My main complaint about Oliver is his (or his management’s) blatant assumption that the public are fools (and he may be right). It seems that every year for the last few years, there’s been a new TV series with cookbook, promising that each is a “fantastic new way to cook”. There was “30 Minute Meals”, then “15 Minute Meals”, then “SuperFoods” and, latterly, “Five Ingredients”.
I also have issues with the actual recipe writing. There is repetitive wording. I am an author and, to be absolutely honest, if I kept including the same phrases that often, then the editor at my publishers would be having a serious talk with me. One absolutely meaningless phrase particularly irritates - “Season to perfection”. OK to use it a couple of times but, in one of the books, I counted that it was used in around 50% of the recipes. Most of the other 50% didnt mention seasoning so it seems to be a stock phrase used by whichever of Oliver’s employees actually write the recipes.
Now, to be fair, I accpet that I have a general “down” on Oliver as a person. At the beginning of his public career, I went to a major food festival. He was one of a number of celebrity chefs who were there promoting their cookbooks. All of them, bar one, was happy to autograph the book when you’d bought it. For Oliver, however, there was an addiitonal charge of, I think, £5 for the signature. Just cynical money-grabbing to my mind.
