Woman Spits Out Jamie Oliver's Controversial 'Jerk Rice' On TV

Jamie Oliver is generally in the bad books of the nation, he's tried to scrap two for one pizzas, ban cartoon characters on cereal boxes, and don't even get us started on turkey twizzler-gate. His latest stunt - 'punchy jerk rice' - has got people's blood boiling and spitting out his food too...

In the midst of the scandal, ITV News took to the streets to see if members of the South London Caribbean community actually enjoyed the rice.

And they weren't best pleased with the finished result. One claimed that it tasted like 'shepherd's pie mix' and another said: "Well, I'll eat it. But it's missing the jerk."

Then one woman took a spoonful of the offending rice, tasted it for a few seconds before looking straight at the camera with a smirk on her face, she then turned around and 'spat it out'.

Surely it couldn't have been that bad?

ITV News

Jamie Oliver was accused of 'cultural appropriation' for launching the rice by Labour MP, Dawn Butler, when she said: "#Jamieoliver @jamieoliver #jerk I'm just wondering do you know what #Jamaican #jerk actually is?

"It's not just a word you put before stuff to sell products."

Then, during a debate on Good Morning Britain, TV chef Rustie Lee said: "At the end of the day, I've tasted it and it tastes like Caribbean rice and beans with flavours in it.

"The jerk part of it is barbecue and you can't barbecue rice. Jerk chicken... goes onto meat, it doesn't go onto rice.

"He chose a word that made us talk. Would we have been here talking about it [otherwise]? Jerk...originated from Jamaica and they would be offended by this.

"It's an insult because jerk is from the Caribbean and as much as I love Jamie, the point is it's getting onto a bandwagon to say its Caribbean, it's taken away from us."

PA

Oliver has since released a statement responding to the accusations, which stated: "I've worked with flavours and spices from all over the world my whole career, learning and drawing inspiration from different countries and cultures to give a fresh twist to the food we eat every day.

"When I named the rice my intention was only to show where my inspiration came from."

Topics: Food, Chef, Jamie Oliver, Community

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

@RJShepherd94