DigiGuide Forums

Pukka mate!
Jamie Oliver is back. He makes a mouth-watering return to his roots in a new series, Jamie at Home, filmed in the kitchen and garden of his Essex home.

Having spent the past five years raising a family, launching several restaurants, as well as tackling school dinners and youth unemployment, it's a treat to have the chef back on screen cooking great recipes using ingredients straight from his own garden.

From potatoes to peppers, and carrots to courgettes, the 12-part series is a fuss-free guide to getting the best from Mother Nature. It's packed with dozens of new step-by-step recipes, from simple salads, to brilliant barbecues - including Jamie's secret BBQ sauce.

With the help of gardener Brian, Jamie has transformed the garden of his Essex home, and discovered a passion for growing his own produce. Now he wants to show just how easy it is to cultivate amazing fruit and veg at home.

Even if you've only got a balcony or back yard, Jamie shows how to grow fantastic veg and fruit, and turn them into simple, tasty and delicious food. It's enough to get any cook's green fingers itching.

"I hope that the series does with basic gardening what I did with the food in The Naked Cjef, which is to strip it down and take some of the mystery out of it. I just want to show people how easy it is, just to get them to have a go," says Jamie.

"It doesn't matter where you live, you can still grow your own stuff. It can be in a bucket or a boot, a window box, a small garden or a big garden."

Jamie moved to the house, near to where he grew up in Essex, six years ago. The garden was overgrown, but after lots of hard work it's now his pride and joy. "Three years ago was my first attempt at growing vegetables, and it was chaos, to be honest. It was just a case of having a go, just bunging it all in the soil and seeing what happened. But even that first year, when I didn't know what I was doing, was a bloody good year, and we got loads of grub out of it."

And Jamie hopes that growing and cooking veg at home can help get children eating well too: "My girls do help in the kitchen and the garden, and getting kids involved in growing and cooking fresh food is the best way to give them good habits for life and not hooked on junk food.

"When I see my kids eating a bowl of salad, or a bit of salad with some fish, somehow it makes me feel better too. It's all about cooking in your own home, cooking for family and friends, doing simple food."

Click to add a DigiGuide alert so you get a reminder when Jamie at Home starts

COOKERY: Jamie at Home, Channel 4 at 20:00 on Tuesday 7th August 2007

Jamie Oliver is making a mouth-watering return to his roots in a new series, Jamie at Home, filmed in the kitchen and garden of his Essex home. Having spent five years raising a family, launching several restaurants, as well as tackling school dinners and youth unemployment, it's a treat to have the chef back cooking great recipes using ingredients straight from his own garden.
(Part 1 of 12, Subtitles)