There’s a middle ground between eating crispy pancakes and potato waffles for every meal and having a ridiculous initial cost to get your kitchen up to Oliver Standard ™

Jamie Oliver is to cooking cheaply what Russell Brand is to political engagement. (Park Rice!)

They’re both privileged, purport to understand the working classes and are blinded by their own – well meant – ignorance.

For much of my life, I’ve found cooking good meals to be prohibitively expensive. It’s only in recent years – due to necessity – that I’ve learned that price is no barrier to a good meal.

That’s why Jamie Oliver does my nut in! For years, he’s been behaving like he’s some sort of culinary messiah, handing down ‘pukka’ recipes from on high. But he just doesn’t get it.

Take, for example, the recipe for “Squash it Sandwich” on his website. Fifteen ingredients, many of which are fresh herbs and vegetables. It calls for good quality balsamic vinegar, olive oil and hummous – which sets you back at least a tenner if you don’t already have them.

Or we could do a price breakdown on his “Barbecue baked beans with smashed potatoes recipe”, which claims to be £1.43 a portion for 6 people. 6 Sweet potatoes – at least a pound for a bag, teaspoon of smoked paprika – at least a pound for a jar, and we’re over budget with 14 ingredients to go, many of which are fresh herbs or spices most skint people just won’t have in.

Funnily enough, there’s a button you can click for the last recipe to order the ingredients online – which come to just under £15, almost double what it claims they cost.

Don’t get me wrong! Jamie Oliver’s mockney charm is decent; I enjoy watching his programmes when he’s cooking what he’s used to. His passion is infectious, and I really don’t think he realises how downright offensive his ‘money saving meals’ are.

He cooks in his home kitchen, (which I don’t grudge him; he’s not a political leader – he can have any kind of kitchen he wants) teeming herb plants overflowing in the background, arrays of exotic oils and spices adorning the shelves. He’s insulated so well in his little bubble that he must think working class kitchens look like this too, but a wee bit smaller.

If you’re living hand to mouth, you can’t afford to have a fully stocked spice rack, premium olive oil, fresh vegetables and meat. Why does he never suggest to use dried herbs? Why doesn’t his money saving squash sandwich have frozen peas in it, rather than fresh fucking podded!?

I mean, I get how he’s trying to teach people to eat well for less and that, but he should try toning both down a bit.

There’s a middle ground between eating crispy pancakes and potato waffles for every meal and having a ridiculous initial cost to get your kitchen up to Oliver Standard.

I like the guy, but he should stick to creating elaborate fancy dream meals in his big fuck off fancy kitchen.