‘Just buy ingredients and don’t buy sh*t’: Jamie Oliver’s advice to parents

He’s long been an advocator for children’s health, but celebrity chef Jamie Oliver says there’s one simple thing we can all do to ensure we’re raising healthy kids.

He’s one of the world’s leading advocates for child health, launching campaigns across the globe that have reduced consumption by our youth of everything from sugary drinks to processed foods, but how does
TV chef Jamie Oliver keep his own family of five kids healthy?

“I just buy ingredients and I don’t buy shit. It’s that simple. That’s it. End of story. Full stop,” says the father to Poppy, 21, Daisy, 20, Petal, 14, Buddy, 13, and River, 7.

“Everything you do happens in the supermarket, happens on the shop, happens in your basket.

“You can worry about how you control them going into that treats cupboard or tin or whatever you call it, but really it happens before then, when you buy it.”

Jamie Oliver believes healthy family eating starts at the shops.

The author and restaurateur’s no-nonsense attitude to health is driving his latest campaign, Bite Back 2030, a youth-led movement trying to ensure all young people – no matter their background or where they live – have the opportunity to be healthy. “The truth is that children are not born genetically to eat nuggets and burgers – it’s called marketing, and marketing works,” Oliver says.

The TV star says it’s not the fault of most parents, as big food conglomerates and their relentless advertising are driving the problem.

“What we have to do is get kids doing sport every day, and cook them decent food and make fresh food cheaper and more available, and subsidise real farmers and real producers and real food, instead of making life so easy for a small handful of brands that just process the shit out of everything and seem to be driving everything through this avalanche of marketing,” Oliver says.

“If you give humans good, clear information, they often make really good choices. They only make consistently shit choices when they’re lied to and no one is protecting truth.”

Jamie Oliver with his wife Jools and three of his five kids.

For Oliver, who hit our TV screens 24 years ago as the animated and passionate recipe slinger “The Naked Chef”, fixing the problem starts with learning how to cook.

“It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor:
if you can cook, you can nourish, and if you
can nourish then you can bring up healthy kids,” he says. But, devastatingly, for the chef who has had 26 best-selling cookbooks and sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, fewer people than ever are now cooking. After a short-lived return to the kitchen during Covid, statistics show more people across the UK, America and Australia are now eating out or relying on takeaway and delivery services, with Aussies spending a record $5.4 billion in the month of May at cafes, restaurants and takeaway services.

“In some respects you could say that that just defines me as a failure in my career,” Oliver says with a touch of melancholy. “I’ve spent 25 years trying to empower people to cook. But what you have to realise is, without that, would it be a lot worse? And I’m sure it would be.”

Despite the dreary outlook, he says he won’t stop fighting to make the world a healthier place and will be spruiking his tips and tricks for eating better at an upcoming “in conversation” event at the Sydney Opera House in November. The experience will see the 48-year-old on stage with MasterChef judge and food journalist Melissa Leong. The pair will look back at Oliver’s illustrious career, discussing everything from being a dad to running more than 70 restaurants in 22 countries.

Oliver says he’s not usually nostalgic, but reveals the event will be a nice opportunity to reflect on how far he’s come from the dyslexic boy who struggled at school, to an international success story and recent author of his first children’s book, Billy and the Giant Adventure.

“If you knew me as a kid and you’d tracked me at school, my relationship with books and words was so bad – it was the enemy,” he says.

“So to sort of become the second best-selling author of all time in Britain is, kind of, obviously shocking, but also kind of inspirational. It’s
not so much me patting myself on the back,
but it’s kind of like, ‘If I can do it, then anything is possible’.”

Oliver says the kitchen saved him from his challenges at school, and he wants to reassure any kids who might be struggling academically that they, too, can achieve whatever they want if they put their minds to it.

“I always say whatever happens at school is not the end; it doesn’t define you,” he says.

“It’s a long old journey and it’s an exciting journey. My journey has been very bonkers, really, but full of some beautiful moments.”

That journey is continuing this year with the release of his new TV series and cookbook,
5 Ingredients Mediterranean, which his wife of 23 years, Jools, insisted he create based on the feedback from busy parents at their children’s schools. “I don’t have a eureka moment and just come up with stuff because I’m clever,” Oliver says. “What I really do is just listen very, very hard to the global public about what they’re worried about, what they’re pissed off about, what they’re scared about, what annoys them, what problems they have living their lives, so

Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook, 5 Ingredients Mediterranean

5 Ingredients Mediterranean is about short shopping lists and simplicity.”

Oliver says the dishes, which range from creamy mustardy pork to pulled lamb shoulder and green gazpacho, are what he cooks at home for his family, using minimal ingredients but simple techniques to elicit maximum flavour.

“If you look through the books that I’ve published, that’s what I eat at home,” he says, referring to the “Mediterranean diet” as more of a “lifestyle”, involving eating lots of vegetables, herbs, olive oil, beans and fish. “We’re obviously always making things up, but that’s what I eat, that’s what I feed my kids,” Oliver says. “It’s not just for work – it’s for fun as well.” ■

Jamie Oliver in Conversation with Melissa Leong, 1.30pm AEDT, Nov 11, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, from $49 plus $8.95 booking fee sydneyoperahouse.com/talks-ideas/jamie-oliver
5 Ingredients Mediterranean by Jamie Oliver, Penguin Michael Joseph, $55