As more and more families eat more and more junk, Britain is on the verge of a health disaster.
Now, Jamie Oliver is determined to show how Britain can eat better, by getting an entire
British town to teach each other to cook.
Can Jamie get a whole town cooking and change the way Britain eats?
Rotherham is a typical British town; a quarter of a million people in the heart of Yorkshire.
Jamie starts by meeting the only person he knows of in Rotherham.
She led a backlash against school dinners, giving kids their favourite junk.
In my view she represents everything that's wrong about our relationship with food in
this country - in actual fact not even in this country, those pictures of Julie putting
those burgers through the railings have been in all 56 of the countries that I work in.
I'm nearing her house...
I'm a bit nervous now.
Right, wish me luck.
Julie Critchlow, how are ya?
Hiya, Mister Oliver, the elusive Mister Oliver nice to meet you at last.
I'm here!
I'll tell you summat you're very nice actually.
Very different to what I expected ((Really?)).
Yeah, yeah you are.
I mean sometimes you can be a bit pompous, you really can.
Would you like to meet my mum?
I-I'd love to meet her if she's not gonna hit me with her handbag.
She's not going to hit with you a handbag I can promise.
Julie was called a 'fast food mum' by the tabloids, but it turns out she does know plenty
of recipes.
Pork chops, lamb chops, braising steak.
We even, Chinese belly pork, our Steven loves that.
She's a proper foodie ((Yeah, she is)).
Well, I like me food.
Me mum passed all her recipes onto me, you know I saw her cooking all stew and dumplings
and, oh Sunday roast and everything ((Yeah we always had Sunday dinner didn't we)), we
did yeah ((We still do)).
And so I've always cooked like what you've cooked, this is all what's been passed on.
But like kids nowadays, they've never been taught to cook.
What I wanna start doing, 'cos we still got a big problem in this country with people not
knowing how to cook ((Yeah, yeah)), and what I'm gonna do is see if we can get the whole
town cooking.
And if I could have your help in anything that would be... and instead of all this confusion
with sort of negative things, actually we could do something really positive.
You might get me onside but I might not always agree with ya ((Well no I know that!)).
I might have to shout at you sometimes!
I'll help, gladly, I'll gladly help ya.
I didn't expect us to get on so well so, and 'cos we do I'll yeah, I quite like you actually.
((He's quite nice isn't he... he does want his hair cutting though doesn't he?))
I'll take him up to relax tomorrow.
You know what's great about Julie is like... she says what things are y'know, she calls
a spade a spade and that's it.
And y'know if she don't like it she'll say it.
I just think if we can get her on board man that's just really powerful.
WIth one woman nearly convinced that the junk should be binned...
Jamie has just 249,999 to go.
He needs a plan.
I am positive that with a little bit of hand-holding, home lives around the dinner table could be
drastically changed, I genuinely think that.
I'm excited to get started doing that.
He advertises in the local paper for non-cooks to learn cooking.
Just 300 of the townspeople reply.
He decides to put 8 in his first class.
((Wow!))
And the evening before, he goes to meet some of them.
How are ya?
We do sometimes have takeaways ((Well you don't have to be embarrassed about it I mean
just be honest it's...)).
Maybe three times a week...
((Yeah, does that mean four?)).
Yeah ((Haha)).
Maybe five!
((Me and you are gonna get on just fine)).
Claire Hallam lives near Julie.
She's a full-time mum with two kids, on benefits.
So from here upwards we're... junk, and then we're into dips, and actually I'm trying to
find something that's not junk, we've got ham.
Hello my darling ((Oh my god!)) ha ha ha.
Natasha Whiteman is another young mum of two.
She has just picked up their fourth takeaway of the week... and it's only Tuesday.
Oh that's dinner there?
For the family?
Right ((Takeaway, haha...)).
And why have that, you never got taught to cook at home, at school or?
What's the school, how come?
I never really did school, and me mum were never a great cook.
You got an 8-burner cooker mate!
But you don't cook ((Can't cook)), right.
Do you want to see me sweet drawer?
This is shocking.
This is where me money goes.
That's one... that's two.
There's another chocolate one in there ((And coke)).
Natasha has never cooked a meal for her children, Kiya and Robbie.
Dinner is nearly always a kebab.
Gimme the lowdown then, 'cos like the fact that you've sort of let us turn up tells me
that you're open-minded and...
((I'm sick of this)).
Yeah, right, so you're ((I'm absolutely sick of it)) you're sick of the junk food, you're
sick of the repetition ((It's affecting her)).
Right, in what sort of way?
Well she's not healthy.
She's been in twice for her teeth taken out 'cos they've rotted, they've gone bad ((Right)).
What's your favourite pop?
((Dr. Pepper)) Dr. Pepper we love it don't we?
And what happens if you don't do nothing about it, where do you see it going?
I see her being obese, I see her being really really unhealthy, really.
And it's not good.
So how much, are you on a budget?
((Tight budget)) 'Cos to be honest if you're spending twelve quid, ten quid a night, seven
days a week - that's 70 quid ((I know)).
That's quite a lot of money actually, just on food.
((I only get 80 pound a week as it is)) So you get 80 quid a...
I get 80 pound yeah, I'm on benefits, yep.
So as you can tell I'm spending more than what I get.
I don't know I just know I can't keep doing it, I really don't want to do it.
Don't want to do it ever again.
I want to learn how to cook and just be healthy ((Yeah)).
Fucking hell.
I mean like if you just look at today, it's the first day and like I know I wanna do something
but I'm fuckin' angry, and I don't know who or why yet.
((It's why tables were invented I suppose)) But like you know I'm sitting on a floor,
with a kid, eating with her fingers, chips and cheese and like shaved doner kebab,
out of styrofoam.
I don't blame her for feeding their kids like that at all.
She's desperate and she's vulnerable, and I should and I must and I will go in there
and make a difference to these people's lives.
I don't know how I'm gonna do it, yet, and I know I've got a lot of learning to do and
I've gotta do a lot of listening.
But we'll do it.
And if I don't do it then I should fuckin' retire, simple as that.