CELEBRITY Chef, school lunch campaigner, cheeky chappie and all-round good egg Jamie Oliver is back on BBC America this week, with an entertaining new series titled “Jamie’s American Road Trip”.
The show follow’s Essex’s favorite son as he attempts to unearth the heart of great American food, getting past the junk and super-sized portions. An thankfully there’s very little of the fish out of water/’aint Americans strange patronizing that characterizes so many of these kind of shows.
Oliver wanders from LA to New York, from New Orleans to Wyoming, as he searches for recipes both diverse and delicious. He also does his bit to delve deep into American society and manages to uncover some fascinating personal stories, while trying real American food meeting some very interesting but unsung chefs.
The debut episode, airing Tuesday, January 3rd at 10pm sees Jamie starting his odyssey in Los Angeles. Given his own history of helping out unemployed youth, it’s no surprise that Jamie bypasses the glam eateries of Beverly Hills and Hollywood and instead seeks out authentic Chicano food in East LA…where he also finds a tight-knit community committed to family and striving to make the American dream a reality.
Things get a little more rustic in the second episode (January 10th), as Jamie lights out for Wyoming, where visits a rodeo before heading into the wilds upstate to see if he can cut it living and working on a real American ranch, and cooking for proper cowboys.
In forthcoming episodes Jamie visits the alternative restaurant scene in New York – including one a restaurant run in a family’s living room and another making home-cooked Colombian food for illegal immigrants. He also stumbles across an ‘anti-restaurant’ scene, where people open their homes to strangers; provide them with restaurant quality food for wallet-friendly prices and send them away happy. He also touches down in Louisiana just weeks after Hurricane Gustav has wreaked havoc in New Orleans and the surrounding area. On a quest to understand why people continue to live in a place that keeps getting battered by hurricanes, Jamie finds a state full of people who use food as a way to celebrate life and keep the party going through adversity.
Jamie also tries his hand at Barbecue in Georgia before heading into the West again to spent time with Arizona’s Navajo Indians on the largest reservation in America. Staying with Mayor Elect Roy Kady, who also happens to be a sheep farmer, Jamie witnesses Navajo traditions up close: from butchery, to overnighting in a hogan (a traditional Navajo dwelling), and cooking with elders. He also gets a crash course in Navajo spirituality. It doesn’t take long before Jamie realizes that, despite being the original American people, Native American’s are in danger of losing their food culture completely. All in all, great viewing with one of Britain’s most likable cultural ambassadors.
Jamie’s American Road Trip, 10pm Tuesday nights starting January 3rd, on BBC America.
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