When Jamie Oliver first arrived on our screens, he made all other TV chefs suddenly come across as old-hat. His mockney Labrador style made it seem like it was your mate showing you how to cook, rather than your mum (love you Delia!).
But Oliver is now among the elder statesmen of broadcast media cooks. And the disruptor is becoming disrupted. Who watches chefs on TV any more?
Commissions for food programmes on British TV dropped 44% from 2024 to 2025 [Ampere Analysis]. The ‘stand and stir’ format is way past its best before date. Over on social media, food content is booming. According to TikTok, #FoodTok has more than nine million posts globally, growing 40% year on year, while content labelled #Recipes has increased by 80% in the UK over the past six months alone.
Old and new combine in Jamie’s Skill Series, a 10-parter that puts Oliver precisely where the audiences now are.
The series sees eight fresh-faced foodie creators demonstrate the techniques needed to prepare healthy meals at home – for example dicing an onion or making stock from a whole chicken. Throughout, Oliver pops up in overlaid video to share his tips and wisdom. Each creator gets a big well done from the OG too.
It’s incredibly practical and immediately usable content, without any of the needless showing-off and gadget-focused frills of so much social food fare. And, reassuringly for those of a generation now watching their era’s upstart stars ageing fast, it shows Oliver has still got it, no matter how he’s sliced and diced.
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