COOK with JAMIE

My Guide to Making You a Better Cook

by Jamie Oliver

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Brand new hardcover book, 448 pages.

With this ultimate kitchen companion you can be a student of Jamie's in your own home. Learn the skills that the trainees at Jamie's Fifteen restaurant learn during their first year, from basic techniques to advice on ingredients and how to put dishes together. The 100 new recipes range from the very simple to those that appear on the menu at Fifteen. It's a celebration of learning, seasonality and good food! With Jamie as your teacher, enjoy making the delicious recipes that feature regularly at the restaurant. With hints, tips, advice and clear photographs to show you all the practical stuff, this is Jamie's most accessible book yet!

In Jamie's own words:

 My new book is called Cook with Jamie - my guide to making you a better cook. It's the biggest book I've ever done, and it's set to become a timeless, modern-day classic. It looks beautiful and is full of simple and accessible recipes (160 of them!) that will blow the socks off your family and any guests you might have round for dinner.

And that's not all... there's information on the equipment that I think you should have in your kitchen, advice on how to recognize and cook loads of different cuts of meat, as well as on how to get the best value and quality when you're out shopping.

With Britain consuming more processed food than the rest of Europe put together, it's a sad fact that most people just aren't confident enough to cook any more. I'm hoping that with this new book, everyone will get stuck in and reclaim our fantastic cooking heritage!

You know what ...if you're going to eat three times a day for the rest of your life, you might as well learn to cook properly and enjoy it! So, roll up your sleeves and let me help you. Now is the time for you to get stuck in and reclaim your fantastic cooking heritage!

About the author:

Jamie Oliver was born in May 1975, and grew up in Clavering, Essex, where his parents owned a pub-restaurant, The Cricketers. From an early age, Oliver helped in the pub kitchen; by the time he was 11, he was adept at vegetable prep and could chop "like a demon". In 1989, Oliver formed the band Scarlet Division with best friend Leigh Haggerwood, and dreamed of pop stardom. He was the drummer of the band. However, by age 16, Oliver knew he wanted to be a chef, so he attended Westminster Catering College and then studied in France, learning as much as he could, before returning to London to work as head pastry chef for Antonio Carluccio at The Neal Street Restaurant. After The Neal Street Restaurant, Oliver worked for Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers at the River Cafe for three and a half years; Oliver credits Gray and Rogers with teaching him to create the fresh and simple food which would become his signature.

The result was "The Naked Chef", a cooking programme. Two highly successful seasons of "The Naked Chef" were filmed in 1998 and 1999. The popular series brought Oliver worldwide fame, and more television programmes and book deals followed. As of 2006, Oliver had six additional television series and eight books to his name. Now in 2007, he has a new TV show called "Jamie at Home," which shows people how easy it is to grow fresh produce from scratch and make good meals. He also has a book out with the same name.

In 2005 Jamie Oliver received the prestigious Beacon Fellowship Prize for his contribution to disadvantaged young people, offering training and practical experience in the catering industry.

Oliver is married to former model Juliette Norton, also known as "Jools". The couple have two daughters: Poppy Honey and Daisy Boo. They live in Hampstead, London.

After a brief appearance on "The Naked Chef", Oliver's band, Scarlet Division, was offered a record deal by Sony. Its debut single "Sundial" reached 42 in the UK charts, but, in spite of having been together for ten years, the band had trouble being taken seriously due to Oliver's fame as a chef, and was dropped by Sony. Soon after, Oliver asked Haggerwood to write the music for his new show, "Oliver's Twist". The series, a massive worldwide success, featured Haggerwood's popular theme song "Just The Start". Wanting to create something positive' using his wealth and fame, Oliver conceived and established the Fifteen charity restaurant where he trains 15 disadvantaged young people to work in the hospitality industry. Following the success of the original restaurant in London, more Fifteens have opened around the globe: Fifteen Amsterdam opened in December, 2004, Fifteen Cornwall in Newquay opened in May, 2006, and Fifteen Melbourne opened in September, 2006, with Australian friend and fellow chef, Tobie Puttock. The process of creating and opening the original Fifteen was documented in the series "Jamie's Kitchen".

Next, Oliver began a formal campaign to ban unhealthy food in British schools and get kids eating fresh, tasty, nutritious food instead. Oliver's efforts to bring radical change to the school meals system, chronicled in the series "Jamie's School Dinners", challenged the junk food culture by showing schools they could serve healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids enjoyed eating.

In June, 2003, Oliver was appointed an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. Reputedly a multimillionaire, he has also written columns for The Times. A great proponent of fresh organic foods, in May, 2005, Oliver was named the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry when he topped the inaugural CatererSearch 100. The list saw Oliver beating off Sir Francis Mackay, the then-chairman of the contract catering giant, Compass Group, which Oliver had soundly criticised in "Jamie's School Dinners".

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Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver