Jamie Oliver jumps on the culinary bandwagon in this bewilderingly cringey two-parter. Hasn’t even he tired of his own shtick by now?
I don’t really know what to tell you about Jamie Oliver’s new series Jamie’s Air Fryer Meals. It’s presented by Jamie Oliver, who first bounded on to our screens as The Naked Chef (no, he wasn’t) in 1999. He cooks meals in an air fryer. An air fryer is a little convection-type oven with a perforated basket that you put food in and the hot air circulates round it and makes things crispy without you having to dunk it in a panful of boiling oil. So, in essence, Jamie makes meals and puts them in a small oven to cook. Oh, and the programme is made in association with Tefal, who sell a line of pans endorsed by Jamie. The air fryer shown in the programme is a Tefal one. Jamie is very impressed with what air fryers can do. Maybe you will be prompted to buy one after watching his show.
There are only two episodes in Jamie’s latest venture and things are starting to feel stretched long before the end of the first. I mean, there is not much you can say about a little oven that is good at making things crispy and does so slightly faster than a normal oven would. “Two minutes!” shouts Jamie as he pushes another basket home. “Real cooking, with love and care!” If you say so, petal. “I love the way you can use this to bake and to roast and also to make beautiful sauces!” he says, as if pouring meat juices off a roasting joint was not the basis of most sauces and unique to the air fryer’s capabilities. “Wilt some spinach in 40 seconds! Happy days!” His cheddar and chive scones take 12 minutes, which is only a couple of minutes faster than the ordinary way of doing things. But no matter! Because while things are air frying, he explains, you can get on with boiling or steaming or cooking other things in ways that the air fryer cannot manage. I feel a fool to have stood by my ordinary oven for so long, watching a chicken roast when I could have been getting on with the potatoes. No wonder it takes me four days to make a family meal.
