Jamie Oliver admits 'The Great British Bake Off' and 'MasterChef' are "not his cup of tea".
Jamie Oliver is not a fan of The Great British Bake Off
The 46-year-old TV chef's own cooking contest, 'The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver', is set to kick off on Channel 4 tonight (31.01.22), but Jamie has admitted he "wasn't particularly polite" the first time he was asked to front his own foodie talent show.
He told 'BBC News': "I know everyone else loves them, but they just make me a bit uneasy, a bit nervous, and it's a bit stressful, and it's not my cup of tea.
"I'm not judging the shows per se, I know people love them, but it's never really been my bag. So when I was asked to do one myself, my first response wasn't particularly polite."
For 'The Great Cookbook Challenge', The Naked Chef has teamed up with Penguin Books to find "the next big cookbook author, as cooks compete to impress judges Jimi Famurewa, Georgina Hayden and Louise Moore for a one-of-a-kind publishing deal."
On what changed his mind, he added: "But because it's through the lens of publishing and the written word, strangely that did honestly change everything, and as I started to get into it, I was only wanting to do it if the show was more soulful and unexpected and aspirational."
Meanwhile, Jamie recently suggested online takeaways are killing off the art of cooking.
The father-of-five insisted the habit of ordering meals to be delivered is "driving our kids away" from learning their own culinary skills.
He said: "Cooking is a rare breed and it's still under threat.
"Everything, socially and technologically, is driving our kids away from taking ingredients and making a place of food.
"We've been under an illusion over the last 18 months - making banana bread and sourdough - there was a spike in cooking, but it was because we were forced."
Jamie - who has kids Poppy, 19, Daisy Boo, 18, Petal Blossom, 12, Buddy, 11, and River, five, with his wife Jools - noted it's "never been easier" to get takeaways delivered to your door, but he claimed the companies themselves don't care about their customers.
He added: "It's never been easier to order dinner on [a mobile phone]. Those companies, none of them cares yet.
"There's no proof you can give me that they care. There's no proof that they care about, your family, and the patterns of what you do.
"Convenience is the big driver and even cheap takeaways are expensive when you compare them to cooking."
Jamie thinks all children should learn how to cook 10 different meals.
He explained: "If I had a wish for every child in Britain, it would be that every 16-year-old would leave school knowing how to cook 10 recipes.
"They would know the basics of nutrition, where food comes from, and how it affects their body."
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