Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Season 2 Preview

4-13-2011 @12:17AM tara said... It is in the inner-city. They don't have fresh produce in many of the inner-city neighborhoods in LA. They have a liquor store on every corner, and as many pawn shops as you can possibly imagine, but to find any fresh produce or healthy food at all really, you have to travel outside of the inner-city and many can't do that because they are dependent upon public transportation. That's why so many poor people are fat....they have processed foods, pastas, and sweets. That really is almost all that is available to them. It may not be that way where you live, but it is that way in many parts of Los Angeles. That's simply a fact.

4-13-2011 @2:58AM Kristen said... As I'm not usually home to watch this program, I was (lucky?) enough to be home this evening and out of work for a couple days follwing the forceful removal of my upper wisdom teeth to catch this. Disgusting, but hardly something I wasn't aware of.

I've witnessed a kitchen manager of mine in the past using a "bleach solution" on expired fish/shellfish to "kill the smell". I'm sorry. Using bleach on expired fish does nothing for either the product nor the customer. I happened to complain to management, and refused to cook/serve it, and was promptly terminated.

Two months later the restaurant went under. Good riddance.

To all of you who think that the "cooks are out to get you", take it from me. Most of us worth our salt would not EVER serve to you something that we would not consume ourselves. Mistakes do happen, however, and send-backs to the kitchen are (well, in my 11 years of experience), not met with derision and/or retaliation, but the desire to get the proper meal out to the consumer as quickly as possible, to ensure a good experience. Personally, I found it crushing when a meal was sent back, because I strive to do my best for the patrons. However, in a busy kitchen, and with busy servers, things can go awry at times.
I understand that eating out these days is a luxury for many. As such, I'll do my best to cater to your desires. Many in my line of work share this viewpoint as well.

Please don't think that all of us who work in food-service are vindictive, terrible people who will spit in your mashed potatoes of you look at us sideways. It simply isn't true. I myself, personally, strive for a good, quality product put out to the customer in a timely basis. And I would like to think that this goes for the 99 percent of the rest of us in the Culinary business.

There are "bad apples" everywhere. Unfortunately, bad news circulates faster than good news does.

Cheers!

~Krissy~





My only

4-13-2011 @3:55AM ByTheNite73 said... Jon, as I'm 35, it seems like school meals haven't changed a bunch since I was a kid. Pizza, tacos, "chicken" nuggets with fake mashed potatoes and gravy, "steak" and cheese subs that could be slathered with mayo, fries and tater-tots, yeah, this was considered a "staple" lunch back in the 80's-90's. Your only veg you could get, if you were lucky, was some canned corn that had gone gray after sitting in the steam table for hours on end.

I'm glad that there are steps being taken towards healthier foods in schools these days.

Go Jamie!

4-13-2011 @5:35AM Liza said... Jon, unfortunately, kids in impoverished neighborhoods are often given free breakfast and lunch at school. When I worked in the inner city, many of my students ONLY came to school (including Summer School), so they had something to eat. When you look at it through that lens, the school has a HUGE responsibility to feed our kids something--ANYTHING-- healthy. Sadly, it's just more cost effective to feed them junk, so this is what is done.

Try teaching kids who have been jacked up on sugar for breakfast, and are crashing by 9 am, then get refueled at lunch. You'd have better luck nailing jello to a tree.