Delia Smith was the second huge celebrity chef, who made name for herself in the 1970’s. She was not humorous or glamorous like Fanny, but she had a more normal, sensible approach to cooking. Delia appealed to the working generation, as she was not “fancy” with her work. The way she cooked was easy and simple to follow; however they were often very time consuming. By this, she encouraged people to take time over cooking and again to enjoy it. However, this proved to be a problem as there was an increase in the amount of women working full time. Another thing she encouraged was for unskilled cooks to learn and experiment with food. Delia published “how to cook” books, with the aim to help people with little skills. With her book, and also combined with the launch of labour saving equipment, it worked in her favour, and she educated those who were keen and interested to develop new culinary skills.
As I mentioned before, advertising was a factor influencing food choice, and Delia was fortunate to have the help of her husband (an editor of a top newspaper) to give her beneficial advertising. She also managed to be backed by the sponsorship of Sainsburys, which helped her career. She is still a popular chef to this day, over 30 years on, and will carry on hitting us with her expertise for a while to come.
Jamie is one of a few of today’s celebrity chefs, and in my opinion he is the best so far. He has an outstanding effect on today’s food choice and has increased our interest of food education and our desire for better culinary skills. Jamie has managed to attract all ages of our population, and certainly not just the females. By being a young male himself he has appealed to the younger generation of males. Even though he now has a celebrity status, he comes across as a very down to earth “normal” guy. Another reason for Jamie’s popularity is down to his image. He is a very trendy, up-to-date, good-looking man and this has proved an important part of his success.
His very successful television shows are very different to those of fanny Craddock’s. They weren’t nearly as lavish and extravagant. Instead, Jamie has opted for a very simple and basic every day atmosphere and uses his own home as his stage. This implies that you don’t need a lot of money to produce similar meals to what he does, as he uses a lot of every-day ingredients. Showing himself in a normal background appeals to the vast amount of people because it show that everyone can do it. He also involves his life into his programs, such a social meals with his friends or wife. This small insight to his life makes the program a little more interesting and also encourages eating and mealtimes to become more sociable events with friends or family.
If we look around our towns and cities today, there is almost a certainty that there will be a fast food outlet of some sort. This has been a huge problem as it has lead to an increase in obesity and a concern over the general health of the population. However, the reason such places are so popular is because of their convenience.
Many young people feel they don’t have the skills or education to cook a meal, and also people feel they don’t have the time. This is where Jamie has had the biggest impact. His programs do not exclude the younger generation like Delia and Fanny. His television shows, and books are every simple to follow, and he cooks very healthy but appealing meals. He uses terminology that doesn’t frighten off younger children, for example some of his favourite sayings are “pucker” and “throw a bit of that in”. This is sort of humorous language, yet it is more friendly, fun, and an in-formal way of cooking.
Jamie has spotted this problem of our younger generations being ill educated in food choice and cooking and has taken a huge project upon him to improve this. His very recent effort has been to take on board a team of unemployed and unskilled youngsters and to train them up in a high-pressure environment in a London restaurant. Jamie has brought a restaurant with his own money and is taking a big gamble on this project, but hopefully aims to teach not only the people taking part in this adventure, but by broadcasting it on TV hoping to inspire many others. It is Jamie’s dedication that has created such a huge impact on our lives today.
Since the 1950’s, our supermarkets have improved a great deal. We not only have a wide range of products on offer to us, but as a nation, we now have more money to spend on such food. However, as time seems to be a very large limitation on our food choice, the Jamie Oliver range at Sainsburys has become increasingly popular. Some of the latest or popular “Jamie Oliver Meals” that have been seen on TV, are given a stand of their own in the supermarket, where all the ingredients that are needed for that meal are all there in one place. This encourages people to cook his meals because they don’t have to search the supermarket to find each ingredient. The advantage of this is that more people are cooking these healthy, balanced meals, which have become a great shortage in our lives today. As I have mentioned, Jamie is sponsored by Sainsburys, which is one of the largest supermarkets in our time. This advertising gives Jamie the help he need to draw people in, as the advertising on television, radio and newspapers in fairly unavoidable. Jamie believes that by educating the younger generation he is educating the future generation, which will improve our lives as a nation.
Conclusion:
I conclude that celebrity chefs do have a huge impact on our food choice. I believe that they have in the past, and that they will continue to do so in the future, to better our eating habits and skills. However, celebrity chefs are not the only factor that influences our food choice. Becoming part of the E.U has a large part to place in the increase of the variety of foods in our supermarkets. The free trade, which involves the import and export of foods today, gives us a large range of different cuisines from many countries. This allows us to re-create many dishes which we have discovered and enjoyed from our holidays abroad, and bring them home to eat more regularly. For this same reason, we can also enjoy many different cultural dishes, and widen our view on these different cultures and they may add variety to regular food choices.
Due to modern technology, we can now produce and store food in our freezers and fridges. Manufacturers can now produce freeze able foods, and foods with additives so they can be kept for longer, and decrease wastage of foods. For example, it takes imagination to create a dish from many leftovers, and this encourages adventurous behaviour with foods, and food choice, instead of just throwing away the un-eaten food.
I hope that celebrity chefs continue in the way that they have done so far as the impact that they have had, has been a huge advantage to us. Motivation, encouragement, education and willingness will help improve our health. We can all achieve the healthy, balanced diet that we should all be obtaining and overcome the attraction of fast and convenience foods which hinder a healthy lifestyle.
