Why Rotherham?

rom the start- we’ve been asking the question- Why did Jamie Oliver choose Rotherham?

The man himself has come up with a variety of unconvincing answers so far. Now- his Ministry of Food website has a section entitled Why Rotherham?

MofF SIte

“Jamie was originally inspired to start the movement in the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham so he could meet some of the Rawmarsh Community School women who were brought to fame around the world for allegedly passing chips and burgers through the school railings during his campaign to change school dinners.”

 

Notice the word “allegedly”. One person making these allegations was a certain Vicky Pollard lookalike. He claimed that the “scrubbers” had been shoving “Big Macs” through the fence. 100% untrue. If he just wanted to meet the women [presumably to apologize for making untrue allegations and helping to make them national hate figures], couldn’t he have done that privately and left it at that. That would have appeared a little more sincere.

Instead, in The Sun, Julie Critchlow told us that:

 

“He was very nice and listened to my side of the story for two hours. Then he told me he wanted to teach Rotherham to cook.”

 

So basically; the idea for the TV show was in place already and he was casting. The Rawmarsh media storm is the key to everything. A minor dispute between individual parents and a school built up to be some ideological clash between the thick, reactionary North and the savvy, aspirational Jamie nation. A fictitious event that meant it was impossible to question the motives of the Naked Chef. The Rawmarsh fence was Jamie Oliver’s Reichstag fire. You are either with him or on the side of the forces of darkness and must be destroyed.

 

The Channel 4 sales website exists to attract sponsors and adverts to upcoming projects. For months, Jamie’s Ministry of Food was pitched thus:

“ABC1 Women
In the First World War (sic) Britain’s nutrition was in crisis. The government responded by creating a new Ministry of Food.
Jamie Oliver believes we are currently in a similar state of crisis so he’s going to set up his own Ministry of Food. Co-opting his family and friends, he’ll use his home town of Southend as his base to continue his one man mission to stop good people eating bad food.”

 

That sounds a laugh doesn’t it? All of them pitching in to set something up- a bit like the one where Kerry Katona and Phil Tuffnell got their old school mates to build something. Or Challenge Anneka or Charlie’s Garden Army.

Hold on- this sounds a bit light weight. People aren’t going to buy this. To get people on side – we need to give it some edge. How about digging up that non issue from Rawmarsh?

Brilliant- we can keep showing that footage over and over again. We can throw in a couple of disclaimer lines to get the mums onside- but it’s the images that really stick in the head. We can also make a preachy show about the poor state of British cooking without alienating the ABC1 Southern female demographic we rely on. By casting a bunch of Northern losers- our lot can carry on scoffing their Sainsburys ready meals- safe in the knowledge that Jamie is not angry at them; just the really bad poor people. They’ll buy the book too. I mean; if it works for those Rotherham dopes- it must be good.

The imagery of Rawmarsh 2006 looms large over the project. Every piece of pre publicity mentions it- unfairly suggesting that Rotherham is one of the most unhealthy places in the country. Statistically- this is nonsense. But, as we all know [particularly those in TV production], statistics can be twisted, or invented, to suit your needs.

The Channel 4 sales site now reads:

“Jamie wants to start a food revolution and encourage British people to abandon their ready meals in favour of home cooking. He attempts to recruit one of the fiercest critics of his school dinners campaign: so-called ‘Burger Mum’ Julie Critchlow.”

Julie Critchlow The Sun that, in 2006, she:

“had no idea who Jamie Oliver was. I wasn’t particularly interested in TV chefs and I didn’t watch Jamie’s School Dinners.”
She only got the hump when Jamie started slagging her off unfairly.

Rotherham has already been described as “the nutritionally challenged town” [The Sun] and “the town of food sin” [BBC]. Wait till the show goes out. Our town is going to become the shorthand for poor health, laziness and plain ignorance.
Jamie has also come up with an alternative argument for coming to Rotherham.

Maybe because certain local elements have been pointing out that his “crusade” is built on a myth. Jamie has come up with a new angle:

 

Read: Why Rotherham 2