Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Jamie Oliver is known as The Naked Chef for his philosophy of using simple and whole food ingredients in his recipes.

The Naked Chef has been known to make a contribution to the good eats at our house.

Well, not in the flesh, but through Oliver's cookbooks we have enjoyed the simple, yet elegant way he creates healthy meals for the family.

His passion for changing school lunches to the healthy in Britain is something to admire, but now Jamie is taking on the unhealthy and processed eating habits of the good ole USA in his new ABC television show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  Last night's sneak preview offered a view into an up hill battle where breakfast pizza is king and kids think tomatoes are potatoes.

The chef from England shows up....

in Huntington, W. VA.,  on a mission to make big changes in the deep fried and processed food favorites of its residents in what the CDC calls the unhealthiest city in the country.  Huntington ranked last in the CDC list of the healthiest cities in America.

Chef Jamie works to overhaul the school's over-processed food standbys and thaw out the frozen tundra of chicken nuggetland.  One element of the show is the working relationships with the "lunch ladies" as Oliver calls them and to which they very much prefer the title of cook. 

The women are clearly annoyed to have someone come into their kitchen and question a system that is rolling along and meeting the USDA standards, however over processed and chemical laden the food may be.

There is even a part of the show where Oliver's freshly prepared school lunch for the children does not meet the bread requirement for the USDA.  You can't help but notice Alice the cook's rapture that the "hotshot chef" didn't meet the standard, even though it seems unhealthy children need two bread portions at lunch.

Lunch ladies clearly can make for good TV.  

Oliver also found out in last night’s episode, the kids will pick pizza over fresh-from-the-oven chicken and rice.  None of the kids pick regular milk, only chocolate flavored or artificially pink.   It is a big food fight, but one worth watching.  Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution airs Friday's at 9 p.m. on ABC.