http://blogcolony.net/2008/01/29/review-new-food-network-show-jamie-at-home/
Finally, amid elaborate, lavish celebrity chef hoo-hah, comes a cooking show that takes a backseat to the whole fame-and-glamour thing and goes back to basics. “Jamie at Home,” the Food Network’s new show hosted by British mega-chef Jamie Oliver, is a rustic, family-centered rendition of his trendier, BBC-syndicated cooking shows, “The Naked Chef” and “Oliver’s Twist”. Unlike other cooking shows, “Jaime at Home” is pretty to watch (definitely not like fellow Food Network star Sandra Lee’s tacky housewife set) and dripping with quirkiness and charm (although, that might be based solely on his Cockney accent). The show is filmed right at Oliver’s home, in his cluttered cottage and garden in the ever-overcast English countryside.
The premise of the show is simple: Oliver cooks the “foods he loves” with fresh ingredients from his backyard. He draws inspiration from Mediterranean and Eastern Asian cuisine, preparing dishes such as chili-avocado salsa, zucchini risotto and Thai-style leg of lamb. Each episode begins with a clip of Oliver rummaging through his garden for a vegetable (such as pumpkin or rhubarb) to be highlighted on the show. His enthusiasm for the color, the freshness and the flavor of his produce is infectious – you almost can’t wait to see what he’ll do with the peppers he lovingly picked from his greenhouse.
Sometimes, you forget why chefs use certain ingredients in a dish, and Oliver makes damn well sure you understand the impact of each element. The cameras zoom in on Oliver’s food to the point of Georgia O’Keefe-like abstraction, and you can actually hear yourself sighing upon a close-up of cherry tomatoes doused in extra-virgin olive oil, without the Pavlovian responses induced by Emeril or Rachael Ray. His dishes are not 30-minute meals or semi-homemade – these are rich, luscious, slow-cooked comfort foods. The show’s no-fuss approach makes the cooking process look effortless. There is no hokey background music to distract you (shocking, for a British series), Gordon Ramsay-like egos or formal attire. Oliver putts around in a camo sweatshirt and jeans, caressing various ingredients and cracking corny jokes. He is endearing and a bit nerdy –on the Chilies and Peppers episode, Oliver refers to various vegetables as “Mr. So and So” a total of four times in a 5-minute period. His quirkiness continues with his innovative cooking methods. He fashions a contraption out of a biscuit tin and chicken wire in preparation of rosemary-infused smoked salmon.
“Jamie at Home” is a refreshing reminder that cooking is really all about the food, a comforting thought coming from a happy-go-lucky chef worth $50 million.
