Niki Bezzant: Kudos to Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver's move to do a degree in nutrition should be emulated.

Opinion

Jamie Oliver is one of the few big-name celebrity chefs who puts his money where his mouth is when helping people. His Jamie Oliver Food Foundation runs programmes such as a kitchen garden project in primary schools; the Ministry of Food teaches people to cook from scratch; and the Fifteen Apprentice programme is designed to train disengaged young people as chefs.

Oliver has also shown a great interest in health and nutrition. His work on school dinners 10 years ago led to significant changes at school and government levels.

Although his cookbooks and recipes are not universally healthy, he puts a lot of emphasis on fresh, seasonal vegetables and I've been impressed to see the children's menus in his restaurants go well beyond the typical fried fare to offer balanced meals.

Now Oliver has begun studying for a degree in nutrition. He is reported in the Daily Telegraph as saying: "What I want is to have the knowledge, to properly understand it and apply it to everything I do."

What an amazing thing for a chef to do. Especially an established one who's been around a while and could be forgiven for thinking he has a handle on what makes a healthy meal. I admire that commitment to learning and knowledge, and the humility to acknowledge that even though he's been a campaigner in the health space, he doesn't know everything.

I think other chefs could take a leaf from Oliver's book.

I know the role of a chef is not to help us to be healthier. It's a tough job coming up with multiple dishes that sell, that please the punters, that look great on the plate, all within strict cost and time constraints.

An easy way to make a dish please the punters is to throw salt and fat at it. It's why restaurant food tastes better than what we cook at home.

But I reckon there's an opportunity going begging among New Zealand restaurants to offer truly healthy dishes with a cheffy edge to them.

I don't mean dishes made with trendy pseudo-healthy ingredients like coconut oil and cashew cheese. I mean dishes loaded with colourful vegetables, with small portions of meat, light on the oil and butter and salt but still big on flavour.

It's a simple idea but it's rare to see. If more chefs had some proper nutrition training, the more likely this would be.

The same applies to celebrity chefs. I'm sure their intentions are good but some prominent chefs' pronouncements on diet could use a little moderation from a nutrition professional. Just because you've lost weight/changed your diet/read a book doesn't make you a nutrition expert. It doesn't mean you have the one-and-only answer.

Australian nutritionist Tara Leong expressed in a blog what must be the frustrations of many nutritionists and dietitians in this "everyone's an expert" environment.

"I've decided to change professions," she wrote. "I'm going to become a pilot. I'm not going to do a course or anything. Maybe eventually I'll do an online course but for now I will spend many hours researching — watch some YouTube clips and read piloting blogs. I've been on a plane quite a few times and so I have a pretty good handle on the best way to fly a plane."

It's ridiculous, but the parallels are clear. Oliver is doing a good thing by acknowledging that being an expert in one area doesn't make us an expert in another.

• Niki Bezzant is editor-in-chief of Healthy Food Guide magazine.