Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Season 1 Episode 2 Recap

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Sneak Peek

Episode 2 starts out with Jamie going back to the radio station and Rod Willis interviews Jamie about the newspaper article that was published in a local paper. Jamie once again points out that a lot of that article was taken out of context. At the end of the interview Jamie asks Rod if they are slowly starting to like each other and Rod replies “no.”

Jamie has some of the kids from the Central City Elementary come to “Jamie’s Kitchen,” a local school Jamie has opened up to teach people how to cook healthy meals in Huntington. In the last episode Jamie and the elementary school cooks had a contest to see if the kids would pick pizza or freshly prepared food. The cooks won.

Jamie starts dissecting a chicken showing them the different parts of a chicken people eat. He cuts off the breasts, the wings, and the legs. He then take all the leftovers which includes bones, tissue, skin, giblets, and other left over parts, then blends them up in a blender. All the kids seemed grossed out. He mixes it up with flavoring and stabilizer. He then cuts out some patties, sprinkles them with breadcrumbs and starts frying them. This is not how chicken nuggets are made, but it’s an experiment that has always worked for Jamie. He asks the kids who would still eat that, and all the kids raise their hands. The look on Jamie’s face is full of shock, disgust, and disappointment. He then asks the kids if they think that’s good for them or bad for them, and they all answer bad. Jamie asks them why they would eat that, and they respond because they are hungry. Watch this clip from Treehugger.com that shows this segment.

The next day at school: Today the kids will only have the choice of eating the healthy food. Jamie dresses up as a giant pea. Alice one of the cooks has a problem with the menu and is argumentative, but goes about her business. She is very strong headed. Jamie then goes into 1 of the class rooms and none of them know what he is. He goes from class to class trying to get them excited about today’s lunch.

At lunch time, the kids did not like the lunch. A lot of food was thrown away. Rhonda McCoy the Director of Food Services for Cabell County Schools observed this.

After lunch, Jamie goes into a 1st grade class room. He starts pulling out vegetables asking the class if they know what they are. The 1st item he pulls out are tomatoes. No one knew what they were. One boy guessed potatoes. Jamie then asks if they know what tomato ketchup is and the entire class answers yes. Jamie then told them that’s what ketchup is made from referring to the fresh tomatoes he was holding. Jamie continues pulling out vegetables having the kids guess what he was holding, and they could not guess correctly. He then pulls out chicken nuggets and asks what they are, and the entire class shouted chicken nuggets. He had the same results with french fries, pizza, and a hamburger. This is what the clip at the bottom of the story shows.

Jamie then visits the family that he visited in the 1st show. He meets the father on this visit. They all tell Jamie that they enjoy the new diet and recipes that he left for them last week, but Jamie is suspicious. He checks the ingredients in the refrigerator and there are a lot left. There are empty fast food cups on the stairs outside. He asks the youngest child what her favorite meal has been this week and she says “pizza.”

Jamie then takes the family to the hospital and has them meet a doctor and has him examine the family. Jamie asked the father if he has taken the children for checkups and he said not for a long time. The doctor points to some dark places on Justin the 12 year olds neck that could mean he could have diabetes or could develop it later on. He does a blood test on Justin that will show the average blood sugar level average for the last few months The doctor starts talking about complications from diabetes that include kidney failure, amputations, or going blind.

Good news though, Justin does not have diabetes yet, but being overweight, it will more than likely develop over time. The doctor then goes on to tell the family that diabetes can cause heart attacks, high blood pressure, arthritis, and bone joint problems. The doctor also tells them that it could shorten someone’s life by 30 or 40 years, and that he a person could die in their 30’s. Justin’s parents are feeling very guilty.

Justin’s dad tells him that he does not have diabetes, and that he is going to put him on a plan to lose weight, and that the whole family is going to do it.

The next day at Central City Elementary, Jamie has the parents come to the school. They are outside with the school staff and students. Jamie has a huge tarp that he has some of the kids hold. He then pours a garbage container of chocolate milk into the center of the tarp. Jamie tells everyone that this is how much chocolate milk that is full of sugar the students have had in a week. Jamie then dumps a garbage can full of sloppy joe’s in the tarp followed by french fries and nachos. Jamie then tells the parents and kids that this is what is killing people in his country and theirs at a young age. He says that both countries have bought into processed foods coming into the schools. Jamie then has a dump truck come in and dump a truck load of saturated fat into a dumpster. Jamie tells everyone that this is how much fat is consumed by the whole school in a year. He has the kids touch and feel how nasty it is. He tells the parents that he is on their side and that he wants the kids to eat healthy not just in this city and state but all over the country. He asks the parents if they would support him and they cheer for Jamie. Jamie now feels there is hope. He called them the “nuclear weapon.”

Jamie goes back into the same class room he was at the other day. Their teacher Mrs. Blake has been working with the students to better educate them on their vegetables. The children can now name their vegetables.

The next scene Jamie is back at “Jamie’s Kitchen” with Justin the overweight 12 year old. Jamie works 1 on 1 with Justin preparing chicken stir fry. Jamie shows Justin some knife skills and had him chop up some ingredients and help cook the stir fry. Jamie worked on Justin’s confidence as well, and got him out of his shell.

Jamie is back at Central City Elementary for his official last day there. The cooks and principal are having a conversation about what to do about cutlery because today’s lunch would require a fork. The students there usually do not get forks or knives. Alice, the cook that has given Jamie the most grief, asked if students in his country use a knife and fork and Jamie answers yes. Alice then asks for documentation on that. Finally, they find some knives and forks and put them out for the students to use.

At lunch time, the kids are getting freshly cooked food and white milk, no flavored milk. Rhonda McCoy and the Superintendent was there today observing again. A lot of the kids did not know how to use a knife and fork. Jamie had to show them how. The principal saw how Jamie was walking around trying to teach the children how to use a knife and fork, so he started to help the students also. Once the students figured out how to use their utensils, they started eating the food and they liked it. Stickers that read “I’ve Tried Something New” were passed out to students that tried the food.

At the end of lunch Jamie brings out the cooks and passes out notes from the students to the cooks that thank the cooks for the good job they do. Jamie thanks the cooks for their help and hard work this week and gives them a round of applause. Jamie then goes to Rhonda and asks if he can come back next week. Rhonda tells Jamie that the food looks great and tastes good, but the invoices that came in this week are double of what they should be. Rhonda has also asked for an analysis of the food that Jamie has been serving and has not received that data back yet. Rhonda said that he could come back next week if he could work on staying in the budget. Jamie asked if he could visit other schools and was told that they would see.

By the end of this episode, Jamie has made some progress. Hopefully in the upcoming weeks, Jamie Oliver can make a difference in Huntington, West Virginia.