So this is the market square, this is like the main thoroughfare yeah?
Yeah this is the main street.
Rotherham may be mastering meatballs but the revolution is going too slowly.
Jamie wants to get far more Rotherham people cooking, and he has a new idea.
He wants a town centre HQ in which his class can attract hundreds.
Just come on the market...
Bloody hell I mean you couldn't have put us in a better position.
Absolutely.
Fuck me we're right next to McDonald's!
You're a punter here, we're in here nice little bit of cooking, little bit of cooking here.
Yes my dear?
Few leaflets, recipe cards...
What do you think?
You couldn't hear a word could you haha.
Hello you lot!
Hello!
So, the idea is that we come here and we do a big old food centre where you guys can get
ideas for recipes, we do demonstrations, would you like that if there was a...?
Yeah.
D'you think it's alright for a Southern boy to come up here and do a little bit...
Yeah we might be able to teach you a thing or two.
You don't think I'll get too much abuse then?
You'll get a lot of abuse but... it's Yorkshire innit.
I'll have to get thick skin.
Brilliant.
With his up-and-coming teachers about to take on the town, they'll need more recipes.
Jamie has brought his class together at Rawmarsh Community School, where Julie Critchlow famously
smuggled fast food through the railings.
Hello mate, how are you?
Yeah I'm fine thank you.
Afternoon!
What you doing here?
Ta', you alright, how you doing?
This week he's teaching fish, with master recipes for pan fried salmon and fish pie.
Rotherham is fucking cooking!
D'you know what I mean?
Look at Tash, come on Tash!
Give it some, girl!
Jamie unveils his new plan to an unsuspecting class...
Jeff do you remember in the Second World War, d'you remember the Ministry of Food?
Yep.
They used to control all the rations, right?
((Yep)) And they used to communicate with the public about how to make different recipes
and how to make ingredients stretch, how to be healthy.
So basically what I want to do is I wanna bring back a new modern version of the Ministry
of Food, the first one is gonna be in Rotherham.
Fingers crossed, a bunch of people in Rotherham will turn up, and then we get a little scene
happening in Rotherham.
Who's gonna give us a hand, you up for it?
Yeah!
[Cheering] All of us.
Superb.
Right well done guys!
That's really good.
Hello Rotherham!
[Cheering] How you doing, you alright?
((Yeah!))
Superb ok, we're gonna do a bit of cooking, and I'm gonna tell you what the hell it is
that I'm doing here.
Who wants somethin'!
[Cheering]
Three weeks ago Tasha you couldn't cook a thing, what can you cook now?
Meatballs, salmon, pancakes...
When you cook a proper meal, how does it make you feel?
What do you think?
What do I look like now?
Eat my food!
Why can't Rotherham be like the food capital of the North?
Paris, London, Tokyo...
Rotherham.
Why not!
All I'm gonna ask is that we get recipes to ya, you master 'em, and you teach 'em to two
people and get them to pass it on.
Will you help us today?
((Yes!))
It's the end of the launch, and for Jamie's class of budding teachers the day has been
a triumph.
People were stood screaming waiting for my salmon, and I never dreamed that would happen.
I mean me family come today, my little girl come, and I think it's took me a long time
to realise what she needs, you know what I mean?
I don't know, I've just give her stuff what easy, it's like when she's hungry I throw
crisps because it's easier than cooking.
Or I throw her a bag of chocolate and it's, that's selfish, I shouldn't have done that.
I shouldn't have, d'you know what I mean, I should make her food.
But I do things that's easier for me not for her.
I suppose now I feel a bit guilty for it and that's why I'm getting upset but...
I'm just so happy that she's getting into normal food now.
A chance in a lifetime if I don't learn it now I never will.
It's five weeks into Jamie's Rotherham experiment.
After Natasha's success cooking pan fried salmon for hundreds, he's keen to find out
how many friends she has passed the recipe on to.
How's things been going, you been cooking much?
...No ((No)), no ((No))...
Erm, it haven't been really that good, it haven't been a good week if I'm honest it's
been a, well it's been a crap few week.
Right, why just...
other stuff or...?
Yeah nowt to do with the cooking, not really to do with the cooking, nowt to do with you
it's just... bills, debts, just embarrassing things really.
((Money)) Yeah ((Right)).
I know it sounds a bit shit but I can't see why I should waste the bit of money I have
got on busfare and that to go buy meat and fish, and benefits are tight, really really
tight.
So... what do I go shopping or buy clothes or buy electric or pay the bill, I haven't
got the money to the whole lot.
And that's why I'm in a mess now.
I've got nowt else to sell, I've got nowt else to get rid of ((What d'you mean?)).
Sorry...
((That's alright)).
I've got no jewellery left I've had to sell me jewellery ((Oh you've had to, you started
pawning stuff...)).
I don't wanna do this.
I really really feel for her and, y'know, I really feel for her and I also feel like
I'm sort of...
I feel like I'm intruding but at the same time I know, I just know in the most unpatronising
pretentious way that I'm enriching her life.
I can see it.
D'you know when I see her doing well it makes me feel good, it's totally selfish.
Y'know she inspires me to do this thing.
So it's really important for me that in three months time when I drive back for the last
time from Rotherham, y'know I wanna see her in a really good way, I wanna see her in a
good place.
I'd be gutted if we lost her, um... for sure.
It turns out that Natasha isn't the only one not passing it on.
Hardly anyone in his gang has taught the fish recipe to their friends.
Julie Critchlow may have been right.
A disillusioned Jamie invites her and his entire class to the local pub.
Right so far we've taught you guys two recipes, we've had a bash right and we've come up against
a load of problems.
Can us eight make an impact on Rotherham?
It's not gonna work if you can't pass it on is it?
No.
Nothing.
I told ya in the beginning it'd not work, you've gotta find some way to change it round.
But, and I don't mean it in an offensive way but, while you're sat there saying, "I told
you Jamie this ain't gonna work", that's making me feel crap.
It's knocking people's confidence.
No let me just tell you right, you know looking at this ((It don't look good)).
No, there is some parts on it that looks brilliant.
I'm not being awful towards you all but I can see looking at this, some of you's got
more enthusiasm than others.
[Sounds of disagreement]
The point is everybody's got different lives, we all got different social circles and we
all got different things that we do in our life.
What about you Becky?
I don't think that's fair, I don't think it's anything to do with that.
It's a time issue a really big time issue with me ((Anything else?)).
But then for some people it's a positive in't it, 'cos for me it's good passing on 'cos
I have summat to do with me today and I go to my friend's and do it.
The main thing is to add like, work...
Tracy works, the people you're teaching also work, and it's just near-on impossible to
really pass it on.
I'm kind of getting the impression that there's sort of like almost two groups of people,
there's the people, picking the people that are really kind of can-do, and the ones...
d'you know what I mean there's people that will and people that won't and I think-
To be honest with you if I'm really really really really truthful with ya... brilliant
idea but I just don't think it can work.
[Sounds of discussion]
We got eight great people in that class and it's making differences to their life, it's
changing them... health, fun, confidence, all of that y'know.
But y'know, the deep down is I haven't come to Rotherham to teach eight people how to
cook for the next three months, y'know.
I've come here to make a big difference.
I need 'pass it on' in the next month to go up three gears, well, totally change.