Sitting with his legs crossed, dressed top to toe in blue denim, wearing a slightly too small shiny blue hat, Jamie Oliver could be here to tell me about his new fashion makeover show.
But no, while the 34-year-old might enjoy a little tight denim and the odd TV ad campaign dressed as all the characters from the Village People, he’s still an Essex lad at heart, and is back with his new food programme Jamie’s American Road Trip.
The last 12 years have seen the former ’Naked Chef’ jubilantly crash his way through every food show-making tradition going, leaving other far more experienced TV cooks looking confusedly on.
"I don’t know why everyone’s so surprised," he exclaims as we chat about his original decision to set up Fifteen - a restaurant which teaches a new trade to under-privileged teenagers - at the tender age of 24.
"I mean that’s what TV was invented for, for crying out loud. It was invented to inspire people and get them to live better lives, or something."
Emphatic and blunt. A typical response from a chef who’s clearly never quite understood why no-one else bothers to make useful shows.
"I mean what about hospital food? Someone should do that. Look how we treat old people in the last 20 years of their lives, and the s**t they get fed."
And he’s off again.
Sadly we’re not here to his discuss future ideas, but his latest programme, which runs until October 6 on Channel Four.
Different to his former cooking and campaigning shows, this time Jamie’s on the road looking for the foods that tell America’s story. Think Louis Theroux’s hapless naivete and Rick Stein’s passion for honest grub, combined with lots of denim.
Some viewers might be sad - others, in Rotherham perhaps, where his school dinners crusade received much opposition, may be relieved - that he’s decided to leave Britain alone this time. But you get the sense that the father-of-three needed a breath of fresh air.
"I wanted to get under the skin of the cooking and the culture - rather than just focus on the fat b******s and junk image they’re labelled with," says Jamie elegantly, happy to talk at length about a TV project that took a year to finish.
Each area of the country told its own story, he says, from the immigrants of New York’s Queens district, to the hurricane-struck residents of Louisiana and gangs in Los Angeles.
"We were lucky that each show themed itself really quite beautifully. When you have the idea, the bit you can never promise is the heart, the emotional bits.
"But New York turned into a show about immigration without us really planning it to. And when we did LA, out of nowhere it became about the East side and the gangs."
After making friends in LA with two Mexican cooks, Jamie saw a side of Hollywood that he never knew.
"Out of all of their mates, they were two that got out. The rest of the gang were either dead or in jail for life," he explains.
By the time he got to filming out among the Navajos in Arizona, Jamie had become adept at describing a world he previously knew nothing about.
"The Navajos were amazing, very spiritual, I didn’t think I’d like that stuff. I wanted >fr 1,8<the programme>fr 3,8< to show the sad story of the demise of the Indians. Their world is bleak, disparate, lost, forgotten, delinquent and f****d up and yet amazing, dramatic and so brilliant."
After getting over "all the weird bits", Jamie learned to appreciate a culture that was all about respect, looking after people and only taking what you need.
"A lot of the answers that America desperately needs to find, regarding food and how to nourish your family, lie with the people who originally founded it."
He also discovered a country on the brink of change, as he drove through the British-style enclaves of Savannah, Georgia towards the European city of New Orleans.
"It was amazing to be there. I’ve never seen America like it. They were contemplating, reviewing and a tiny bit vulnerable. I’d never have thought that by the end of the year, that their president would be black."
But despite his new-found love of the US and its "can-do" attitude, this series is a detour from his first passion - fixing our kids’ meals. In two years, he says, he’ll be back with another look at our school canteens, "and it ain’t going to be pretty".
Sweetly, he seems surprised when asked why he originally began making programmes that were about more than just food?
"I was 24 years old >fr 1,8<after Naked Chef>fr 3,8< and had a massive huge guilt-trip about having money. Basically I’d been brought up in a family where money was absolutely taboo - you didn’t talk about it and there was no such thing as an easy quid.
"As the public had made my success, and I only had money based on the public going out and buying books, I felt uncomfortable with it. And I was young, didn’t had kids and I wasn’t even married at that point."
He pauses, as though his consequential decision to open a restaurant for disadvantaged young people, is what every attractive, mid-20s, millionaire celebrity male chef would have done.
No wonder we all keep buying his books. And if you’re still not convinced, here are two of his recipes to try from his new one, Jamie’s America.
:: APPLE-BERRY PIE
Even though it has a strong British heritage, America has embraced the apple pie to the point that it’s now considered a quintessentially American dessert. American pies often look like the ones from those Desperate Dan comics - big, robust and full of attitude.
The crumble-like topping sprinkled over my pie is an idea I’ve been playing about with, and I think it helps make it unique. Because huckleberries grow wild in Wyoming, I felt it was only right to use them, but feel free to use fresh or frozen blueberries in their place for equally delicious results. Assembling your pie is dead easy, and I’ll talk you through it step by step, but if you’d like to see how it’s done before you start, go online to www.jamieoliver.com/how-to for a demonstration.
(Serves 10-12)
Optional: good-quality vanilla ice-cream, cream or custard, to serve
For the pastry:
500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
100g icing sugar
A pinch of sea salt
250g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
2 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
A splash of milk
For the filling:
10 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and halved, 3 sliced juice and zest of 2 oranges
7 heaped tbsps
Caster sugar
400g huckleberries or blueberries
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
1 large egg, preferably free range or organic, beaten
A small handful of demerara sugar
Wine suggestion:
Italian sweet white - a Moscato d’Asti from Piemonte
You can make your pastry by hand, or simply pulse all the ingredients in a food processor. If making by hand, sieve the flour, icing sugar and salt from a height into a large mixing bowl. Use your fingertips to gently work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Transfer a handful of this mixture to a separate bowl, rub it between your fingers to get larger crumbs, then put aside. Add the eggs and milk to the main mixture and gently work it together until you have a ball of pastry dough. Don’t work it too much at this stage - you want to keep it crumbly and short. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry, then wrap it in clingfilm and pop it into the fridge to rest for one hour.
Meanwhile, put the apples into a large pan with the zest and juice of 1 orange, a splash of water and five tablespoons of caster sugar. Cover the pan and simmer on a medium heat for 10 minutes, until the apples have softened but still hold their shape. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Scrunch a handful of berries in a bowl with the remaining caster sugar and the zest and juice of your remaining orange. Add the rest of the berries. Toss the cooled apples and their juices in a large bowl with the berries and the flour, then put aside.
Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Take your ball of pastry out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. Get yourself a pie dish around 28cm in diameter. Flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Cut off a third of your pastry and put that piece to one side. Roll the rest into a circle just over 0.5cm thick, dusting with flour as you go. Roll the circle of pastry up over your rolling pin, then gently unroll it over the pie dish. Push it into the sides, letting any excess pastry hang over the edge. Tip in the fruit filling and brush all around the edge of the pastry with some of the beaten egg. Roll out the smaller ball of pastry about 0.5cm thick and use your rolling pin to lay it over the top of the pie. Brush it all over with more beaten egg, reserving a little. Sprinkle over the reserved crumble mixture and the demerara sugar.
Fold the scruffy edges of pastry hanging over the sides back over the pie, sealing the edge by twisting or crimping it as you like. Brush these folded edges with your remaining beaten egg. Using a small, sharp knife, cut a cross into the middle of the pie. Place on the bottom of the oven and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until golden and beautiful. Serve with ice-cream, cream or custard.
:: GREEN CHILLI
This green chilli is so delicious, simple to make and a total pleasure to eat. In England, we’re sort of brainwashed into thinking of chilli as just being chilli con carne, but this is completely different and I absolutely love it. I think it’s cleaner, braver and fresher than your average chilli. You can make your own flatbreads or use tortillas, or you can even serve with chapattis or naans instead.
(Serves 4)
Olive oil
800g pork mince, the best quality you can afford
1 tsp dried sage
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2 green peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
6 small green chillies, roughly chopped
4 large ripe red tomatoes, chopped into small chunks
1 romaine lettuce, leaves washed and spun dry
A small bunch of fresh mint
4 spring onions
1 packet of flour tortillas
Optional: 1 lime
To serve: Soured cream or natural yoghurt
Put a large pan on a high heat and add a little olive oil. Add the pork mince, dried sage and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Use a wooden spoon to break the meat up a bit and stir it about, then cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your onions, garlic, peppers and chillies, stir everything together, then fry for 15 minutes on a high heat until any liquid from the pork has evaporated and everything is starting to turn golden. When it looks good, stir in your chopped tomatoes and half a glass of water. Remember that it’s supposed to be quite dry (in a really wholesome and nice way), not stewy and wet, so don’t add too much water.
Turn the heat down to medium and let it tick away for 10 minutes or so while you wash and roughly chop up the lettuce. Pick the leaves from the bunch of mint and roughly chop them. Trim and finely slice your spring onions.
When you’re ready to serve your chilli, warm your tortillas in the oven at 180C/350F/gas 4 for a few minutes or in a dry pan for 30 seconds.
Taste your dense chilli. More than likely it will need another good pinch of salt and pepper. If you want to give it a nice fresh edge, you can squeeze in the juice of a lime. Stir in half of the chopped mint.
Push a warm tortilla or flatbread into each of your little bowls and spoon some delicious green chilli on top of each one. Top with your chopped lettuce and a dollop of yoghurt. Sprinkle over the rest of your mint and spring onions and serve right away with some cold beers.
