Viewers have criticised Jamie Oliver as ‘out of touch’ after the celebrity chef’s Christmas special featured expensive ingredients and lots of oven time amid the cost of living crisis.
After Jamie’s Easy Christmas used cuts of meat including duck and beef short ribs, viewers of the Channel 4 programme took to Twitter to say that, while the food looked delicious, it was unreasonable to expect people could afford to make his festive recipes.
Some people suggested the show’s producers should ‘read the room’ against a backdrop of soaring energy bills and food prices on the rise as people look to cut costs in the kitchen.
Jamie Oliver’s Easy Christmas, which aired last night on Channel 4, has been criticised as ‘tone deaf’ by viewers on Twitter who criticised the chef’s use of expensive ingredients and slow cooking methods using the oven as the cost of living crisis bites
As the show, which aired at 8pm last night, featured both classic and alternative Christmas recipes for entertaining during the festive period, Jamie used one segment to demonstrate his vegetarian filo pie.
As he roasted vegetables to go into the pie, he put a butternut squash in the oven for two hours, with garlic and onions.
Jamie Oliver released Jamie’s Easy Christmas as part of his One Pan Wonders series on Channel 4
Viewers of the programme argued that, while energy bills are soaring, the recipes Jamie Oliver had demonstrated were ‘expensive’
As part of the episode, the chef made a vegetable pie using ingredients including a butternut squash that had been roasted in the oven for two hours
One person who took issue with the recipe posted on Twitter: ‘No one is putting their oven on for two hours my friend… No one.’
In another segment, the chef demonstrated a dish of slow-cooked beef short ribs, which could be prepared using one pan for everything, as part of his One Pan Wonders series.
Pulling the meat out of the fridge, he said: ‘We are going to use a fantastic cut of beef. Very economical.
‘It’s the short rib, historically thought of as a second class cut of meat, very cheap, very tough.’
After searing the meat in the skillet pan, Jamie then [slow cooked the short ribs in the oven for four hours – leaving viewers reeling at the cost of having their oven on for so long.
One person wrote on Twitter: ‘These [recipes] are not east, also expensive. Four hours in an oven. Electric bills soaring.’
Another took issue with the chef branding the cut of meat ‘cheap’ – arguing it was anything but.
For one of his recipe ideas, the chef slow-cooked a ‘cheap cut’ of meat, beef short rib, in the oven for four hours
Viewers of Jamie’s Easy Christmas took to Twitter to criticise his use of long oven times for slow cooking plus the cost of ingredients
Another person, who went as far as to curse the celebrity chef, said the recipe was ‘tone deaf in the middle of a cost of living and energy crisis.’
Elsewhere in the episode, Jamie also cooked using duck, known as a pricey meat.
A viewer who agreed with the criticism suggested it would have been more helpful to show the audience how to make one-pot recipes that were cheaper and quicker.
He wrote: ‘I don’t see how that expensive roast duck is a good idea given the current financial climate – the added ingredients alone will cost a bomb given their quality.
‘How about some one pot recipes that take half an hour that cost £8 for 4? Read the room guys!’
Another viewer who said they were a big fan of the celebrity chef added: ‘Cooking duck and ribs in the oven for four hours!!! Love you Jamie but the only Howard the duck I will be cooking will have to be a rubber one.
One more viewer said the recipes looked ‘great’ but joked: ‘You’d [have] to remortgage for the ingredients’.
As part of his One Pan Wonders series, the celebrity chef released a special £1 Wonders episode to help people feed their family for less during the cost-of-living crisis.
Recipes included a Cajun chicken traybake, a bolognese using a little less meat and a vegetable lasagne.
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