There are more ways than ever to make feeding ourselves easier. Restaurant meals and groceries can arrive with a few taps on a phone, meal kits take care of much of the prep, and countless online resources promise to help even the most inexperienced cook. And yet, finding the time, energy or confidence to cook a meal from scratch can still feel like a challenge.
It’s a contradiction that Jamie Oliver has spent much of his career trying to address. More than three dozen cookbooks into his career, the British chef is returning to a familiar mission with ”20 Minute Meals: Real fast food” (Penguin Random House Canada, $48): making home cooking feel less intimidating and more achievable.
The premise is straightforward: all 120 recipes use 10 ingredients or fewer, with most requiring little more than a saucepan and a frying pan. But for Oliver, the book is part of a much longer effort to persuade people that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s what the veteran cookbook author and host of the new Crave series ”Jamie’s 20 Minute Meals” describes as his ongoing quest to “grovel” at the masses and get them to build culinary confidence.
Is there one recipe that you and your team are really proud to bang out in 20 minutes?
That’s like asking who’s your favourite child. Everything is tested inside and outside the test kitchen, and if it can’t be done by normal people in 20 minutes, it didn’t make the book. I’m looking at aubergine curry with lace pancakes. It’s delicious. It feels different. It’s a nice expression of veggies. Classic steamed whitefish with veggies and a little bit of mayonnaise — super easy. But then we’ve got pastas, noodles, frittatas, even a quiche that would normally take two hours. I did a hybridized version with phyllo pastry that can be done in 20 minutes. It’s just a really nice thing to take to work or a picnic. I did a really bad job of answering your first question.
Compared to other quick-recipe books out there, is there anything you’d avoid?
I don’t read other people’s cookbooks, and it’s not because I don’t admire or respect them. I just don’t want to cloud my vision with what other people are doing. What would I not do? I feel like a politician getting out of a question, but good cooking and good nutrition are typically about what you can do, so if I can reverse your question and not answer it again…
What I was thinking about is how to get more veggies into people’s lives and make it affordable and delicious, and how to make it contemporary. How can I get more beans into their bodies? They’re a massive must, not just for people’s health but for the planet. You’ll see in the recipes, I feathered this in because (beans) are good for you, save you money and give dishes more texture. My job is to give people reliable recipes that are close enough to home, but are versions of classics with something they’ve never heard of that can still be found at a supermarket. You and I know about miso, curry pastes and harissa, but a lot of people still don’t use those, so it’s good to promote those ingredients so people can have more fun with food.
Aside from the mainstreaming of miso, how has the baseline for quick recipes changed since you started writing books?
When I started “The Naked Chef,” the average time spent cooking in Britain was 46 minutes and now, before COVID, it was 21 minutes. If you look at all my book titles, from a public health point of view, you can see me grovel to keep people cooking: “30-Minute Meals,” “20-Minute Meals,” “5 Ingredients” and “Simple One-Pan Wonders.” Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done recipes where it’s a passion from the heart and a voyage of discovery, but my job is a mixed bag and I have to try to help people.
With all the modern advancements, why do people still feel like there’s no time to cook?
Since my time on “The Naked Chef,” you’ve had two generations that haven’t learned to cook at home or at school, and cooking to them is not effortless or ingrained at a primary school level. I’m generalizing, but they haven’t watched mom or nan do the things they ritualistically did. I’m biased in that we should bring in a modern-day expression of home economics: learning to cook, setting up a bank account and understanding how to fix basic things. These are the fun lessons we should bring in. The confidence is gone in cooking, so we think it’s a bigger thing than it really is.
It feels like we’re constantly being told to buy more gadgetry to optimize our lives, so it’s nice to see the book call for minimal equipment.
A couple of knives, a box grater — we don’t use fancy gadgets or Microplanes. I use an air fryer because 50 per cent of households have one now, so it’s giving them a recipe that’s not French fries (in this case, arancini). This style of book is very forensic. I study what people buy from basket data. The recipes are written around what I know you have already, give or take. Ninety per cent of the ingredients in the book are things most households buy on a weekly basis. Most of the stuff is common ingredients, and we’re trying to give you more creative expressions of them. If I know what you’re buying already and only want to use one or two pans, I know that my chances of success would be higher.
In the old days, I just spoke to retailers and delis, worked at market stalls and did book signings to talk to people. Now, with social media, if you look at it all, you can see globally what people are worried about, scared about, inspired about and pissed off about. It’s all there if you listen. From a supermarket point of view, you can ask for that data. I know it’s not just about writing good recipes. In the early days of “The Naked Chef,” I knew it was about communicating with people, compromising with common sense, listening and reacting to what people are inspired or scared by and what they can buy.
A long time ago, you did a spot on Oprah where you added cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper, garlic, olive oil and some herbs to a pot of spaghetti. I still make it once a week because it’s cheaper and faster than takeout.
You’ve just given me the best compliment I could have in my life. Even if it’s one recipe, I’ve done my job. Learning one recipe from TV can stick with you for life and you can play with the principles of it: switch up some herbs, flake a bit of tuna in there if you like.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
