I feel a bit sneaky reviewing a book that I actually don’t own, but what I saw on TV the other night has really gotten under my skin.  The first episode of the US Jamie’s Food Revolution screened here this week, the UK series a year or so ago.  Where did it all go so wrong?   

I realise that TV often adds some extra visual shock, but it broke my heart to see in the first episode, a family laying out on their kitchen table all the food they consumed that week – I kid you not, every item of food was brown and all of it processed, industrialised and much of it deep fried.

I flicked through this book in a bookshop yesterday and saw some of the people featured in the UK series.  I remember their guilt, shame and grief when they were confronted with how poorly their families had been eating and I remember their excitement and surge in self esteem when they gained the skills and confidence to prepare simple, nutritious and nurturing family meals and to teach others to do the same.

It is devastating that there are so many people absolutely paralysed at the prospect of cooking a meal for their family, and even sadder, that the trend can carry on to subsequent generations.   I remember in the UK series, a young girl commenting on the meal her mother had made her under Jamie’s guidance – he asked her if she had...