Anybody know how Jamie Oliver qualified for an MBE?

What do you have to do to get one these days?
Get rich?
Cook food?
Advertise for Sainsbury's?
Swear a lot on TV?

Other MBE holders who earned them must be on the verge of chucking theirs away in disgust.

Anyone out there ever tasted Oliver's cooking, or know anyone who has?

His Tv shows and adverts leave a bad taste in my mouth so I dread to think what his food his like.

[reverse mode on]
I hope he never falls off his moped and lands on that un-smug face of his.
[reverse mode off]

Good un alchresearch.
I doubt if I'd want to scoff anything he'd dribbled into.
Cooking must be the one skill that can only be proved by sampling in person, unlike the others which can be viewed or listened to remotely.
Once again (just as a reminder) anyone ever tasted his grub?

I'm sure that I remember reading somewhere that he worked for a couple of years at the River Cafe (v good) before TV saw the potential for a pretty chef. That's not much of an apprenticeship. I still maintain that ANYONE can cook! But that's not the same as running a restaurant eh? ;)

There's also the belief that good cooking is a matter of taste.
My mum's cooking was the best in the world (I was biased), but it may have tasted crap to other people.
I know that some of my mates mums' cooking tasted crap to me but tasted great to my mates.
So we'll never know if 'look at me I can nearly say Sainsbury's without spitting' Oliver can cook or not.

So, once again, what's the MBE for?

Originally posted by markham

So, once again, what's the MBE for?

I suspect something to do with taking on unemployed people and training them up to be chefs and giving them jobs in his resturants.

Ronald Mcdonald has been doing that for years.

Originally posted by Lickszz
I suspect something to do with taking on unemployed people and training them up to be chefs and giving them jobs in his resturants.

Ronald Mcdonald has been doing that for years.

Giving them apprenticeships you mean, like hundreds of other employers.
Or.... scraping off the dole queues for cheap labour.
Or.... a publicity stunt for the TV cameras as I recall.

I'm not sure what an MBE is supposed to be for, but I bet there's a lot of lifeboat crews, mountain rescue teams, nurses, fire crews and members of our armed forces who did a little bit more than became famous (and very rich).

Sir Alex Ferguson! What's that all about? He done something great beyond Old Trafford?

Originally posted by markham
Giving them apprenticeships you mean, like hundreds of other employers.
Or.... scraping off the dole queues for cheap labour.
Or.... a publicity stunt for the TV cameras as I recall.



A bit harsh I think!
He invested his own money in that project setting up a restaurant where unemployed kids -(a lot of which have behavioural problems and come from bad homes) are given the chance to train at college (funded by Jamie) and then work in the restaurant for a year. Then the next group starts and so on. Jamie re-mortgaged his house etc and took huge gambles, he is still in debt because of it. The restaurant is now a success but he hasn't paid off his personal debts, it'll take a long time before profit is made. So I think it's a bit harsh to state "scraping off the dole queues for cheap labour". Not cheap at all when you consider the money that goes into training them.
He could have just opened a restaurant and employed people with experience, but he didn't.
At the end of the day, whether he deserves an MBE is debatable, however he has made food and cooking into something trendy, fun, simple and enjoyable and has inspired a lot of young kids/adults to enjoy food and cook. That can't be a bad thing.

I didn't think much of Jamie once upon a time, he annoyed me a lot, but after watching Jamie's kitchen I totally saw him in a different light. He is so good with the kids he has taken on, he has given them encouragement which a lot of them don't get from home. He works really hard in the kitchens with the employees, he doesn't act like a famous person, he's normal really.

I fully support his MBE, firstly he has a talent for cooking, and secondly for his work he has done with the kids. He could have just gone on writing cook books, doing TV shows, Sainsbury ads, raking in the royalties but no he chose to give something back to society. As Foxxx says this could have ruined him.

If everyone did the same the whole place would be a lot better place to live.

Pucca mate:thumbsup:

soon it will be a obe if it was me i would give him the foe:)

Ronald Mcdonald has been doing that for years.

:(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntPzWQbrPHo

Charity and community work will help in getting an award.

Alarmingly, Daniel O'Donnell has one for services to the music industry ... :huh: :suspect: :gag:

List of MBE's here (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Members_of_the_Order_of_t he_British_Empire)

OBE? Oh Bloody 'Ell more like! :P

Charity and community work will help in getting an award.

Alarmingly, Daniel O'Donnell has one for services to the music industry ... :huh: :suspect: :gag:

List of MBE's here (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Members_of_the_Order_of_t he_British_Empire)


There's only one way he could be of service to the music industry and thats to get the next plane out to the Dignitas clinic :D