Richard Brooks, Arts Editor
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Jamie Oliver believes that women should abstain from sex with their husbands or boyfriends to punish them if they refuse to cook.
“Men are driven by sex,” the celebrity chef said this weekend at the annual Hay-on-Wye festival. “So the best way for women to get their men into the kitchen would be to stop having sex with them until they start to cook.”
Oliver, who is making a Channel 4 series centred on the town of Rotherham, said he was appalled by how few men in the Yorkshire town can cook.
“I ask if they cook at all and they simply say, ‘Don’t be so daft’. I found myself working with men who’ve never even lifted a pan, let alone cooked.”
Oliver, who is best known for television programmes such as The Naked Chef and Jamie’s School Dinners, said that once men had got over the first hurdle, there was “a pride on their faces” when they had learnt to cook a few dishes.
“When I was filming the documentary about better school dinners, I never got to ‘the home’. Now I’m living with families who can’t cook; food has no place in these families,” he said.
“I could halve their food budget. With £60 a week they could eat good dinners, plain lunches and a roast dinner from a good free-range bird every week.”
Oliver, who believes the best cooks in the world are women, thinks many British people are simply scared of cooking. “There is this fear, which is not the case in families in Italy,” he said.
Oliver believes that basic cooking skills should be part of the school syllabus. He is also angry with the government for, as he put it, reneging on its £500m plan to improve school dinners.
“The government has not ring-fenced that money,” he said. “Schools could just as easily buy computers and books in that case.”
The chef is still concerned about what children eat at lunchtime. “I now reckon that 60% of packed lunches are worse than school dinners. The number of kids as young as five with reheated McDonald’s meals and Red Bull [energy drink] in their packed lunches is appalling,” he said.
Oliver added that the government should reintroduce a separate Ministry of Food.
At present food comes under the remit of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Oliver claimed that food issues had been marginalised. The government should encourage more towns to set up markets selling fresh food, he said.
Oliver hinted that his next role would be as a “champion for pigs”. The chef, who supported free-range chickens in his documentary Jamie’s Fowl Dinners, said he had considered concentrating on beef or milk, but opted for pigs after asking his audience.
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Hey I don't have to say no sex to my other half to get him to cook, he actually enjoys cooking and there is nothing better than coming home to great meal after along hard day at work.
KimdaCook, Johannesburg, South Africa
C'mon Jamie, don't give woman more excuses for not having sex with men. I cook and shop for all the meals in our house, by your reckoning I should leave my body to medical science!! Some hope after 4 years of happy marriage.(not bad out of 22 is it !!)
Alan, Stoke,
so should women be punished for not cleaning or washing?
because it seems that Jamie is living in the past suggesting that men do not cook so I can only asume that the woman should be cleaning and washing as well
Paul, Croydon,
i didn't realize the men in the uk were so dense, but let me appeal to their greed, if you want your lady to be more romantic in the bedroom try coming home and taking over the evening chores, cooking dishes, kids bathed and in bed and you will be a winner more often then not, that's romantic
fran, akron, michigan, united states
I've never had a girlfriend who could cook half as well as me, so I always end up doing it anyway. I usually end up binning them after a while so I suppose it's the same thing in reverse I suppose.
vic, York,
Ha ha - this is certainly 'thinking outside the box' ...!
David, Aylesbury, uk: equality in the home is the whole point here isn't it - if you're so bothered about equality, then get in the kitchen!!
Mindy, Birmingham, UK,
Jamie has got it spot-on. Not about the sex, but about men cooking - they really just lazy, cooking is easy, not rocket science! Women like to feel that they are appreciated, and if a man cooks its probably the ultimate sign of appreciation.
Candice, Cape Town, South Africa
If this was the other way around and men were encouraged to 'punish' their wives for not cooking, Jamie Oliver would be called 'sexist' and his comment would be taken as demeaning to women. So much for equality...
David, Aylesbury, uk
so what do I get for beans on toast .................................
Rob, Letchworth,
Jamie - stop interfering!
coco, Birmingham,
I wouldn't want to let my man in the kitchen. I love to cook and I know he'd just make a mess. Plus, as long as I do the cooking he does the washing up which suits me down to the ground!!!
Alylonna, Wales,
J Oliver's recommendation for Sainsburys says everything about his abilities.
Tony, Rugby,
To Rui in Lisbon - Jamie Oliver is a man!!!
Barbara, Flackwell Heath, UK
I have just started buying chicken at Tesco because of Oliver .Now because of his big mouth I may have to show my wife where the kitchen is and that may not be in the best interests of my stomach.
alan, worcs, uk
When will women stop talking of sex as a favour you do to us men?
Rui, Lisbon, Portugal
Can what J.O. does on tv really be described as "cooking"? To my mind, he is trying to push the envelope so far in terms of natural ingredients that soon he'll be suggesting we eat everything raw.
Pookie, Edinburgh,
Now this is really funny article. Perhaps men should do the same. If a women dont want to fix a car, we should stop seeing them, or not buyin them dinner either.
Now a days, they want everything from a man, cook, take em to dinners, buy them gifts, treat them like they are a queen, yeah right.
Chris, Boca Raton, USA
I liked and respect Jamie until now. Talk about the cook stirring the spoon... This great and lovable chef just caused about 1001 arguments and may have even nudged up divorce rates. Jamie, mate, retain some loyalty to your fellow man, please. I best get cooking... Chili Beans on Toast?
Suraj Singh, Manchester, UK
From the number of basic cooking lessons on TV, the same applies the other way where men should say no to wives and go elsewhere for sex and food if they cannot cook. My wife is amazed at modern girl's lack of basic skills she learnt at school. Something has gone wrong!
B J Deller, Marbella, Spain
Should I withhold my paycheck from my wife until she learns to cook?
Richard R, Los Angeles, USA