For those of you who have Discovery Channel: Travel and Living at home, try tuning in to Jamie's School Dinners, hosted by none other than Jamie I-see-him-everywhere Oliver.

I never liked reality shows but this is one boisterous reality TV to watch!! I mean, what's better than watching a celebrity chef get kicked around by a straight-talking, loud and unapologetic school lunch lady? Haha...

Ok, seriously...

The premise is this - Jamie is appalled by the standard of food in British schools whereby the canteen only provides processed junk foods for students for lunch everyday. So, he starts a "Feed Me Better" campaign to ban the junk and make nutritious meals for the future pillars of the nation.

I caught the first episode 2 days ago and I must say, even I was appalled by the kind of food that these kids eat for lunch everyday! Apparently, a typical meal for them consists of fish fingers (that consists of minced and processed fish), a hamburger with nothing inside apart from a piece of beef patty (which consists of, you guessed it, minced and mixed and processed meat) and 'potato smilies' which really are deep fried potatoes shaped into smiley faces. No vegetables at all! All greasy and high on fats and carbs!! Goodness!!!! I can't imagine eating like that 5 days a week, every week! If I were there I would have become nothing but this obese blob of fat.

So in the first episode, we see Jamie going into a school to check out the surroundings, and help out the lunch lady, Nora, over there. Seeing how things are, he tries to change the menu to include more vege, iron and calcium. But of course, Nora protests to his impromptu way doing things (she complains about how he doesn't plan his menu ahead, hence creating chaos in the kitchen) and makes a big fuss out of him interfering with her work (but u have to admit, Nora's really a fun, kind-hearted and innocent kinda character who happens to be quite rough...). Worse still, his dishes were very very unpopular, with the junk food still being the favourite among the students (in fact, as Nora informs him, the students only eat his stuff after all the junk food had been lapped up by the early-birds!). And if that's not it, the principal calls Jamie into the office, telling him that he has gone out of budget with his new menu and that if that goes on, the school has to bear the cost. Cos u see, apparently, whereas each student pays 1 pound per meal, only 29 pence is goes into the ingredients. With that kind of budget it's no wonder the school can only afford processed food!

Interesting to see where this goes. Heard that this 'campaign' actually had forced the Blair government to commit 280 mil pounds to improve food quality in schools. Way to go!!


Jamie Oliver

For those who have Starhub cable, Jamie's School Dinners airs on Tuesday, 10 pm on Discovery Travel and Living (Ch 16).

Official websites:

Feed Me Better campaign

Jamie's School Dinners