Jamie's Italian Christmas interview
Category: News Release
We Brits love our traditional Christmas fare. Jamie’s Italian Christmas isn’t about getting us all to have pasta and pizza for Christmas dinner, is it?
No! We Brits think we’re into traditional fare, but we are just decade after decade of contradiction. The British Christmas as we know it is based on wave after wave of immigration, and the spice trade. From your mulled wine to your fruit pudding, all of these concepts have come from places far away. Turkey has only really been the Christmas staple here for 80 years, it was always goose before that. And we’re doing the porchetta, which is a mammoth celebration of food that can actually feed 30 people. And when it’s out, it looks incredible.
What is a porchetta?
It’s basically a rolled saddle or loin of pork connected to the belly. It allows you to stuff it, so we do an amazing Italian stuffing, roast it hard, and then turn in right down low, so you get crackling and that delicious melt-in-mouth meat. And the pasta we’re making is very accessible – it’s a large ravioli that you fill, and then pinch at the sides like a Christmas cracker. It’s a great starter, it’s a great vegetarian alternative, it looks amazing, and I think it’s definitely something that you can do wither for Christmas Day or just at some point over the holiday.
What other things will be on the menu?
We’ll show you how to pimp up your veggies. We’re taking a completely different approach to roast potatoes – it’s a very simple, slightly nutty, but brilliant idea. Pretty much half a bottle of balsamic vinegar goes into it, so the roast potatoes come out black. And they taste of heaven – they’re sweet, with onions and bay. It’s very different and absolutely delicious. It’s also quite shocking-looking. We’ve also done a twist on a traditional tiramisu, which is essentially a trifle, which essentially is a Christmas staple. With booze (Vin Santo or Marsala) and chocolate, you can take a tiramisu to the next level. And you can ramp it from six people to 20 really easily – it’s really not much more work. I think my job is not to alienate – it has to be accessible, it has to consist of stuff you can shop for in your local supermarket. We’re not trying to make it exclusive – we want it to be inclusive. I think we’ve done that. It’s the second time in 20 years we’ve gone abroad for a Christmas special – I did one in New York once.
It’s filmed in a log cabin in Piedmont, in the Italian Alps – that must have been rather wonderful.
Yeah. And also what we did as well is we filmed it at Christmas. We shot it last Christmas. It’s not like we’ve filmed it in a studio and we’re pretending it’s Christmas.
You haven’t got someone up a ladder shaking a bag of flour to look like it’s snowing?
We’ve done that as well, in the past! But it feels like a real adventure. The magic of the mountains comes out in the look and feel of the food. We’re really happy with how it’s turned out. We’re not trying to do away with Christmas traditions at all. But in some respects, a good loin of pork is cheaper than good beef or turkey, so I think that people will really go for it.
Your old mucker Gennaro is with you in the programme – explain what his role has been in your life.
Gennaro gave me my first job at the Neal Street Restaurant with Antonio Carluccio when I was 18. He’s kind of the godfather of Italian food in the UK. He’s been a really good and loyal friend of mine. And we’ve been on a journey together. He’s massive in his own right, but when we come together we always have a laugh, and we always produce good food, and we just get stuff done. And we both have a real respect for ingredients. I think, when you live in the food business, and you know what’s involved, and how many thousands of people have been involved in, say, the creation of a tiramisu – the people who pick the cocoa plant, milk the cows, whatever – you can’t help but look after the ingredients. And there’s that kind of warmth to the show, which could only come from a middle aged dude and someone who’s nearly a hundred.
Why do you love Italian food so much – what is it that puts it ahead of French or Spanish or wherever? Is it because of Gennaro?
I think it is because of Gennaro, but it’s more than that as well. I think that at the heart of Italian food is that real love and passion for ingredients, and a real simplicity. It doesn’t mean the Italians don’t have craft or technical ability, but there are cultures that push the technique or craft, and I find that in the modern day world, what that does is edits out a large proportion of the world. With Italian food I feel the fundamentals of love, care, simplicity and great ingredients are there, but they’re also accessible. If you went to some countries and asked for the recipe, they’d say “No, it’s mine,” and out it in a box and lock it. The Italians are much more like “Look, if you want to learn this, have it.” It’s just a totally different energy. For me, as a dyslexic kid, learning about pasta, which is just basically wet stuff and flour, and all the different types and shapes, and then all the sauces and possibilities that go with it, it was just huge for me. Italian cooking is just full of really inclusive principles, so you can do it if you’re the brightest person on the planet, or someone that struggles. As a food culture, it’s generous, it’s inclusive, and if I’ve learned anything in the whole Italian experience, I’ve learned to uncook. All the techniqies that have been used over the years by nonnas and mamas that have cooked me the most fabulous food, they’ve been cutting and preparing, in modern day terms, wrong, but how can it be wrong if it’s the most delicious thing in the world. So I’ve been uncheffing, and becoming more about mama. That is very inclusive, it means that we can all do it, and I like that.
Do you travel to Italy much in your leisure time? Do you actually have any leisure time?
I have my holidays every year. Jules isn’t a great traveller, so we tend to holiday in the UK, and actually I really like that. We’re massive fans of getting around the UK. Cornwall, Norfolk, Essex coast, Wales, and I love Scotland as well. And we’ll nip over to France – that’s about it for the Olivers, but in my day job I’m all over the place all of the time. I’m lucky enough not to need to fulfil any of that in my family holidays, because I’m all over the shop the rest of the time. And I love it. I love to travel.
Do you have any family traditions?
Yeah, we do, but I like to change them. Being the kid, being the teenager, being the student, being the kid that’s left home, being the young parent, and now I’ve got a 15-year-old, and a baby, traditions change. One thing that remains the same is that we go nuts, completely OTT. Dressing the tree is always full of carnage and tears. We take the Instagram picture that looks like perfection, but we’ve all cut our feet stepping on baubles, or nearly electrocuted ourselves, or almost set the house on fire – that’s pretty consistent. We get into it, we love going over the top. And I grew up in a pub my parents owned, and it was the only time of the year the door got locked, and it was fantastic. And with my work, it’s sort of the same. But now we’re starting to meddle with tradition. I’ve been cooking for 26 people for the last ten years, but last year we just did the seven of us, and did the big party on Boxing Day. So we’re starting to change it a bit. Oh, one tradition of mine is that I always hack the crackers. I like to put better or worse presents in certain people’s crackers. And I like to improve the jokes, and put completely inappropriate jokes into the cracker for the worst person to get them.
Have you decided what’s on your menu for Christmas dinner this year?
Yeah. I’ve been doing this for a while now: There’s no way we can’t do turkey, so I’ll do that. I’ll do my porchetta. And I’ll do a goose. Of course, it’s way too much food, but they’re really easy to cook. The Italians call it an Arrosto Misto – a mixed roast. It’s their equivalent of a mixed grill. But it means that when the hordes descend the next day, you’ve got loads of leftovers left, you rattle out some salads and some cheese and some bread, and you’ve got a massive, beautiful feast. We’ve slightly lost the art, in a lot of homes in Britain, of cooking something really big and then keeping the leftovers. The worst thing to cook is half a leg of lamb, for a couple of people, because it’s more expensive, and it won’t cook right or taste right. Do something bigger, and use a freezer or use batch cooking through the week. It’s much cheaper and more economical.
Christmas pud?
I bloody hate Christmas pud. It just repeats on me. So I do my Christmas pudding, which of course I think is better than most, which has more breadcrumbs, so it’s lighter. It’s a cross between my nan’s Christmas pudding and a pound pudding. I like the idea of a Christmas pudding but it’s just so heavy. It sits in your stomach like a weapon of mass destruction. We love the trifle, we’re a big trifle family. I’ll do a tiramisu for Boxing Day, because it’s just great to do for big groups. Doing lots of trifles is a nightmare, doing tiramisu for 30-40 people is a piece of piss.
Jamie's Italian Christmas airs Tuesday 19th December at 8pm on Channel 4