me-or-the-dog-pictures.jpg
 
"If there's one thing middle America hates it's being lectured to by sniffy foreigners."

Au contraire, at least when it comes to television stars. Bitchy, stern, condescending and just plain mean British folks have been wildly successful - and strangely beloved - by the American viewing public in recent years: Simon Cowell, Anne Robinson, Gordon Ramsey, that dancing judge who looks like Andy Summers, Jo the "SuperNanny" and the dogtrainer who dresses like Emma Peel.

Jamie Oliver is a different kettle of fish, of course, but his cooking shows have done well here and I think his "Cor, but you're fat" program should catch on too.

Excellent point. But it just shows to go ya that Simon Cowell pissing on some nameless idiot on TV is another galaxy away from having him show up to berate your shower-time rendition of "Friday I'm In Love". Reality TV isn't so real for us. (A shock, I know. :) )
 
I hate Jamie Oliver, but people revelling in their own ignorance is hardly any better. I did just eat 4 packets of crisps in a row though, so my opinion doesn't really count.
 
I too dislike Jamie Oliver.
Mars_Rover, Who's the dancing judge who looks like Andy Summers?
 
I too dislike Jamie Oliver.
Mars_Rover, Who's the dancing judge who looks like Andy Summers?

Nigel Lythgoe. I'm convinced that he and Andy were separated at birth.

Nigel:
Nigel-Lythgoe-740634-795620.jpg


Andy:
Andy+Summers.jpg


You thought I meant that Len fellow from Dancing with the Stars, right? :) Poor Andy isn't *that* old yet. Though I must say, Len is very attractive for a mature gentleman.
 
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Nigel Lythgoe. I'm convinced that he and Andy were separated at birth.

Nigel:
Nigel-Lythgoe-740634-795620.jpg


Andy:
Andy+Summers.jpg


You thought I meant that Len fellow from Dancing with the Stars, right? :) Poor Andy isn't *that* old yet. Though I must say, Len is very attractive for a mature gentleman.

Damn, that's pretty creepy.
 
Don't cry Jamie! Now David Letterman lectures Oliver and says his healthy eating crusade won't work in America

Last updated at 2:57 PM on 24th March 2010

Jamie Oliver's attempt to revolutionise America's unhealthy eating habits hit yet another stumbling block yesterday when his plan was dismissed by David Letterman.
In a move away from his talkshow's usual format, the TV host delivered an extraordinary five-minute lecture at the start saying why Oliver was doomed to failure.

While Letterman praised Oliver's idea, he said it wouldn't work in a country full of fast food chains and convenience food.


Oliver chatted to Letterman during a cooking segment on The Late Show last night as he promoted his new TV show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
The six-part series sees Oliver travel to the city of Huntington, West Virginia - known as the most unhealthy city in America - in a bid to overhaul their eating habits.

He actually bursts into tears of frustration as his message fails to get through.

Letterman started off the segment by outlining his thoughts on why Oliver's healthy eating plan wouldn't work.
He said: 'You know who was on the programme last week was Kirstie Alley and she has a kind of second career dealing with her weight and her struggles to lose weight.

'We got to talking about how difficult it is for people to lose weight and I maintained that try as hard as you might you are never going to succeed because we are living in a culture dominated by the commerce of selling food that is inherently unhealthy.'
Oliver said despite the dominance of fast food, he hoped to educate people about what they were putting in their bodies and the health problems they will face in the future.
However, Letterman fired back he had battled weight problems himself and controversially believes diet pills are the only successful way to lose weight in America.

He said: 'After five or six, ten or 20 years of trying to lose weight there is nothing in this culture you can do to lose weight short of medication.
'If you want to go to a doctor, no seriously, go to a doctor and they'll be happy to give you as many pills as you need.
'But as long as we are trying to feed this many people we are going to continue to eat bad food. And you think McDonald's is going to close down? No, they're not going to close down.'
Letterman then gave several examples of why Americans didn't like change: 'In the late 60s we were going to be changed to the metric system... well that didn't work, did it? And you know why? It was too hard for Americans to figure out metres.

'Soccer, remember soccer? Well that didn't work either.'
Oliver interjected how the smoking ban - in New York and several other U.S. cities - had been successful, despite the initial outrage from smokers.


Letterman replied: 'But again that was people making the decision. With eating it's not a decision. People have to eat.
'God bless you but here's what I think will happen. I think that the species will evolve to the point where 1,000 years from now we all weigh 5-600lbs and it will be OK.'
Oliver insisted the increasingly unhealthy lifestyles of today's children meant they would be living shorter lives than their parents, which Letterman agreed on.
But he blamed America's food industry for making unhealthy food so available: 'We'll go into any supermarket and there are 160 different kinds of cookies.
'I don't care how much ground up sea grass you eat or wheat germ - or stuff you find in your pocket. As long as they are selling 160 different types of cookie what hope do you have?'
Oliver appeared to become resigned to the fact he wouldn't convert Letterman to his way of thinking, turning to the audience and saying: 'As you can see ladies and gentlemen, my challenge is big.'



In Oliver's new show, he reduces an American mother-of-four to tears when he warns her that her cooking will end up killing her children.
Sitting in front of a pile of the family's weekly food intake, Oliver tells a weepy Stacie: 'This is going to kill your children.'
Her son Jamie, 12, admits he is picked on at school due to his large size and hopes to become a chef.
Oliver's new series sees him hoping to reciprocate his success in Britain, where he overhauled school dinners.
Oliver is shocked when he sees dinner ladies making pizza for breakfast and served instant mashed potatoes to children at Central City Elementary.
Amazed that they're not using real potatoes, he points to the mash, saying: 'It's that kind of food that is killing America.'
An incredulous Oliver is further stunned when he holds up tomatoes on a vine to a young boy, who believes they are potatoes.
The chef stands back as he watches the children eating and notices they are all drinking flavoured milk and are uninterested in fruit.
Using shock tactics to explain to the children and staff how much fat they're eating every year, they eventually are open to change.
During the series, a local newspaper claims Oliver has said several disparaging things about Huntingdon, which he insists was taken out of context.
An emotional Oliver is seen tearing up as he says: 'They don't understand me 'cause they don't know why I'm here.'
 
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