A graph

I agree with Iam's point that vegetables in Spain, Greece, etc., are much tastier than here. The tomatoes are delicious, with loads of flavour, whereas ours often seem to be tasteless.

Flickety I thought the "agirlcalled Jack" blog was brilliantly written and hit the nail right on the head.

Usually I'm a fan of Jamie Oliver but I think on this occasion his comments may be interpreted as jumping on the bandwagon of poor bashing. I'm hoping this wasn't his intention.

Bez! Oh B, I re-cycled mine last year when having a clear out. Mind you, it was very well used.

DS2 got a GCSE - B, I think - in food technology. He seemed to make pizzas at least once a month for two years. Thankfully, he is now an excellent veggie cook and bakes very yummy brownies. Even his own kids will eat what he cooks.

I have just googled -Paupers cookbook - came up on Amazon at a cost of £280!!

Yes, I remember this. There was also Katherine Whitehorn's Cooking in a Bedsit and Delia Smith's Frugal Food. Both excellent although somewhat dated now as some of the cheap cuts of meat recommended are now rather pricey.

I also remember an excellent television programme in the early 80s where Jane Grigson produced stunningly good meals on a very limited budget. These were all carefully costed and researched to find out where to buy the ingredients - even if access to a market wasn't possible. We could do with an updated version of these.

I was struck by Jamie's 'economy' meal, which included cherry tomatoes, muscles and pastal. My experience is it's much cheaper and easier to eat good salad, vegetables and fruit in Italy/Greece/Spain than here in the UK. The cost of basic foodstuffs in the UK is high. "farmer's markets" are only for those of us with a reasonable level of disposable income, not for people existing on a basic state pension, or benefits.

We need proper cookery lessons back in schools for children whose parents don't/can't' cook. 10 years ago, my children's "food technology' lesson included "making a pizza". This involved the purchase of a ready made pizza base, a can of tomato puree and grating some cheese.

Nanaej and Moved - go for it. Did anyone else have a copy of the Pauper's Cookbook in the 60's and 70's. It was a badge of honour amongst my group of friends to produce meals for as little financial outlay as possible. Tomato sauce, with nuts and brown rice was a staple......

Go for it nan

I will talk to my 'meeja' pals and find out how to pitch it!

We should all write to the TV companies with the idea! Also suggestions of which chefs should present it and do the judging. Who do you think would do a good job?

I'm serious, I really do think its a good idea!

We better set up a TV company!

They could start with a reasonably generous budget then reduce it each subsequent week until they were really on the breadline. The winner to be whoever could continue to produce meals that were nourishing, tasty, and affordable.

I think that is a great idea for a programme nanej I think you should suggest it to whichever channel JO is not on.

Well, depends on average budget I suppose. Was not just thinking of those on bare minimum but hard pressed families with earned income. £20 pw per head for food??

It would have to be on less than £80 wouldn't it?

I am not sure being poor means you do not know how to cook or that being rich means that you can! All sorts of people are good at cooking and all sorts are disasterous!

Any 'educative' programme aimed at a socio-economic group is doomed to failure IMO.

It might be better if celebrity master chef gave the contestants a limited budget and a family of four to feed for a week! 21 meals on £80. That would fox them!

Flick perhaps the show when it starts will help poor people to learn to cook? It has to be given a chance.

Imo JO has as much right to his opinion as we do, the fact that he is rich does not mean he has forgotten what it is like to be poor and I wonder how many people would watch such a programme if it was not fronted by a sleb?

My mother and mother in law both lived through the war and both were rubbish cooks. I think it is wrong to assume that not being able to cook is something new.

Many of us could help those on small incomes find ways to save money but would it always be welcomed?

What do posters mean by 'food' markets? In my local town we have the regular weekly market with stalls selling vegetables, cards and stationery, clothes, plastic foam for upholstery and many other items. The vegetables sold here are much cheaper than supermarkets and, particularly near closing time there are really good bargains to be had. Then there is the Farmer's Market, now that is more expensive, but the regular market, is not.

The problem is, of course, that the regular market is on Monday, 9.00am - 5.00pm, fine if you are unemployed, retired etc or work shifts but for many poorer workers working normal hours, inaccessible.

The television graph is interesting, and I get Jamie's point, but when proper research was done into television size the main determinant was not income but education, the better the education the smaller the television, the fewer you had and the less likely you were to watch it.

Have any of you seen the blog 'A girl called Jack' in which a temporarily unemployed single mother explained how she fed herself and her son on £10.00 a week? Well here is her reply to Jamie Oliveragirlcalledjack.com/2013/08/28/i-didnt-need-a-hug-jamie-i-needed-a-fiver-the-independent/

The point Jamie fails to get was illustrated in the first programme about putting modern claimants on the benefit conditions of 1949. One family had been moved to a house with a garden and the garden was a tip. They were given help and instruction and the mother in the family commented, 'We have only ever lived in high rise flats, we have never known anyone with a garden, how can we be expected to know how to look after garden when we suddenly have one'

The same can be said of many families at all levels, Their parents have fed them on ready meals, they have not been taught to cook at school. How can they be expected suddenly to cook from scratch and on a budget and know how to shop strategically if they have no experience of it. How far are our generation responsible for this? How many of our children live on ready meals because their grasp of cooking is nebulous?

My mother in law is a pensioner who lived through the war and is still the most abysmal cook! When I was doing her shopping I used to have to buy awful stuff for her.

When my daughter was at university her friends used to wonder how she could afford to travel to America to see her boyfriend. The answer was that she lived on pasta with a few vegetables and some fruit. Cheap to buy and cheap to cook. Her food bill was about £5 a week

And he is right about people's priorities. I've worked with people who haven't got a lot of money yet turned out to have a massive plasma TV, or a state of the art computer system or a new car. The food they were buying and what they were doing with it came very low down the list.

I thought they were amusing comments THat Bags !!

Laugh !

chrismse1 does being a chef, or any other occupation for that matter, mean you cannot become a politician?
I am not arguing for or against JO but just think that anyone can be a politician!

Some funny comments following that tweet too

Jamie Oliver/Sainsbury's/local markets

BTW, there isn't a local market near me. Even the nearest not very supermarket is twelve miles away. Get real, Jamie.

I think Jamie should stick to cooking and stop trying to dictate what people spend their money on. He is a chef not a politician. He seems to assume that poor people have no idea how to eat properly, he should take lessons himself from the pensioners who lived through a war and a depression.

I seriously do think it is a bit rich for Jamie oliver to jabber on about healthy eating , when he has a personal fortune of £150 million.

like it or not a low income is a barrier to healthy eating IMO

Hmmm