Even after all of his success Jamie still finds it strange to see himself on television. He was never remotely nervous about filming The Naked Chef because it was recorded at his own house and he was doing something he passionately enjoys, cooking. But his own distinctly ordinary self popping up on TV screens, book covers and posters all over the place he still finds slightly strange to deal with. But in rare moments of self-doubt, he falls back on what he loves and knows best – cooking.
Jamie has lots of strong views on cooking but, at the end of the day, he frankly admits, ‘I like to eat everything. It doesn’t matter to me if it is not my style. It is all an education to me. When we go out to dinner, I always make sure I order last, so that I can order what everyone else has not ordered. If I am in the kitchen, I like to cook all the ingredients with great care. Instead of putting a lot of work into presentation, I put a lot of work into getting good ingredients and marinating. I believe in simple cooking and simple serving.’
He likes to cook big things where he can be left with plenty of leftovers to eat over the next week and says, ‘I think it makes a lot of sense economically as well. When you cook a joint, it is great to eat some more of it in sandwiches the next day. Look how much ham costs in the shops. It is ridiculously expensive and it is usually a load of old rubbish. So if you buy a bigger joint and cook extra, you can have great sarnies for ages. It is the same with bread. I make it once every three weeks or so now and I make loads of it and stick it in the freezer. Even after home-made bread has been frozen and reheated, it tastes better than the stuff they sell in the shops. And I have really got a thing about flour, if that is not too boring.
‘Then again, I would be lost without herbs. If I was only allowed to use one, I think it would have to be rosemary or basil, probably. But if there were no herbs in the world, I would give up cooking. Herbs can transform dishes. I think perhaps my all-time favourite vegetarian meal is an Italian dish called rottollo. You get a big sheet of pasta about as big as a broadsheet newspaper. Then you braise spinach, garlic, marjoram, butter, salt and pepper. Let it cool down then flake in ricotta, Parmesan or Pecorino and that is it. You fold it up like a roulade, wrap it in a cloth and cook it in a fish kettle. It is a really amazing taste. It is almost meaty because of the marjoram and the butter.
‘There are loads of candidates but I think absolutely the very best meal I have ever had was in Italy, and this 70-year-old woman made gnocchi – little potato dumplings in a fantastic, spicy tomato sauce – with morels from the forest. Then we had a salad with celery with warm artichokes, Parmesan and sliced white truffles. She also made a sort of roast chicken thing as well, which was a blinder. It was an education.
‘You have chefs with degrees and things, and here’s a 70-year-old woman without any formal training at all who had made the best meal for eight of us. Italy is certainly one of my favourite countries and also probably Spain if they still have siestas. It’s the best way to spend your day.
‘Apparently, in the old days, back when we were still gorillas, we used to have them anyway. I always feel tired at about one in the afternoon. I would love to have siestas in my life. But I also love to work very hard. And I do not see why I should be shy about being proud of what I do. Although I say so myself, I have never seen anyone put across how to cook focaccio bread as well as I did in my series. It is a thing of beauty.
‘I have never once said in the past year that I am the best cook in England, because I am not. I just enjoy cooking. And I have been lucky enough to have had the chance to express myself on television. You have to do just one thing well and they think you are a star!’
Jamie believes his own advice with a passion. He insists that his cookbooks are different from all the rest because of the way he strips cooking down to its barest essentials. Even total culinary amateurs can tackle his recipes with confidence. Even his home-made pasta can be produced by a complete novice.
‘I’ve got this mate called Damian. He is a huge Maori rugby player who had never cooked in his life. I gave him the instructions and first time off he was making fantastic sheets of pasta. If you used to muck around with Playdoh as a child, you are not going to have any trouble making pasta.’
Jamie believes all herbs have their virtues but he loves myrtle which is often used to draw the flavours out of suckling pig. ‘Myrtle is terrific,’ he says. ‘It’s like stinging nettles – who would ever have thought it could taste so good? But once it is washed and plunged into boiling salted water it loses all its sting, holds its shape and has a texture and taste like spinach. It is delicious and unusual.
‘Everybody thinks that organics is a fashionable thing, but I think it’s really old-fashioned. Seventy years ago, everything was bloody organic. And the only reason it’s expensive now is because you’ve got 90 per cent of the country knocking up normal clobber and using sprays. And don’t for one moment think that chemicals are cheap. They cost a fortune. I’ve just come back from Australia and New Zealand, where they are very cold on organics. They know they’ve got good produce, but it’s sprayed with all sorts of malarkey.’
He is less enthusiastic about GM (genetically modified) foods. ‘If you’ve got a genius working on stuff and experimenting, I don’t think there’s anthing wrong with that. But it’s not; it’s every Tom, Dick and Harry that’s got a test tube and a bloomin’ lab.’
Jamie urges prospective cooks to ‘be curious. If you want to cook something new and interesting, you are half-way there.’ Jamie’s favourite dishes are simple and rustic, ‘like the food I cooked when I was working abroad. Not poncy French food but the simple dishes made with great ingredients. Why make something any more complicated than it needs to be? If I am making risotto, for example, I choose a couple of nice seasonal vegetables, a complementary herb and cook it up into a nice juicy, oozing risotto.’
Jamie’s favourite cuisine is Mediterranean and he particularly loves the food of Spain and Italy. ‘They use lots of flavours. I am also curious about fusion. If I could have my way, I would spend every day cooking and eating in a different country.
‘The world’s best cook is my mum. She is not the world’s most technical cook perhaps, but she makes the best Sunday roasts and fabulous puddings. Her Spotted Dick and her syrup puddings make me go weak at the knees. My family upbringing really taught me the importance of food to bring people together. When I was growing up in a family in the pub business, everyone was very busy. But the pub closed between 3.30pm and 6.00pm. So it was very important that we all sat down together for dinner at five o’clock. And it was not just for the food. That was the time for the whole family to sit around the table and have a proper talk. Of course, sometimes there were arguments as well but that was just part of the fun. I loved the easy, relaxed way we used to eat. We had big platters of food that were passed round and round and there were cans of beer and jugs of drink. It was an occasion and we all respected that. One day when I have children of my own, I want Jools and I to be with our children how my parents were with me and my sister. But if Jools ever cooked we would end up talking about it and end up as boring people. One of the worst meals I ever had was when Juliette prepared a very dodgy sausage and mash. I threw up afterwards.’
Jamie is always very generous with his time and he is always happy to answer questions from fans. But his quickfire responses sometimes surprise the questioners. As he put it, ‘Size counts when it comes to ovens with me. The more knobs it has, the better.’ And asked if he had got any other talents, he replied, ‘I am not a bad drummer. I am not a bad artist. I am not a bad lover, either!’
What wine do you choose to accompany your meals?
‘To be honest, the best thing to do is drink something you enjoy and you know. If it is a big robust red wine, have steak. If it is a delicate white wine, have fish. Quite frankly, there are no rules, have what you like.’
Jamie always encourages young people interested in cooking to follow their enthusiasm. He advises them to ‘read lots of cookbooks and magazines and find out what chef inspires you and then write to them and say how you love what they do and ask if you can work with them for a while. If you work hard, they might give you a job.
‘If I have a night off cooking and go down to the local kebab shop, they always take the mickey out of me for not cooking something for myself.’
Jamie refuses to take his job too seriously. When one fan from Billericay asked if he ever tried to bring any Essex feelings into his dishes, he replied, ‘Yeah. Sometimes I do it with no knickers on.’
But his tip on how to lose weight was eminently sensible. ‘Stop buying butter, cream or cheese. Use extra virgin olive oil which is much better for you. Avoid red meat and cook lots of vegetables and use herbs. Healthy food doesn’t have to be boring and with the use of herbs, spices, fish, seafood, white meat and veg you are laughing, especially if you can try baking things with minimal fat. If you fancy a munchy, have a bit of fruit. You can buy wheatless flour and stuff like that if you have wheat intolerance or anything like that and avoid pasta as it slows your metabolism down. You can get some great stuff now. Stick to Thai and Asian food, it’s very healthy.’
Fortunately for Jamie, he has hardly put any weight on since he was a teenager. He seems to burn it all off with his active lifestyle. ‘Even when I’ve been rehearsing with Scarlet Division, I still manage to get up at seven in the morning and go on a three-or four-mile jog. I don’t belong to a gym because I don’t think I would be able to fit it around my work.’
Jamie starts the day with a breakfast of his favourite natural muesli but he confesses, ‘I also have a passion for bacon sandwiches.’ He hardly ever just sits down and unwinds. ‘It’s difficult, because I am a naturally hyperactive person,’ he says. ‘But I do like to watch some telly and listen to music with Jools. And we often go out for a meal. I like to be waited on and enjoy other people’s cooking.’
But he is careful about what he eats, ‘It’s not so much what I don’t eat, as how a thing is cooked. I won’t eat anything that is deep fried or greasy. That’s not healthy at all. And I wouldn’t want to serve it up for anyone else either. I am not that careful about what I eat. I believe in everything in moderation and a little bit of what you fancy doing you good. I eat lots of fruit and salads because I like them and I try to avoid the fatty stuff wherever possible.
‘I never take any vitamin or mineral pills, because I think they are a load of old rubbish. If you eat a balanced diet you will be fine. I am lucky, I never go to the doctor, I don’t catch colds in winter and I don’t think I suffer from stress.
‘I don’t really do anything to look after my skin. I don’t use creams or anything, just my hands. I don’t even use soap half the time. I can manage fairly happily on four or five hours’ sleep a night which is helpful when calls start coming in from America and Australia in the middle of the night. But I find it hard to get up in the morning and I always struggle to stay in as long as possible. When I lived at home, my dad used to get me up with a squirt from the hosepipe when he was watering the garden.’
Jamie does have one favourite alternative therapy that never fails to make him feel better – lying flat out like a cat and having his back gently scratched by Jools. ‘It always works,’ says Jamie. When he looks in the mirror, Jamie says he thinks, What an ugly bastard. ‘People say I am a pin-up but I don’t believe a word of it.’
Ever approachable Jamie has good advice when the questions are serious. How can I get protein-rich dishes without meat?
‘To be honest, when you have got specific dietary problems it is such a bore as it affects your life. So the best thing I suggest is to spend £50 on a dietician who can write down everything you can and cannot eat. It will really transform the way you eat as they give you all sorts of help and advice on where to buy stuff. The biggest fact about cooking is that you do not have to be rich to eat well. All the best cooking in the world is from peasant culture and all those really cheap bits of meat like chicken drumsticks are so fantastic to cook with and they don’t break the bank. I will have a kids section in my next book. A lot of people have written about kids from a parent’s perspective but I have written it for the parents from the eyes of a seven-year-old and what they want to do and there are a lot of things that kids can do in cookery.
‘To make up recipes all the time you have to be a bit mad. Chatting to people tends to inspire me to go off and pull something together. It is important to use a good knife to cut with. Globals are pretty good, but then Gustaff, Henkles, Victorian Ox and Sabatier are all very good. You get what you pay for at the end of the day.’
Jamie regards students with particular affection. After all, it is not so long ago that he was one of them. He advises, ‘If you are a student, anything you cook for your girlfriend will impress her. Normally in student towns there are good markets. If you go to the markets on a Friday you can get some really good prices on meat so it becomes affordable. Try something a little bit different, something Italian or Thai so you don’t have to fill yourself up too much. A good Thai green curry or a really nice roast with anything seasonal such as asparagus or broad beans in spring. Because they are seasonal, they will be reasonably priced.
‘I cook offal all the time. There are some amazing Italian pastas made from all those offal cuts. If we knew what was in it we wouldn’t eat it, but if it is chopped up enough we don’t notice! I have got a friend who owns a restaurant and he does some amazing things like steamed and fried pig’s ear with pesto and some really mad stuff that you have to be a foodie to like. Offal is completely under-rated.
‘The most unusual place I have ever cooked was either Number 10 Downing Street or on the end of Southend Pier with a gas burner. It was a very nice kitchen at Number 10 and it was very clean.
‘I think there is a very bright future for British meat and English produce on the whole, actually. We have had so many knocks over the years but we have come back from it. Sometimes you need a knock to sort you back out again. The fact that people take notice of where things come from now is very good. It is hard when I travel; I get fed up with foreigners making fun of British cooking.’
Jamie is determined to stay true to his roots and is fiercely unpretentious. He insists, ‘I have not got a “signature dish”. I am too young and too curious.’
But there are things he really will not eat. ‘I really hate eating bulls’ testicles. I don’t want to eat them, even though they are on a couple of top menus at the moment.’ And if he could choose a star couple to grace his table, ‘I would like to cook for Jay Kay and Kate Winslet. I think they would make a very good dinner party couple.
‘There is no one sort of food I enjoy. I enjoy everything. The world is your oyster.’
Jamie is not upset if people burp after eating one of his meals. So long are they are friends. ‘If I know them, I think it is hilarious. If I don’t know them, I think it is rude. But if the burp has real depth, I do appreciate it.’
The worst person Jamie has ever had to cook for is Harvey Keitel, because he wanted to write his own menu. ‘When we gave him a perfect spaghetti arrabiate he kept sending it back saying it wasn’t cooked properly. We should have sent him out some Tabasco or a Pot Noodle!’
Asked to name three famous people he would like to cook for, Jamie said, ‘No one excites me that much. I like cooking for real people, not buffed-up famous Hollywood stars. I would be just as happy cooking for Andy my gas man and Sheila Alum our local gypsy. She is a beautiful woman and she likes potato picking. She is a spud basher.’
‘The three herbs I couldn’t live without are thyme because it is sexy, basil because it is sexy, and rosemary because it is sexy. My favourite condiment is balsamic vinegar. You can use it in loads of things. You can get expensive stuff that is a real luxury or cheap stuff that just tastes nicer than normal vinegar. You can use it in salads and you can use it in stews and even in desserts.
‘Gennaro could replace me for one episode of my programme because he is a great cook and a great laugh but I think he would have to be about 25 years younger.
‘It is absolutely fantastic knowing that lots of people use my recipes. Especially when it is little kids doing the cooking, which I think is the best thing in the world.
‘Cooking is not rocket science, it is just common sense. I can’t touch Delia. She is the boss. Everyone wants me to slag off Gordon Ramsay and Delia to get headlines but I really think they are incredibly talented.’
But eating out brings out the oddest quirks in people. Jamie says, ‘The strangest complaint I have ever had in any restaurant I was working in was that our portions were too generous!’