Pukka school dinners

When Jamie Oliver burst on to our screens in The Naked Chef, he was a bit like jellied eels or Marmite — you loved the pukka patter or you hated it. Since then he has reinvented himself more times than Madonna. He became the new face of Sainsbury’s, bringing homely gusto to their dowdy image. Then he morphed into Professor Higgins, transforming 15 Eliza Doolittles into culinary toffs in Jamie’s Kitchen. Now he is back as a kind of energetic Victorian missionary, spreading the good news about healthy food to the benighted school kitchens of Britain.

Jamie’s School Dinners charts his attempt to help secondary school kitchen staff prepare decent food on a tight budget, and to get the children to eat it. In the process he discovers how dreadful most school dinners are: trays of reheated garbage, stuffed with the worst bits of dead animal, fat, salt and additives. Much of the food lacks essential nutrients, almost certainly impairs behaviour and concentration and may well be contributing to a future health crisis. Jamie is horrified and often struggles to contain his anger. What looks like a jokey idea quickly turns into a hard-fought crusade against the forces that allow our schoolchildren to poison themselves.