Oliver’s Twist
(Cooking/Special Interest)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B-
Jamie Oliver has come out of nowhere and become one of the
most sought after cooks in the media. Oliver’s
Twist is the second of three TV series he has going for him so far,
sandwiched (pun intended?) between The Naked Chef and Jamie’s Kitchen
as hits. Kitchen, book and
series, are coming out at the same time as this DVD of Twist, which has
him being more sociable than he was on his first show.
This is not to say he was ever anti-social, especially for
as energetic as he always is under any circumstances. It is just that the previous show was the usual enclosed TV
cooking show the subgenre always offers.
Here, several shows have been cross-indexed so you can look up any of
the recipes offered. In this way, it is
difficult to say if this DVD truly offers any extras, but it would be
impossible to say it is void of them.
As usual, except that he is out there talking to more
people than usual and having more guests than ever, Oliver plows through his
unique recipes. The advantage here is
that it is a DVD, so you can stop it and go over each point he goes through too
fast. He is so fast, that he needs to
wash his hands a bit more often. With
that said, this beats having to go on the Internet and print things out. The actual food, drinks, and deserts being
made did not interest this critic, but fans will beg to differ.
The full screen, color image looks better than expected,
with nice color and depth for a TV production of its kind, though it is not
spectacular either. However, a
pleasant image makes watching more compelling, and is likely a good PAL
transfer. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is simple-but-effective, which is especially good for Oliver’s accent and the
speed of which he speaks. This DVD
could have still used closed captions or subtitles, but it is fine for what it
is.
About three hours of information is packed onto one DVD,
but the show ran longer, so it is a surprise that more DVDs are not offered or
that this is not part of a boxed set.
Jamie Oliver fans will be happy enough with it, while others will have
to see it and judge for themselves.
- Nicholas Sheffo
