Jamie Oliver's Book Sets a Record

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Dec 10th 2010 @ 1:00PM

Jamie Oliver Photo: Ray Tamarra / Getty Images

Jamie Oliver's new 30-Minute Meals cookbook is literally selling faster than hot cakes. The book, much like his American TV spots, is based on "a revolutionary approach to cooking good food fast," and contains 50 recipes that follow through on that promise.

As Daily Mail UK reports, despite the book's hefty price of £26 (that's close to $45), it has remained on bookstores' bestseller's lists every week since it was released, just two months ago. It has already sold 735,000 copies, they say, which is "an average of 10,500 a day." In fact, it's the fastest selling non-fiction work -- ever.

That means it already beat out the "ten-week sales record previously held by comedian Peter Kay's memoir The Sound of Laughter which sold 483,000 copies" after it came out in 2008, reports the Mail. And in the past week alone, the book sold "well ahead" of The Guinness Book of World Records and The Simples Life, another British high-seller. It won't be beating out the highest selling book ever (the Bible) anytime soon, but there is speculation that it may bump another TV chef out of the running: Britain's Della Smith, whose book How to Cook is the reigning king with just over one million copies under its belt.

Jamie's publisher told the Mail: "Jamie proves [his approach], by mastering a few tricks and being organized and focused in the kitchen; it is absolutely possible, and easy, to get a complete meal on the table in the same amount of time you'd normally spend making one dish!" That's good enough for this year's Christmas tree, we think.

Filed Under: Books, Chefs
Tags: 30 minute meals, 30MinuteMeals, featured, jamie oliver, JamieOliver