Pro Chef Reacts... To Uncle Roger HATE Jamie Oliver Egg Fried Rice

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Hope all of you are having a great day! *Become a Patreon and have a say in what I make!* www.patreon.com/chefjamesmakinson

[@maria_cairns]

We enjoy winter here in Australia.

[@kentong9514]

I have been waiting for this video. 😂😂😂😂😂

[@oneautumnleaf9293]

I have been waiting for this video, thanks :) Also, finally someone pointed out that "packaged precooked rice". I was wondering wtf it is, because i have never seen something like this in my entire life here in Poland, very big no no.

[@johnedwars2738]

that confused expression you made when he got the tofu is pure gold and the coments/critics are top notch, se ve que trabajaste en cocina desde hace mucho

[@gundam124]

The precooked rice is not a nee thing they have it alot in asian markets its for mostly on the go type like u forgot to cook rice the night b4 or don't wanna have to wash a container after eating during lunch type a thing but even so when heating the rice it does get very wet not appropriate for fried rice.

[@chronosite]

"I don't think even MSG can save this now" I think this is now my new favorite quote for cooking

[@kinsanong8057]

1.4K likes and no comments let me help you

[@xxxtention5020]

2

[@serdavezilla6494]

the fury that crept across your face with the ready rice reveal was amazing.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Yeah something that I've never seen before! Haha

[@Kcirrot]

I think that was lazy, but if I’m giving Jamie the benefit of the doubt, I would say that making fried rice requires planning because you have to have cooked cold rice and this video seems to be part of a “quick meal” type of series. Also he did say it was a cheat. That said this is a video from a professional so it’s not a good look.

[@prodigypenn]

@@Kcirrot I feel this video is aimed toward the kind of stereotypical british family that doesn't get very adventurous with their food and so he is trying to cater towards those type of people with his ingredients and method of cooking

[@Quest723The]

@@ChefJamesMakinson I'm sure you're aware of it, but I want you to share the joy of the "Paella Burrito Outrage" committed by Sorted. B/c reasons. ^_^

[@Lord_Biggles]

@@ChefJamesMakinson He did a series where the Meals were cooked from start to finish in 15 minutes. Is this one of those? In that series he also used things like premade pastry as well.

[@treyb387]

Imagine if you were in Italy and a chef showed you how to make lasagna from scratch and he pulled out a package of frozen lasagna to put in the oven. That's how I feel about Jamie Oliver's attempt to make fried rice.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

😂 hahaha

[@milanstevic8424]

But this didn't happen in China. This happened in Bri'ain. This is all to be expected from a nation that has the worst cuisine on the continent. I find this to be an improvement actually! I say this as someone who is from Serbia and who's casually preparing dishes with my wife that are typically on par with what you can get in a really good restaurant. And if you're not acquainted with my country, foreigners flock here mostly for the quality of food and hospitality, good night life, and good looking women. You can confirm this by clicking on literally any video about Serbia. The other night I've made a pretty good penne arrabbiata and a night before a solid beef quesadilla. Imagine what we can do with our standard repertoire like stews, goulash, or sarma. I can also do excellent cauldron specialties, outdoor grilling and awesome pan pizzas, the latter I learned from the actual internet. It's that easy to cook nowadays! But the recipe alone is nothing if you don't know what you're doing and why, you need to get a feel for the cooking principles, to be patient, and occasionally to know how to improvise without sacrificing the quality of the ingredients. When I'm watching English cooking videos (which is rare, except perhaps Ramsay, I just like his TV persona), I tend to look through the lens of their geographic insulation, and knowing their traditional cuisine of the hyper-bland variety such as spam, porridge or beans combined with stuff that's borderline disgusting like blood puddings and weird jams, I'm almost rooting for them for being daring enough to even attempt to use spices or imitate a well-known international dish. If there is anything like cooking talent in this world, then it is simply extinct in places such as UK and North America, or it flew away in terror, can't tell. There is a reason why hot dogs, pb&j, and donuts are the pinnacle of the American cuisine, and that reason is the UK heritage. In fact, hot dogs got imported with German immigration, ketchup is literally a Chinese word for tomato sauce, every other thing is prefixed with "French" just to make it sound edible (even though it's not French, i.e. French fries are from Belgium, La Croix is a dishwasher brand or sth like that), and Hershey bars are based on a milk byproduct that smells like vomit, but for some reason the vomit smells like nostalgia to the Americans, which just highlights the irreparable state of their relationship with refined taste. At least the people from UK aren't as wasteful. So when I see Jamie Oliver struggling to build an Asian dish, this is not a sign of him not appreciating the flavors or doing a bad job, he's merely toning it down for the palate of people who have been eating styrofoam for the last two thousand years and thought it was really good. Many Serbians have been to the UK you know. Everything else we can get used to, we're Europeans after all and the differences are not that great across the table, but for the people from the Balkan, the food there is like a curse, even Germans are majestically better in every regard (though I'm still more likely to recommend Turk and Bosnian cuisine you'll find all over the Central Europe).

[@SearchingOblivion]

@milanstevic8424 what an arrogant, close-minded comment. Disgusting.

[@u235u235u235]

or using US made parmesan while lack flavor

[@majinjason]

If how you feel is that you're watching an idiot, then I agree. I how you feel is violent rage then you're seriously overreacting. I'm from Texas, we grill and BBQ like no one's business, if you came here with some goofy BBQ method or weird oven cooked steak, I'd just think you have no idea what you're doing. Getting mad over food is insane. Getting as mad as people do at Oliver for anything less than a personal physical attack is batsh!t insane.

[@johnflores3103]

As a Filipino when I saw the pre-package rice my soul left my body. It came back after the video was over.

[@mr.jollybear5180]

lmao!

[@shannonfatimapaylaga8496]

Same, I had to be sent to the hospital Almost died too

[@lagubrok92]

We different asians might disagree on a lot of things. However, when it comes to the rice or fried rice to be specific, we are all in agreement instantly. We would rather have someone insults us directly than getting served with Jamie's fried rice.

[@LonesomeBossDaily]

As a fellow southeast Asian I agree, rice is so easy to cook. What's more he is a professional chef, he should cook and make everything from scratch. This is as if a professional chef making a video of cooking beef soup and the professional chef use packaged beef broth instead of cooking the broth from scratch.

[@seuny]

😂😅

[@adorablegirl1559]

I like how uncle Roger is animated and you are calm. It's like watching the Jamie Oliver video with 2 of your friends who are poles apart but been friends for a long time

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

That’s the two different types of anger: the primal rage vs the tranquil fury

[@finn0729]

and then he saw the packaged rice. and all hell broke loose (quietly)

[@romeomonteverde]

That's his skit. I'm sure uncle roger isn't like that as much. But you have to understand and respect the culture of others. I mean if Italians get too animated for chefs butchering their food, what more with Asians. If you look at history, most of the style of cooking in Asia has been there far longer than any other cuisine. It's even said that it's the birth of cuisine in general. So you can't blame them that they get animated when people try to pass bad knockoffs of their food. I'd understand if Jamie, as chef James said, that it was his own personal preference or just pass his KZbin channel not as informational, but vlogs of his personal dishes from recipes with his own twist and not the natural dish, but no. I know fried rice has different styles and ingredients. Japan has their chahan, china has egg fried rice, Philippines has their sinangag, and so on. But most have their base. 1st start off with chilled rice or day old rice, then garlic, onion/shallots, then any other local asian ingredient. Egg,then you can add carrots, peas, etc. You can also add any meat like bacon, hotdogs, or in the Phillipines they have adobo (pork stewed in vinegar and soy sauce with a bit of sugar). But the basic is still there. Jamie butchered it. Yes you can add tofu, but not wet tofu. Fry the tofu first then add it on top, not as part of the rice. Use it as toppings.

[@callmeobsequious]

@@romeomonteverde No one was saying it like it was a bad thing. Nigel Ng (the man who plays Uncle Rogers) has actually done interviews about Uncle Rogers lol.

[@sticklyboi]

@@romeomonteverde thats a lot of words too bad i aint readin em

[@JoshF848]

I never ate at any of Jamie’s restaurants but the fact they all lost tons of money and had to shut down speaks for itself really

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

I cant say as I never tried but a lot of people say that

[@chrisrose3915]

@@ChefJamesMakinson Well we have tried 3 restaurants and they were as bad as his cookware.

[@xXVibrantSnowXx]

@@ChefJamesMakinson I tried a few as well, & they are horrible, better spend your bucks for something better

[@revivedkyoumahououin1585]

If i had to try a restaurant, id go with Gordon Ramsay

[@ballagh]

Tried one, I didn’t think it was bad so much as mediocre, dishes on a par with the pasta dishes at a dominoes or a Pizza Hut. I was hungry so it was okay but okay isn’t really good enough.

[@escanorsama2026]

James is normally calm. Even his face changed when Jamie Oliver used packaged rice.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Haha 😂

[@kingleech16]

It brings to mind the old Simpsons/Shining episode clip, “Urge to kill… rising…”

[@HoshikoStarz]

Mind blown 🤯

[@JebBushHimself]

@@ChefJamesMakinson The face of horror as he remembers "packaged rice" never fails to make me laugh

[@McDudes]

nah I saw his soul leave the body for just a moment

[@MyaB1986]

That splash of water straight from the tap is what irked me the most. You can see his chilli jam plan didn't work as intended and jam is clumping with rice and not distributing evenly so he realized he effed up and went to the tap hoping water will liquify the jam and spread it around.

[@Peter-pg9zn]

I agree with you random pretty girl on KZbin.

[@Daybreaker1211]

The jam probs started caramelising so he had to stop it from burning lol

[@ristags]

@@MyaB1986 but that's the thing. It's a professional pre recorded youtube video. He could have just re-recorded it instead of posting anything.

[@EzraM5]

"People may mistake it for the traditional way of doing it." FINALLY SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS WHY THIS STUFF IS SUCH A PROBLEM Way too many influencers throw this kinda stuff around without thinking about how people may view and absorb this kind of media. Yeah, it's all well and good if you say "this is my spin on it I know this is not traditional and all" But there is a very sadly non-zero amount of people (like Jamie) who just... Don't even do that... They just go off and put this stuff out there as if THAT is the way to do it.

[@naya4050]

Yesss i mean me too is the same as Jamie, i will mostly cook with my own style because I ate it for MYSELF. It's not meant to be shared because only us who likes it and it's never the authentic traditional thing 😭 but this guy jamie share it as if it's the proper way

[@pooor20]

@@naya4050 you are right sharing your "own spin and modifying the whole recipe" and then sharing it on international platform is not acceptable for whole a culture and then Mr. @M5 want us to understand it is OK to do such thing and mess with whole recipe and then recording it and then uploading it on public platforms for everyone to watch.

[@dio_hoestar_4204]

Tbh it's really fucking annoying for someone who wants to actually cook the traditional recipe. I often don't trust asian dishes recipes online, bcs a lot of it, is bullshit or a really westernized version of it. I want the original damnit!

[@naya4050]

@@dio_hoestar_4204 IKR

[@EarlHayward]

@@dio_hoestar_4204 But, what is the traditional recipe? Who determines that? I have great Cantonese woks, cleavers, and utensils, and can cook Asian dishes very well with them… They came with my Cantonese wife! I lived with her in Hong Kong until 2017 (we moved to the US after she retired), whose mother would cook for 100+ people at her church, and learned from both of them… Point is, my Cantonese wife would disagree with many of Uncle Roger’s comments from just the few videos I have seen… However, he is pretty damn funny nonetheless! Frankly, I think people are taking cooking too serious, I think I saw some very negative comments about another video on a Carbonara sauce despite such a sauce not even being around for more than a few decades (so how can it be “traditional” if it wasn’t even more standardized until 30 years ago)?

[@pandhuvandhita6192]

As an Indonesian, who eat and cooks fried rice at least once or twice a week, I sort of understand that Jamie is trying to make his own 'style' of fried rice. I don't think I've ever made an 'authentic' egg fried rice the way uncle roger does and just simply throw whatever I got into the pan (yes a frying pan, not a wok because I don't have them either at the moment). However, Jamie's ingredients are really weird and uncommon, especially for an Asian's kitchen. He could've easily use common and basic ingredients and yet he threw some curveball like packaged rice and chili jam in there lol.

[@taccovert4]

No kidding. Whitest of white guys here. If you told me to make egg fried rice from my kitchen, I'd probably dice a regular onion, boil up some jasmine rice (cause it's what I have), sautee the onion in a frying pan with a chopped clove of garlic, add the rice, a bit of fish sauce or soy sauce or both, some red pepper flakes (because I have that), and then throw in a couple of eggs at the end.

[@declanjohnston3983]

uncle roger sticks to the authentic recipes so obv sometimes like in my house we don’t have a real wok but it’s more about the essence of what is being made and jamie botches that hard

[@aksireaksi2624]

Paling enak nasgor jawa lah... Terbaeeekkk..

[@sigadop3492]

Uncle roger tau nasgor jawa ko bang sans aja

[@PaulaBean]

It probably is product placement.

[@PhysicsGamer]

Some context: Jamie Oliver has never actually been for "healthier" food. He likes to keep quieter about it today than he used to, but he has some _wild_ ideas of "clean" versus "dirty" foods that all this is based on instead. I've never been able to figure out a reliable way to predict which one he thinks a food is... except for how expensive it its. Even that's not perfect, but if anyone else has found a better predictor I've never seen it. For an example of this, the biggest exposure myself and a lot of other Americans have to Jamie Oliver is when he flew over here, sought out one of the poorest regions in the country, and tried to "teach the kids to eat better". This is the infamous chicken nugget video, where he took the "bad/gross/dirty" parts of the chicken and used them to make chicken nuggets. To his shock, his display didn't cause the poor kids (who, by the simple economics of the area, all knew how farms work...) to refuse the supposedly "dirty" chicken nuggets. Of course, the TV show he was filming this all for spun this as the kids _tragically_ being brainwashed or whatever into not caring what their food was made of. This mentality of his is everywhere once you start looking closer at how he puts together recipes. Chicken breast shows up everywhere even when something like chicken thighs would work better (and there's _zero_ chance of anything interesting like chicken liver being used - after all, they're not "worth quite a lot of money"). Olive oil gets thrown on _everything_ because he thinks it's a "clean" oil and therefore "healthy" (no, really, not just "doesn't have some of the same risks as other oils" which is a common-but-somewhat-wrong view... he thinks people need to actively consume more olive oil). Most greases are almost totally absent unless he can hide it in the form of "using the same pan", "drippings", or "olive oil"... in which case he loads up on it because otherwise his dishes fall apart the rest of the way. Bones and skin have to be thrown out, not reprocessed in any way... even to make broth. I genuinely don't know how or why he became a chef. His utter obsession with avoiding ingredients that "look" gross seems to be at complete odds with... the majority of what goes on in a kitchen? Even chicken breast looks unappetizing until it's cooked... Here's a quote from the comments section of another video, one which covers this topic specifically ("Jamie Oliver's War on Nuggets", which has been mentioned elsewhere in this comment section). Credit to the user who wrote it, "Second Saint", since it's an incredibly important point to make. "The inventor of chicken nuggets, Cornell Professor Robert C. Baker, grew up during the Great Depression and squeezing every last calorie out of a chicken genuinely was one of his motivations. He didn't start a chicken processing empire, even though he invented nuggets, chicken/turkey dogs, turkey ham, etc. He published his research academically and widely distributed his recipes for anyone to use and refine." Jamie Oliver doesn't care about health, or kids, or getting people to actually eat healthier. He's just a rich dude who looks at people eating anything other than the exact same food he does and is utterly grossed out. Spice is a sin to him, and authenticity just means a refusal to "improve".

[@gaydolfbitler]

He has ruined food in the UK. Passing the healthy eating law but then the schools don't get any sandwiches provided for them. 10 for the whole school maybe. Look up Dyffryn taf canteen food and that will show you what his food has done. The school had to change suppliers which were 'Healthy' which was too expensive and then they went with a cheap supplier. The foods shit and still not super healthy. Processed meats no carb free options and lots of saturates. I fucking hate him. Everyone's like why I'm like look what I'm fucking eating you degenerate bastard you venerate savagery for your own well being. Fuck you. Your name also sounds fake fucking Jamie Oliver. Get your head out your arse you inbred cunt.

[@kiloklavdi1185]

A total wannabe then

[@PhysicsGamer]

@@kiloklavdi1185 Sorta? It's honestly more like he's a wannabe that doesn't actually want to be the thing he's a wannabe of. So Jamie Oliver is a wannabe chef who doesn't actually want to be a chef in any discernible way.

[@DeeDerry]

This! I was about to write an essay of a comment but you did it for me, thanks...I live In London and at the time had friends children that went to the actual school where he was filming all that BS...It was all just for Clout! He's just a face to promote...What he did with the jerk rice was actually offensive...He has no idea 💯

[@GoldenKaos]

He has a *lot* of unresolved classism in how he approaches food.

[@Mamacat1357]

Noticed when Jamie took his bite of rice he commented on how "fun" it was to prepare it. No exclamation of great taste! 🤣

[@leathakkor]

I noticed that too

[@zerogrey3798]

I married a Japanese woman in the 90s, so one of her first acts was to get her grandparents to send me a cook book so I could cook authentic Japanese food. I did have to substitute some items because at that time some things were just hard to find in my area. The closest Asian market was 400 miles away, literally. Anyway, when I watched this video myself I was grinding my teeth. Mai would've jumped through the screen and taken' the pan away from Jamie and told him to gtfo out of the kitchen lol. Anyway, her forcing me to learn,, well not really forcing me I loved cooking, anyway her encouragement landed me a job at a really nice restaurant many years later. No tie no service. Now that she's no longer with us, and the kid is grown and gone the sum total of my cooking is throwing chunks of chicken in my air fryer. I live off of air fried chicken and rice.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[@zerogrey3798]

@@ChefJamesMakinson Thanks, but it's long done and gone. Thanks none the less.

[@tanjirokamado7098]

That is so sad to read, I hope you regain your passion for cooking and no longer live off of air fried chicken and rice.

[@Reiaaa]

Can you not invent a life please

[@sknight2810]

I hope u one day grow to love cooking again! U seems to enjoy it in the memory of her

[@Scortcorder]

I really enjoy the way you present the cons, non judgemental towards your average cook, but you also acknowledge that someone like Jamie Oliver has the money and knowledge to educate the meal properly and explain alternatives.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

thank you for noticing!

[@srikantgurram6894]

I thank you so much because I as an indian and visited 16 this different countries have never come upon a dish this shit

[@Sangsstuff]

Watching Jamie Oliver for cooking advice is like watching porn for the romantic delevopment. If you get any it will most likely be bad. Also exaggerated moaning but good lighting.

[@playedit0ut290]

As an Asian I never seen silken tofu for fried dishes. Its either fried or dried ones and the silken tofu is used for soups or steamed dishes and sometimes stir fry. The fried rice is too wet and soggy to be fried rice and can't even be considered as "stir fry".

[@petergrudge189]

I can't help myself, I totally agree it's not a stir fry, it's a stir simmer if you can believe that.😂

[@fatdoi003]

as a world renowned 'chef'... at least know the ingredients first before using them

[@appelmoesje8561]

@@jomsies mapo tofu isnt fried bruh

[@Francine-Cichy]

@@jomsies I think mapo tofu is not considered a stir fry dish but a braised one. It’s a fairly wet dish and when making it you want to keep the tofu shape intact. Seeing Jaime put the soft tofu in with the mostly uncooked egg was really unappetizing.

[@goodafternoon118]

agree. I was born in Asia and grow up in here living for my whole life and I never ever had fried rice with tofu as one of the ingredients. so strange

[@Naae_111]

5:57 when he said "pre-cooked rice" both uncle Roger and James' face turn to confusion and disgust at the same time, that was hilarious 😂

[@diarmuidkuhle8181]

In and of itself it's not bad. When you're hungry and in a hurry / too tired to wait on your dish, it's a good cheat. Uncle Ben's is the one I use, comes in a variety of nice flavours and it absolutely works when done as per the instruction - heat only with a tbsp of water for a couple minutes. It's prepared just very slightly underdone so that will make it turn out just right. But it's totally the wrong type if you want to be making fried rice.

[@Naae_111]

@diarmuidkuhle8181 yes, of course it's alright to use when you don't have much time ! And indeed, it's not what you want to use to make egg-fried rice but to me it's worse when you consider yourself a chef and make recipes for everyone to follow ! And it applies to all sorts of pre-cooked food especially those that are so common and simple to make by yourself !

[@diarmuidkuhle8181]

​@@Naae_111 That (admittedly absolutely awful) recipe was from a whole series where cutting corners and reducing preparation / cooking time was sort of the whole point. So that's why he's using it in this case. Which is not to say there is any excuse for this culinary aberration XD

[@Naae_111]

@@diarmuidkuhle8181 yes you're right, actually i do agree, it was to expect... but yes the recipe was BAD !!

[@billmagowan1492]

Jamie Oliver’s a total w*nkst*in!!

[@Lay-Z_Studios]

The "Oh my god is he serious" look on your face when he whipped out the pre cooked rice was gold.

[@Michael_Biggs_]

My favorite part of this video is when he figures out he is actually going to use the prepackaged rice. At first it appears he assumes he is just going to show it and then use some homemade day old rice.

[@AOW222]

somehow Jamie managed to turn a fried rice dish into a vegan risotto without even trying, that's kind of impressive

[@Sumire_Extras]

But he added two eggs..?

[@hazeltree7738]

@@Sumire_Extras Don't worry he killed the parents beforehand so they won't miss the egg ☺️

[@Arnav150]

@@hazeltree7738 oof 🤣

[@tengkuadam1399]

While not vegan, it stil counts as ovo vegetarian.

[@crowdemon_archives]

@@hazeltree7738 as if chicken would miss their eggs by default 😂

[@gicking3898]

This is the first reaction video I've ever seen by a person seriously reacting, with information, rather than over the top exclamations etc. I really appreciate it.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Appreciate that!

[@Fins-kn6rz]

the wrong ingredient is jamie oliver.

[@Wisdom-v1c]

Lol

[@skorpion101382]

Jamie is an example of someone that sees but never listens.

[@vinvin4884]

What's sad about this video isn't that Jamie Oliver gets so many things wrong, it's that he gets so many BASIC things wrong. This is stuff that you learn being waitstaff and watching actual chefs cook. There is absolutely zero excuse.

[@chch41]

I think it is worth to mention that 'Egg fried rice' is like 'Chinese food 101'. My 10-year-old nephew can make a dish of egg fried rice (with minor supervision) much better than Jamie. At least edible. When Uncle Roger said 'You hear sizzling, I hear my ancestors crying.', he was probably serious, in a way.

[@Ivanfbi]

All asian ancestors cried at that moment...

[@nixbailey5406]

Jaime Oliver needs minor adult supervision to make it. 😂

[@whynotwhyshouldntieatmarkerink]

Uncle Roger is the chaotic uncle, while James is the calm uncle that explains things kindly

[@AshtonishingJelly]

Well, Uncle Roger is a comedian, maybe that's the difference 😄😆

[@robertbrainard5651]

Explaining how not to cook egg fried rice. I mean he fucked it up, you can explain all you want but if you fucked it up from the start and keep fucking up. You're just showing others how to fuck it up too.

[@gab.4252]

And he makes it right-Uncle Roger

[@Riccardo_Mori]

Perfect comment. 👍

[@Nari21q]

The good cop and the bad cop

[@DuracellSA]

I loved when he circled back to the pre-cooked packaged rice at the end for the third time because he was just that offended😂

[@ephiuca]

An equivalent for the chili jam in fried rice for me, is adding strawberry jam to a good cup of earl grey in front of the British saying it adds more sweetness and fruity flavour. In fact maybe we should dilute the tea with more water too while we're at it.

[@ephiuca]

Maybe make sure to tell them the tea wasn't steeped in house, it was bought from a can down at the supermarket

[@irregularobo4531]

A more apt analogy would be to add soy sauce to your can of tea.

[@ExecutiveChefLance]

Eh not really. All those flavors are common in Asian cooking. Use the Chili Jam to Marinate Chicken for Fried Rice. Or use 1/3 Jam, Soy, Honey and some other random stuff to make a Glaze for Pork or Chicken. Or Fish Sauce, Chili Jam, Soy and Glaze some seared tofu. Jamie's technique here is dogs**t not his choice of flavors or ingredients. Go to any Asian Grocery store. You will find at least 12 different Chili sauces with sugar. You'll find like 6+ different types of sugar itself.

[@philwill0123]

Chilli jam is interesting, but not dessert like. It goes well with cheese on a cheese board.

[@andrewgrant6516]

I would drink that. Sounds tasty.

[@RyanHellyer]

The thing I hated the most was actually the silken tofu. That looks like a horrid thing to add to a fried rice dish.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

No It didn't look that nice

[@manusiabumi7673]

If you want to add silken tofu you can fry it first and add it on top of the rice or in a separate plate, mixing uncooked tofu with the fried rice only adds unnecessary moisture and turn it to mush

[@Kurry34]

@@manusiabumi7673 still no. You're thinking of firm tofu. There is fried silken tofo out there but it's usually served as its own dish,it would still just break into mush if you mix it into fried rice.

[@lavarel]

@@Kurry34 the previous comment said "on top" So i assume not mixed. Like, cooked separately, put the fried rice in a bowl, and put fried silken tofu on top.

[@Idk1_hi]

@@manusiabumi7673 simple D O N O T ADD TOFU to fried rice, haiyaaa that doesnt sound good, crushed tofu with fried rice? disgusting

[@bushbasher85]

The one element in this dish that upsets me the most is how Jamie cooked the eggs. It appears the albumin and the yolks are cooking separately, so when you eat the egg fried rice, you’re gonna get bits of white and yolk separately. He Should’ve whisked the eggs in a separate bowl and incorporated the yolks and the whites.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Chef Wang cook them separately

[@ELiT3Griefer]

Yeahhhhh, in Asia people tend to cook them more (like Chef Wang did) but they're definitely scrambled together

[@jjessus9405]

It’s true, however for some reason I sometimes like the two different flavours of the egg, like 80% of the time I whisk before but the other 20 I feel like I want the two separate ones, I’m weird I know that, but it’s funny how taste plays with you sometimes

[@callmeobsequious]

The way your face fell at the pre-cooked rice... I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh but the way the smile _slowly_ left your face as you processed what you were hearing was really funny 😭 I love the contrast between Uncle Rogers' more upbeat, out there commentary and your calm, soft reactions, and the fact that I'm learning from both of you because you're actually ADDING useful information. Very well done. I hope you were able to recover from the pre-cooked rice.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

thank you!

[@TheGreenB1rd]

Hehe, it's funny how a guy with the "chef" title starts to use packet rice in his cooking

[@kurtanims1216]

​@@TheGreenB1rd he's not a chef, he is called Mister Chili Jam

[@RailwaysFanaticBrisbane050.]

​@@kurtanims1216yep

[@sageofsixpaths544]

I agree with @callmeobsequious I have been learning more about cooking watching Uncle Roger's and your videos @ChefJamesMakinson also your reaction to the packet rice and the chilli jam was priceless I personally can let the packet rice slide but this was the first time I have ever heard of Chilli Jam

[@AgueroNain]

I love Uncle Roger’s blunt, honest yet comedic approach. Love how he calls out established chefs on their misguided “recipes” well done Uncle Roger.

[@Scott-J]

I think Chef Brian Tsao got it right when he guessed the sugar in the chili jam was starting to burn or stick. Like you said, hitting it with water was meant to cool the pan and stop that.

[@sloper1827]

I love that your reactions matched Uncle Roger's so often. The onions, the rice. 😂 But I love how diplomatic and kind you are, letting everyone know that they can use what they need though there are better ways

[@ShiroKage009]

Chef James, you're usually really cool and you give people the benefit of the doubt. I love how Jamie lost you completely with this recipe 😂😂

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Well pre-cooked rice is not something that you see all the time!

[@ShiroKage009]

@@ChefJamesMakinson It's absolutely shocking. It's so easy to cook rice that it doesn't make sense to pay for the additional packaging.

[@gaming1zanagi-1999]

@@ChefJamesMakinson ye. That is the last thing I would add. Even I would rather use a newly cooked rice from rice cooker. At least with the right amount of oil and condiments it would dried the rice out even if you only let it warmed up inside the rice cooker for 15 mins or so. Cause usually a fluffy cooked rice dried out a bit more when you let it sit still and warmed up inside the rice cooker after it is just finished cooking.

[@TrappedinSLC]

@@ShiroKage009 It's basically an "I need to eat before I fall over in bed" food - stick it in the microwave for like a minute, throw something on it for flavor or heat up a packet Indian meal (note that all packet Indian I've ever tried has a weird flavor that I have yet to encounter in an actual Indian restaurant or from a meal cooked by an Indian home cook, and that's a bunch of meals and restaurants) and you have a very quick dinner. Also good for if you're traveling and you have one of those hotel rooms that has a tiny microwave and a fridge - my SO hates paying for restaurant food if it's just because he needs to eat SOMETHING (as opposed to because you're going there intentionally to try the food) so he usually buys a few of those things plus some stuff like yogurt to have for breakfast and those are his meals when he doesn't want to take the time or spend the money to go out. We keep a stash in our RV now, too - if you have power (we have a generator if we aren't at a campground with power) you can have a hot meal with no prep and pretty much only a bowl and a spoon to clean, so while it's not our preferred option, it at least means no one starves. And it's way less salty and less expensive than freeze dried camping food. (We recently got a tiny travel rice cooker that can run off 12V, though, so if we have a little bit more time we tend to use that - the quality of rice is much nicer. Packet rice has a distinct texture ime.)

[@michaelscott5782]

@@TrappedinSLC CONTEXT! Which Jamie program is it? What is he trying to do...spend an hour cooking or making a cheat meal after work? That's WHAT HE DOES!

[@Eiensakura]

As a Chinese, seeing the tofu getting torn like that made me cringe so hard inside. Also, wet silky tofu? I can get behind cubed fried tofu, but silky tofu? Unless he had pressed out the liquid from the tofu, won't it add even more liquid into the rice as it cooks?

[@playedit0ut290]

Same. Never seen any sliken tofu used in fried dishes at all. How Jamie just smushed that silken tofu into the fried rice just makes the entire dish a soggy mess that can't even consider as "stir fry".

[@fatdoi003]

@@playedit0ut290 turning stir fry into braised

[@SkimLives]

Dude, I'm Korean and I was insulted. He even used the worst firmness of tofu for pan frying! But I did not even know about the paella video...with chorizo??? Seriously??

[@lzh4950]

@@playedit0ut290 What I more commonly saw growing up eating my mother's cooking was cubed frozen carrots & peas in fried rice

[@karaamundson3964]

ikr? I may be American, but I can discern the wet, juicy texture of silken tofu...and, conversely, the dense, meaty quality of firm tofu. Just a question. Even with fried rice, would it be appropriate to lightly fry the tofu first? I don't know so this is an honest inquiry

[@schneeraizor7020]

as an asian, for me oliver didnt even do a research on everything. when i was a kid, what i understand fried rice is only "frying the rice" and adding whatever that i feel nice to add in the fried rice. so often i will cook it randomly like jamie did. but as i grow older, there is some rule to it to make it proper meal. and after 1st time i saw jamie video, i think he just did what i do when i was 10 years old. putting whatever when i fry the rice just by feeling and not knowing anything. and i even dont identify myself as a chef or cook. for me putting package rice isnt a big thing to comment, because in asia if there is these kinds of things exist we wouldnt even care. but that chilly jam and tofu is really triggers me tbh. especially that tofu, it looks terrible.

[@lzh4950]

I bet Jamie thought the chilli jam was like _sambal/belachan_ which seems more fitting in Asian cuisine, though not so commonly mixed into fried rice, but more commonly added on the side so the eater can choose how much he/she wants to put depending on how spicy you want it

[@Zzz-tf5mw]

@@lzh4950 Thailand has its equivalent of sambal called "namprik" and, Thai cook adds the namprik while frying, not after.

[@possiblyconfused5365]

@@Zzz-tf5mw i thought it was called "nam prik pao"

[@Zzz-tf5mw]

@@possiblyconfused5365 Namprikpao is a variety of namprik family. Namprik is chili-based dipping. Recipes under namprik blanket includes - namprikpao (which indeed is the Thai adaptation of Sichuan chili oil) - namprikkapi - nampriknoom - nampriktadaeng - nampriklongrua - namprikplayang - namprikong etc. They are over 20 varieties of namprik. Namprik which are commonly used for fried rice dish are namprikpao, namprikkapi and nampriklongrua.

[@possiblyconfused5365]

@@Zzz-tf5mw ohh ok

[@jcnorn]

Great video! I think the pre-packaged rice was because the episode is from one of Jamie's 'make dinner in 15 minutes'-series he made. So he was trying to help find 'shortcuts' for people so they could cook food and still feel like they had time for other things. :D But it wasn't egg fried rice at the end, at all :|

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you! I think take out would be better and easier then this.

[@lazaruslong697]

@@ChefJamesMakinson Most likely much more tasty as well.

[@cybershorts2437]

Can we just appreciate calm he is through the whole video and how he is explaining everything

[@diegobuenovillafane869]

super kind and good explainer, love him!

[@rnzracing345]

As a South east asian, Jamie putting tap water on an Egg Fried Rice just made my ancestors cry hard.

[@Lyander25]

Reaction videos are a guilty pleasure since they are often primarily an entertainment device, so thank you for making it a proper learning experience as well! Also, absolutely love the progressing shock and confusion from 5:58 onwards when you got to the "packet pre-cooked rice" bit. Didn't know that existed either!

[@monalee7687]

I was trying to think of what the resulting dish looked like in terms of how wet it is. The worst ingredient about this video for me was the silken tofu. Silken tofu has so much water in it; that plus adding extra water in there turned the dish into a quasi porridge. He should have used firm tofu, cut into cubes, if he wanted to use tofu.

[@gabrielbernard5440]

yeah, you do not add silken tofu to dishes you want to be relatively dry. Tofu pudding, making sauces with it for vegan dishes or whatever. But I like silken tofu as a cooling dish for the summer. With chopped spring onions and other greeens and soy sauce and a bit of sesame or sesame oil/tahin over it, and scoop chunks of the tofu with the other ingredients. Basically like a salad, but the main point is to appreciate the texture and smooth taste of the silken tofu

[@taitano12]

I was raised in Guam, fried rice for breakfast on most days and a lot of dinners. That fried rice episode qualifies as food horror, in my opinion. I let out a shout of terror when he added the extra water. And, yes, I was already set on edge by the packaged rice and chili jam.

[@idmouse]

I've never seen a chef be so offended by a food. Ever. Awesome

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

🤣

[@Orion_TheyThem]

It's not the food itself but the lack of awareness and erasing the culture and history. If you're going to make something, respect the culture it comes from. And don't call it egg fried rice when it's Not egg fried rice. It's your fried rice dish. But it's not egg fried rice. Jamie talks like he's an authority on this when he gets the recipe SO wrong. If these people like him and Rachael wouldn't do that, there wouldn't be as much of an issue

[@imanepink]

Should check out Brain Tsao

[@madisjustafeeling]

yes he really should be offended cuz this is our(asian) culture food.....what will happen if we as asian cook western food wrongly...😶

[@hachibidelta4237]

@@madisjustafeeling Asian? More like east Asian (southeast and sinosphere)

[@JorgedelasAlas]

Chef James, you are one classy guy. You may disagree with some of the chefs' techniques or choices of ingredients but you say it in a constructive way without demeaning anyone. Big salute!

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

I really appreciate that, thank you Jorge! 😉

[@Lilac_Simp]

As a Jamaican I was quite shocked at how Jamie messed up egg fried rice. Even my mom was crying. My mom is not a professional chef but she can cook good food when making egg fried rice my mom would use leftover chicken and rice to make it. This is not apart of the discussion but if I see Jamie making ackee and salt fish I know he will mess up

[@astamanista9447]

About smashed tofu, my mom has a stir-fried smashed tofu recipe with eggs, shallot, onion, usual spices, and chicken broth stir fried until the excess liquid evaporates. It's one of my favorite recipes of her. What she doesn't use, however, is silken tofu. She uses firmer tofu for that one. The worst offense I see from this is the packaged rice.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Very good point!

[@zeppelincraft1443]

Honestly if he just put either the rice or the tofu on the side it would have been decent imo. Also bonus points if he used sesame oil instead of olive oil.

[@TheLadyLuck523]

Jamie's recipe is like something a college student would make in their dorm if they wanted a version of fried rice. But as an Asian it's horrifying. That consternation as you saw the packet rice is hilarious. I can understand simplifying a recipe for a beginner cook but teach a good basic recipe and advise if they can't get the proper equipment or ingredients.

[@krysylleangelica992]

My egg fried rice is just rice, egg, and salt. I cannot cook aside from pasta.

[@minhuang8848]

"as an Asian" is almost patronizing, considering, say, Chinese cuisine and eating culture is very much conceived around scrappiness and improvising with what you have. Most cuisines in the world are, in fact, and if you can make it work, there is nothing wrong with packet rice. It's still just freaking rice, except the parboiled kind has a lower glycemic index and might in certain cases benefit dishes on account of variance in amylose/amylopectin contents. It tends to be very different from the rigidity Italian YT cooks display about strictly following recipes, experimentation and changing things is encouraged and it led to plenty of fantastic accidents over the years. Jamie Oliver might not be my favorite personality, but the criticism he gets is ridiculous on so many counts, including Uncle Roger's mostly exaggerated issues with all his stuff.

[@nemo0036]

@@krysylleangelica992 Fry some garlic first on the pan. THEN do it.

[@rheawelsh4142]

It's way too overcomplicated for a college student, the packet rice maybe but any random college student could tell you that a few dashes of soy sauce is going to turn out better than what he made

[@AgraxGaming]

@@minhuang8848 "there is nothing wrong with packet rice. It's still just freaking rice" you are wrong, pal. They use a worse, cheaper breed of rice to make all these kinds "pre-packaged rices". It's sticky, gooey and really subpar to just any rice you can buy

[@xanadu6784]

I've thought about this video way too much. No Wok: Yes a Wok is ideal, but if you are going to substitute a pan, he could at least have used cast iron. I understand using a substitution, but he went with a bad substitution. I refuse to believe he had no cast iron. Olive Oil: I'm torn on this. I suspect that a pure olive oil, something far from extra virgin that is actually fairly neutral with a higher smoke point, could be okay. But it could be okay, as in, if this is the only oil that you have, it will work. Does he not have like...vegetable oil? is that beyond his grasp as a professional chef making a cooking video? Maybe he is pretending like the olive oil is healthier. Pre-packaged rice: Insane that he would use pre-packaged rice in a cooking demonstration. However, pre-packaged rice is common in some areas, and I think you could argue that it is similar to day old rice, which you do want for fried rice. I'm not convinced that if you suddenly want to make fried rice, you aren't better off buying packaged rice then cooking and using fresh rice. If he clarified that you can use this in a pinch, I think he could get a pass. Green Onion: ive always been a fan of cooking the whites of the onion like an aromatic along with that missing garlic, and using the greens for garnish. Including the greens as first thing in the pan...no. Chili jam: Certainly a weird ingredient, but not automatically bad...HOWEVER...its a jam, therefore filled with sticky sugar. Which will burn at the high temperatures you want to fry rice at. If he added it at the very end with the green onion, I would be less critical (Though a weird, sticky coating is not a great match for fried rice). If he added it as a condiment after cooking, I would say it is untraditional, but I can't fault him, and I would probably like it I must confess. But it is wrong, especially how he used it. And the sneaky part is that that sugar burning problem...is probably why he had to add water. To prevent the jam from burning. Adding water: This actually bothers me more then anything else. Sometimes, you use the ingredients you have or that really appeal to you, its not the worst thing. Adding water to something you are trying to cook quickly and with a lot of heat like fried rice is the worst technique imaginable. No argument about it being his own take, this is just wrong. Egg: The slow rate of cooking of that eggs shows me that his pan is way, way too low. Borderline making rice pudding. Tofu: Those crumbles are just so inconsistent, unevenly cooking, and that Tofu...Ive gotten Tofu in that kind of packaging, it is super wet and needs to be pressed and drained. That probably added even more water to the dish, and must have been unbelievably bland. If it was pressed and cut into cubes, I could forgive it, but this is awful. The only defense I will give to Jamie is that instead of, "Random" he should have said, "Not homogenous". If he described it as having a variety of shapes and sized, it would have been fine. And lastly, no MSG. I think this speaks to a deeper problem. Jamie talks a lot about health, and MSG developed a reputation for being unhealthy because of racist attitudes towards American Chinese restaurants. It's actually fine, probably better for you then the sugar in that Chili jam actually, but I bet Jamie is avoiding it because of the stereotype. It would make sense because so much of Jamies health crusade seems to be rooted not in health, but classism. His famous crusade against chicken nuggets describes chicken nuggets as bad not because of the oil and deep frying so much, but because it uses the bad, dirty, CHEAP parts of the chicken that "The poor's" use, and shames people out of using ingredients that would be accessible to the lower, inferior classes. His recommendations aren't completely wrong, but he sure imagines that any food item has about 50% more calories if he can more easily picture in the fridge of someone who had problems paying rent.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Excellent comment Adam! Yes the precooked packaged rice could be good if people don't have time but cooking your own rice is cheaper than buying less than a kilo of already precooked rice. But it is what it is.

[@AhsimNreiziev]

Excellent comments about the Racist and Classist attitudes inherent in the dismissal of certain ingredients, types of oil and cuts of meat! I certainly suspect that Jamie Oliver harbours some of the worst Imperialist attitudes inherent in sadly far too many Brits. Not to make this too political or anything, but I have a dear friend who's British and lives in England, and who is a wonderful woman in nearly all possible aspects (she's also an amazing professional Opera Singer!), but who also voted for Brexit because somewhere she still believes that Britain can reattain that former Imperial glory. I think that Jamie Oliver suffers from much the same problems, except with cooking instead of Economics and Politics.

[@xanadu6784]

@@AhsimNreiziev The channel, "Folding Ideas" does a good look at this in his video, "Jamie Oliver's War on Nuggets" if you're interested.

[@mayastic9570]

So you are very right except for the olive oil thing. It is actually healthier. As long as you don't burn your oil and create a whole bunch off carcinogens. Cell walls are made off fat and vegetable oils are a type off fat that oxidizes very easely, that still applies even after they enter the body. This often leads to cells breaking and dying and other inhibited cell function. Olive oil is not only lower in this fat type but also contains significant amounts off antioxidants to help prevent oxidative stress in the body. I'm not a cook so it's not up to me to recommend what oils or fats to use, I don't know their smoke points so recommending something for each recipe is not something I should do. If you have to choose between olive oil, tallow, butter or vegetable oil it's probably in that order.

[@xanadu6784]

@@mayastic9570 fair, but I would argue that it is not significant in those quantities, in that dish, when comparing with the pure, refined, non-virgin olive oil he is likely useing. Then again, his pan looked so cold, maybe he could safely use EVOO. But if true, I'm even angrier now.

[@sampfrost]

the way you and nigel’s responses mirror each other is priceless

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

😂

[@James_D.]

To be fair, the reason he used pre-packaged rice was because this recipe is from a series called 'Quick & Easy', where you make things as simple as possible and using only 5 ingredients. But still olive oil and chili jam is a no go. The paella isn’t the worst thing he did (so far). He made Ramen without using ramen and Butter Chicken without using butter. Honestly, the recipe itself wasn’t that bad, but when the key ingredient is missing, just called it different.

[@JoshF848]

If he’s only got 5 ingredients to play with that’s even less of a reason to put the chili jam and tofu in, or to use olive oil

[@saddocatto9245]

honestly... using leftover rice is more easy than buying a pre packaged rice

[@yotjha]

Fair point

[@SoscaSumihadi]

this fried rice is the worst. I can only imagine a bland and soggy rice with this.. no garlic or soy sauce.. I mean, even though the most traditional chinese style fried rice (forgot the name) don't use garlic, it uses other things like char siu etc to build the taste.. But cooking ramen without using ramen is next off course

[@fatdoi003]

a delicious fried rice can be cooked with 1. rice (cooled freshly cooked rice not overnight staled rice) 2. egg 3. shallot 4. salt 5. oil...... if you want to add protein that's optional but that's the foundation of a fried rice....

[@chiogojin]

As a Malaysian Chinese, I'll call this 黑暗料理, which you may pronounce as "Hey Arn Liao Lee" which means "Dark Cuisine" and obviously it will taste "dark" 😂 But I have to say I've tried fried rice with tofu before its not bad, just the tofu they use is not soft silken tofu like this, they use fried tofu which the tofu is dried and seasoned, so it will not add extra moisture to the fried rice but instead add more taste and texture.

[@crowdemon_archives]

Yea, in a fried rice dish, no way in hell I would want to use silken tofu. Fried bean curds aren't even that hard to find or make either.

[@mamihashimoto1429]

Lol. I am Japanese, but I could read what you wrote in Chinese, and I burst out laughing. 😂

[@kevinerose]

The funny thing about this video is that even for us non-chefs, every time Uncle Roger finds something wrong, he makes it seem obvious and like mistakes we would make in our homes. There's another video I love he did where the mom makes fried rice for her son but she uses unboiled rice.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

yeah Kays cooking! that's something different. haha

[@raidomani]

Growing up in a asian household the stuff Uncle Roger makes seem obvious feels pretty obvious. My family has made egg fried rice since I can remember. Not saying it is objectively obvious but at least to me and my family we thought it was obvious

[@retrorevival1]

The only thing I can say in Jaime's defense regarding packaged rice is that Jaime's entire career he's marketed himself as a man of the people, a working class hero. Using the pre-cooked packaged rise is absolutely on brand for him in that he wants people to see his recipes and say yes I can make that, easy, simple, and cheap. People that love Jaime Oliver don't own a rice cooker, they don't want to spend time preparing rice properly - they will hear preparing something the day before or using left over rice (almost no one in the UK making egg friend rice will have had another meal with rice the day or so before) chilling rice etc and their eyes will glaze over. It's unfortunate but that's how it is. Could he do better and show how to make rice properly, absolutely.

[@jmurray1110]

Yeah it’s a nice little view he has Too bad it’s bullshit He doesn’t care about poorer people Just ask the people who use 2 for 1 pizza deals to save sone cash

[@jmurray1110]

Or alternatively compare his school diner plans to the budgets

[@walkermorales337]

Not from the UK, but it’s kinda hard to imagine not eating a single meal with rice throughly the day. I eat rice at least twice a day, wether it be in soups or as a side.

[@jmurray1110]

Yeah that’s really uncommon here I don’t think I had rice until I was in my teens and currently don’t eat any at all @@walkermorales337

[@Black98Raven]

But he doesn’t even HAVE to pre chill the rice 😩 I usually use those packets you throw in water and in 5 minutes they’re done. By the time my garlic is fried the rice is done. By the time the other veggies are done, the rice is chilled enough that I just throw it in. And even if it wasn’t, it surely is betterNin addition to cheaper and easier to get than pre cocked rice. Honestly, the things he did are much more sacrilegious than not using chilled rice.

[@m2hmghb]

I've got chronic fatigue syndrome and there is no way I'd ever use packaged rice. Great video James. I love Uncle Roger for the humor but I come here to learn about cooking. Put the two of you together and it;s the best of both worlds.

[@Shirley36]

loved watching your reaction lol, especially the emotions that flashed across your face as you saw the pre-packaged rice lmao. I honestly have never seen pre-packaged rice in any grocery store here in Southeast Asia, I guess that's more of a Western thing as I guess not as many households are cooking rice on the daily like we do or maybe they're for families without rice cookers? Oh but if you wanna know the video that really made Uncle Roger super popular, it was actually the reaction video that he made to the BBC Egg Fried Rice video with Hersha Patel, before he made this one. You should check that one out as well lol, I'd say that one was just as much of a disaster, if not more.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you Shirley! rice is not as common in the west but rice was introduced many centuries ago into Spain by the Moors and here it is a very popular ingredient, England not so much. I will have a look!! :)

[@communadog7874]

Here in Brazil it is extremely common, most households eat it at least once every day

[@bobd2659]

I'm going to be making my own chili jam this fall with those Thai Dragon chilis that I was telling you about. We normally make the pepper gel (name is location dependant) with red shepherd peppers which are a little sweet. It's a great compliment for things like pork or turkey. Basically the homemade recipe is just gently cooked down peppers in a little bit of water, sugar, and pectin at the end to set it. Jar it and water bath it and it can sit unopened on a shelf for 2 - 3 years.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

That sounds much more what I would like! I have a few Thai Burapa Chili's growing so hope you have some by the end of the year!

[@silvermeasuringspoons6462]

A Thai celebrity chef reacted to this video as well, and she recommended that if you wanted to use some kind of “Chili Jam” try using “Nam Prick Poa”. It’s burn easily though so be careful.

[@ruedelta]

It's the moisture control that is probably the biggest sin here. The packet rice is probably salvageable if it were the only thing, but everything else really turns this into a part fried, part steamed product. Obviously steamed dishes are easier to feel healthy, but if that's the case, don't make fried rice in the first place, there are plenty of steamed dishes in the various Chinese cuisines. That's Jamie's real fundamental issue, and the moisture control is his way of heading somewhere he's not supposed to be.

[@foogod4237]

Re: the pre-cooked rice packet: I think this is something that is more common to find in the UK, and a lot of UK home cooks are more familiar with. I also think this is why Jamie is using it, is because he is trying to tailor this recipe to UK home cooks and trying to give them a "quick recipe" they can do with minimal effort. In that context, I don't think it's necessarily the end of the world (several of the other issues are worse, IMHO). It would have been good if he had at least explained that was what he was doing, though, and that it would be better with rice you cook yourself, if you can afford to... (Personally, I think pre-cooked rice is an abomination in general, but to be honest, if you're going to use it for something, I suspect fried rice is probably a better application for it than most other dishes, because after it has been chilled, re-warmed and fried up you're less likely to notice the texture problems it always inevitably has out of the packet, than if you're trying to use it "fresh" for something.)

[@Mescaline82]

You are right, I didnt double check, but i think this video come from a series specifically advertised as a 15min cooking meals or a similar concept !

[@dahlyiadubonnet]

We have the pre-cooked rice in the US and it's full of chemicals you don't need and they are super expensive versus a bag of rice. Most people these days own rice cookers and/or some form of pressure cooker ie InstaPot which makes rice in 5 minutes, even coconut rice. Also, you could just go to any Asian restaurant and buy just a large order of steamed rice and throw it in the fridge. Oliver was ok years back as the Naked Chef, now he's a little too arrogant and possibly one of several reasons why he lost most of his restaurants. The reviews for the Italian ones are awful. It's a shame really. 😊

[@Darkstormsun9865]

Actually fried rice is a dish where rice texture matters a lot. using prepackaged rice would just make it taste off and not as good.

[@foogod4237]

​@@Darkstormsun9865 I didn't say rice texture didn't matter, or that it would be as good. What I said is just that _if you must use prepackaged rice in something,_ fried rice is probably a better use for it than most other things you could do with it.

[@rafezetter8003]

I was going to write something similar - Jamie's history goes back to a tiem when he was doing shows for "single blokes" who just wanted food but without all the 3 hrs prep time and nonsense, and this is where the packaged rice comes from. There are already PLENTY of cooking programs for food elitest afficionados who have all the "right" ingrediants and who will happily spend 20 minutes cooking rice before spending 10 more minutes makign egg fried rice only to have eaten it 5 minutes after that. It's not "authentic" sure, but it gets the job done and is STILL better than buying a macdonalds or other junk food

[@MdnightWnd]

Your expressions when he called it a side dish and when he used the packet rice were great! Definitely had me laughing. And I get that Jamie is trying to promote healthier cooking and is trying to make these types of dishes easier and more "accessible" to people, but if that's the case just promote it that way. He would get so much less hate if he would just say "I know that a lot of these steps and ingredients aren't traditional and you're not going to get an authentic dish with this recipe, but this is my healthier and easier take on it"

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

[@doomkappa3407]

I'm not sure if packet rice and chilli jam are more "accessible" to common folk I take fried rice with just salt, pepper, garlic and soy sauce any day

[@lzh4950]

When I had fried rice for a meal, it was typically the *only* dish, probably as itself is a mix of many types of food e.g. you could add scrambled eggs (chopped up), small chicken chunks, cubed carrots, peas etc.

[@irregularobo4531]

Too much oil. Definitely not healthier than just traditional fried rice.

[@LaNoir.]

People who "need" to learn cooking most of the time don't have much money and just go for fast food. Pre-cooked rice is the worst way to throw away your money, they charge you 4-5x the price of dry one. It's also bad for nature since it needs more packaging, is heavier and makes the use of water a central thing, using up ressources for people living there. Cooking rice literally takes 10-15 minutes without need of supervising. Jamie does not think about health nor about actual accessibility or prices, this boy obviously never had to care about money.

[@Bennie_Tziek]

I do my egg fried rice random, but its like a composition of random items I have at hand, I look in the fridge to see what I have to put in, make a selection and then think about what wok-sauce I want to use. Sometimes I make normal standard egg-fried rice when I have nothing to build the dish around, but rarely.

[@bahavamoss8372]

Uncle Roger is hilarious. And your cool demeanor is a perfect foil to that. I appreciate your explanation.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

I appreciate it! Thank you!

[@embyratwood690]

The look of utter disturb on your face when you saw the packaged rice was priceless. I was ready for the chili jam, but the water and rice caught me off guard too

[@maryreed7008]

Laughing my head off at this. Not only are Uncle Rogers faces and comments are hilarious but your face at the packaged rice and chili jam was priceless.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

😂

[@Nicholas1994]

I appreciate your commentary. It's nice that you assure people that it's okay to use whatever you have access to while also pointing out what is best practice. I think this is important to not deter people from taking an interest in their cooking.

[@Caroline30939]

I showed this to my mom and she was shocked when Jamie Oliver put water into that fried rice 😂 I think Jamie is tryna match the taste bud to UK so it’s taste good and easier recipe to cook for them. I get it. It’s like sushi. If you serve deep fried sushi to Japanese people some of them might get offended but in US it’s actually tasty and a lot of people likes it. It really depends on where you live and how they change their taste a little bit to match their own tastes.

[@kageseiryuu8675]

Reactions are simply gold. Agreed. I'm fairly certain pre-cooked rice is illegal in Asian cooking :D I'm not a stranger to pre-cooked rice I see people buy it all the time (makes a tiny little bit of me die every time) but I wouldn't touch it with a 10meter pole. I can confirm the Asian ingredient comment from Uncle Roger. It's either in plastic bags, plastic boxes without a lid and wrapped in a plastic bag or in repurposed food containers. Another cook that reacted to Jamie's video mentioned it and I agree that I could begrudgingly accept chilli jam on the side if you feel like changing up the flavour. I wouldn't touch it but if someone likes it let them have it. Just DON'T include it in the cooking process. Splash of water is a facepalm. Pretty sure my parents would force me to eat to remember to never do such a thing or make me flush everything down the toilet and do it from scratch. Tofu made me hear war drums of my ancestors. It's also more moisture into the already wet rice -.- Diced and fried tofu is okay. I'm all for experimenting with food and mixing flavours to fit your taste buds, heck I add weird stuff to my rice but Jamie is making a video many UK people will look up as a guide for egg-fried rice cuz he is a professional chef and then those people will associate this disaster with Asian cooking.

[@rbenusa]

Pre-cooked rice is used in Asian cooking. It's mostly just standard quality rice stuffed in a packet or plastic container. You can use it when you don't have time to cook the real thing because it can take a few minutes to do so. Then again, we Asians are really particular with our rice so the pre-cooked ones sold here might still be of higher quality than the ones sold in the West. Also, freshly-cooked rice isn't good for fried rice unless the kind of rice you're using has a very low starch content and less sticky--and even that you'll have to let cool down first as opposed to more starchy rice that you need to leave out for hours unless you want your fried rice to be more porridge--like. But, yeah, Oliver isn't really somebody you want to get quality cooking advice from lol

[@blueclothes1]

Even the most basic Asian restaurants all over, you’ll see several giant rice cookers going all the time. It’s not a step any restaurants would choose to skip. There IS a big difference in terms of taste and texture between freshly cooked and packaged rice. Packaged rice relies on almost all moisture being pulled and stabilizers to sit on a shelf for a long time.

[@linliniscool]

Aaa 2nd video of james' that ive watched and hes such a chill dude 😭 i dont normally watch people reacting to someone, reacting to another but i enjoy these. Hopefully Uncle Roger and James can collab some day, id love to see it :3!!

[@K4terchen]

I have to say this is a great reaction video. Usually the person reacting says some stuff and laughs but usually does not add to the video which you did very well with the information on the paella and the cooking advice

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

I appreciate that! I try to add something that can be useful to know. there is so much to learn with cooking!

[@plumbcrazy9195]

You said my exact thoughts. It’s one thing to make it a certain way at home. When you are able to do it 100% properly and choose not to, then show it off to the world as if that’s the way it’s done where the dish originated from is just insulting. Def earned a sub chef!!

[@tzm_tuf]

This is what I am taught by my mom: 1: Aromatic First like garlic, shallots, ginger 2: once oil is fragrant, meat/seafood/eggs and seasoning and veggie if you want, then 3: leftover rice & mix well, 4: if done, heat off, the garnish: spring onion So simple: this is a dish that we make when we have nothing to eat at home or mom is not around to cook. One dish lunch/dinner

[@rahminapuspa4805]

I used leftover ingredients for my fried rice...it's my comfort food that is easy and cheap. So yeah...sometimes I used tofu. But I used firm tofu, break it and stir fry it until it crumbles and dry... You can use it as topping or just mix it into your fried rice... Easy to get and cheap ingredients are the key for my fried rice 😁

[@jeffs.4313]

Excellent review Chef. I enjoy your insight and how you educate your viewers on the dish and the correct way of preparing it. Now your always cool, calm and collective in your reactions, but your stunned reaction and disbelief to Jamie using pre-made rice was priceless!

[@AhsimNreiziev]

I normally hate to be a Grammar Nazi (no really, I honestly do), but just this once: it's "collected", not "collective".

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you very much!!

[@satchmodog2]

I never could get into Oliver's cooking and when i saw Nigel review this earlier it just reinforced what i always thought. The package rice and chili jam were bad enough, but the okive oil is a huge sin. The stuff has a distinct, non Asian flavor. I can think of other oils that are just as healthy without the olive flavor.

[@jmurray1110]

Yeah it’s possible it’s a subconscious bias with Jamie It has to feel high class for him to accept it Throws away most of the chicken when making a broth stuff like that

[@siclay]

that look of disbelief when he took out that packaged pre-cooked rice.. 😂

[@shigure_114]

Jamie definitely knows how to do things right, cuz he's done everything wrong. It's like, it's easy to fail the exam, but not easy to get 0 points unless you know the correct answer.

[@starlingwatch3921]

I've come to learn that Uncle Roger is a real chef, he loves cooking, and he's good at it.

[@Snake644]

No garlic was the biggest sin, but then again, who is counting at this point 🤣 Love your videos, particularly how laid back you are in all of them. Glad you are feeling better too. Thank you :)

[@russellward4624]

Nobody can count that high lol

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you very much! :)

[@adamh3102]

Uncle Roger and your face when the pre-packet rice came out was priceless! Recently subscribed, love the content and recipes!

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you so much!

[@MisterRorschach90]

They absolutely sell packaged premade rice and it’s actually usually very good quality compared to what you’d expect from premade. Also fried rice is made with old rice all the time, it’s one of the reasons for the dish as far as I’ve been told. A way to reuse old rice.

[@btackett2]

I am not a chef but I really enjoy cooking for myself and others. When I first started learning to cook Food Network was where I went to learn things. This was back 20 years ago when Food Network still cared about food. Now that I have learned more and seen more chefs out there, also the terrible state of Food Network today, it is really a terrible place for a newbie to go to learn. So many bad habits taught at the start that can haunt you for years.

[@tallondarkfeather9728]

Yeah, back when we had Alton Brown doing his thing, That man is my HERO in the food world.

[@Blogdorf]

I agree with Bill about Food Network. I never watch it anymore. It's the same old cast and they come across as self-congratulatory and entitled, which I find insulting. Granted, marketing is necessary, but the Network has lost me as a viewer. I find what I need to know about cooking on KZbin now.

[@Willensimperium]

Just came on your channel through this reaction and really like your calm, polite style. Will follow and check out a lot of stuff since I wanted to cook much more at home in the future. :)

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@shirwong7198]

Happened to chance upon your videos and enjoy it!. Love it that a actual chef sharing factual views about cooking reaction video

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you so much! :)

[@SuirenChannelVT]

So interesting fact, they actually sell packaged cooked rice in Japan. It’s not that horrible 😂 I have a rice cooker but during covid there was a period of time where the bags of rice literally got sold out so I ended up getting packaged rice for my meals. Not as bad as people make it out to be. Plus since it’s pretty good for fried rice cause it is cold and dried (Sort of, not like hard dried but drier than fresh rice for sure). Granted I probably wouldn’t use it for a professional video, I might mention it as an alternative though to cooking rice and leaving it overnight just for fried rice in the morning.

[@LiveLoveLaugh102310]

Packaged rice is ok if you're cooking for yourself or your family. There's just no excuse for Jamie Oliver. Its a cooking show and yet he couldn't be bothered to make his own SMH

[@taskdon769]

Packaged rice is ready to serve, it is not typically for other usages. Not saying you can't but...well...

[@SuirenChannelVT]

@@taskdon769 Well, overnight rice is also technically ready to serve since it's cooked, you just have to heat it up lol. And i don't think packaged rice comes hot XD

[@amhuirnin]

packaged rice sold from Japan or Korea is loads different from the ones made in Europe

[@AnimeReference]

@@LiveLoveLaugh102310 eh, this was for a home cook series and this recipe is exceptionally quick and easy

[@flynnmchardy7362]

Love your videos. I especially loved the small section at the end where you gave your overall view of the recipe you just watched. It would be great if more of your reaction videos included a section like this!

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

I'll keep it in mind! :)

[@nic3010]

I am a Chinese and I am a home cook. I have to say something for Jamie. Home cooked fried rice is never fixed to a certain ingredients. It is meant to be flexible, quick, savoury and fragrant. The backbone of this dish is the egg and rice. You can add anything (the sky is the limit) including chilli jam and even peanut butter to make your own version. The key point of a good fried rice is tossing to make sure every grain is separated and high heat to get the fragrance-wok hei. Wok Hei 锅气comes from the reaction when your ingredients and soy sauce (or anything fermented and savoury rich in amino acid) touch the hot wok or sauce pan (non stick is difficult to get to temperature high enough for wok hei). Good tossing will keep them from burning. Package rice is okay. Who has the time to spend 30mins to cook a fresh pot of white rice and let it cool down for another 30 mins before making the fried rice? It is actually okay, because the packaged rice is cold and slightly dehydrated, it is perfect for a quick fried rice.

[@Boiokgogi]

if it were a home cook video i would agree with you but when you are a world known chef that people look up to and you present a dish like that , you have no excuse what so ever. it just give bad reputation to a simple yet marvelous dish. like James said , if you are at home alone you do whatever you want but when you are famous and want to show other how to do something you do it correctly.

[@Pxky.]

Yep I'm also Chinese and agree with you If it's a home cook then it's ok But he's doing this in front of a camera and putting the recipe, so people would mistake it for the original I also think the chili jam shouldn't be there cuz it will make the rice wet, if he only added the chili jam and didn't add water maybe ok It would be better if he puts the Chili Jam at the end as garnishing He also should've put the egg before, the rice was already too much cooked before he put the egg, and that's prob the reason he added water Better if he puts the egg first and then put the rice and other ingredients, since the egg should be the first and then others

[@johngriggsjr.2271]

I can understand this but it's still a drunk college kid throwing together what he had in his dorm room because he drank up his grocery budget. And while the traditional recipe is meant to be flexible, he is treating it as though it's "authentic" and he is just using terrible technique, which is a lot of what the critiques are about. It's what he markets about himself and how it doesn't match the technique or ingredients he is using. In another video he sticks hot pepper jam, sorry mango chutney for that one, into a butter chicken that has no butter.

[@johngriggsjr.2271]

His green curry has no peppers to speak of in it, his red curry isn't even close to red and has even fewer peppers.

[@johngriggsjr.2271]

And if he is marketing this as "healthier", anyone listening to him is screwed nutritionally if they buy into it.

[@Purelax]

I really love this guy he is so calming and such a cool smooth voice you earn my subscribe

[@magnumopusvalentinus3305]

Damn chef. Your roasts on jamie is very polite. I'm actually very amazed

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Critiquing is better the just criticism.

[@avgperson6551]

At least for me, fried rice is not something you plan for. Just something to make in order to use the extra rice from a previous meal. So I can understand the disappointment from using pre-packaged cooked rice.

[@quirogatnonerrat3214]

Oh wow! You are so respectful and mannered, trying your best not to offend and also informing everyone. So well mannered 👌🏻 You got a new subscriber for having such impeccable manners👍🏻

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you so much!

[@crackerjack4833]

cooking chili jam is like cooking ketchup lol !!!!!! my lord I love watching your uncle roger reaction videos, you're hilarious lol!!!! but you're also knowledgable, and you hash it out which I greatly appreaciate! :D

[@biblicallyaccuratefurbie4690]

So in the most respectful way I can muster, Jamie Oliver seems to be a hit and miss kind of person these days, I see more jokes about his cooking videos than I see in stand up acts, and I wish I was kidding. I very much appreciate how you remained professional throughout the video as well.

[@hikokun19]

Hi James, greetings from Chile! I just discovered your channel, and I can say you are more than an amazing chef, you're a really cool and knowledgeable guy, so nice and calm, and yet so funny. It's like you would be an amazing person to know and hang out, I think. I'm so surprised you don't have over +1M suscribers, that's a crime. Please continue to review Uncle Roger videos, I love him, I fall down laughing, and I see he's funny to you too. Be well, hoping to see more of you! (and sorry for the bad English 🥲)

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

Thank you!

[@LAMAxFACE]

😂😂😂 Chilli jam is like sweet and sour sauce but thicker (jam). The pre-packed rice is unforgiveable. Watched this one with my eldest this time. Jamie is making this stuff up as he goes along at this point! Your face at 2:35 was my favourite part, like someone suggested you add peanut butter and jam sandwiches to a menu!!!! I forgot the utter horror at 5:59 - your diplomacy button was broken here!!

[@rriggs6547]

I can't tell the difference between regular rice and pre-packed rice in a recipe. I generally can pick apart most flavors and ingredients. And given that the show is targeted toward the average person who comes home after work and doesn't have a ton of time to spend making food it is not an issue to me anyway. And unless you have tasted his rice and it is awful, the only thing he is guilty of is offending traditions.

[@Gdwmartin]

I like a lot of Jamie’s dishes. Even after all the weird twists and misses with this one I can understand what Jamie’s trying to do. He wants people to try cooking at home for themselves. Shows them shortcuts they can/might take and end up with SOMETHING to put on the table. I prefer it when he admits up front that it’s not authentic. That he’s just trying for a vibe that points in a direction. Rather than thinking it was actually an authentic recipe

[@shawbrothersgirl2740]

You got to understand Uncle Rodger knows how to cook his own Asian food so Jamie Oliver trying to act like and trying to change Asian food is wrong and he's doing it all wrong too LOL

[@frosthammer917]

@@shawbrothersgirl2740 its not inherently wrong to take a food and put a new spin on it/incorporate it into a different cuisine. That happens all the time and produces many common and popular dishes.(i.e Chicken tikka masala) (not defending Jamie here)

[@shawbrothersgirl2740]

@@frosthammer917 that's fine but don't call it the Asian egg fried rice call it Jamie Oliver's version of egg fried rice but what he's doing that's wrong is he's putting his own spin on the Asian egg fried rice and then have the nerve to call it egg fried rice that's wrong that belongs to the Asians he can put his own spin on it but don't call it Asian egg fry rice after that

[@emraherdogan5286]

@@shawbrothersgirl2740 By using packed rices as a chef he destructs all of his defence/defenders. Even I ve never used packed rice. Even somone could have prepared a rice for him the day before.

[@duetplayer]

Best quote from uncle Roger : You hear sizzling, i hear my ancestors crying" and my favourite quote from you "I don't think even MSG can save this now"

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

😂😂

[@evviia]

the pre-cooked rice is the first thing that got me. it’s so easy to make rice- with or without a rice cooker, but jamie couldn’t even take the time to make his own rice for this abomination he calls “egg fried rice” the second thing that had me crying was the tofu. you can use tofu in fried rice, but not like this 😭😭 there’s different types of tofu and they would go great with fried rice, literally anything but silken tofu. there’s firmer tofu that would be so much better. it wouldve been a bit more acceptable if he cut the tofu into cubes but he just…. broke it apart with his hands

[@ratgrot3184]

Yeah, using a pack of instant rice that's meant for microwaving is pretty awful. I haven't touched those since I learned to do pressure-cooked rice. I've got enough money for one of those instantpot multi-cookers, but not enough for a dedicated rice cooker.

[@ChefJamesMakinson]

The next thing I get will be a rice cooker! Haha

[@ratgrot3184]

@@ChefJamesMakinson I went and re-watched this and your reaction to the packet rice had me in stitches. Only Jamie could throw a packet of ASDA/Waitrose-branded instant microwave rice into a frying pan and call it good fried rice.

[@ellieappa]

Cooking some of the green onions in oil (definitely not in olive oil) and charring them first is a useful technique for home cooks who don't have high temperature stove/wok to simulate that "fire" flavor. Many Korean cooks do this when making fried rice at home.

[@docd0071]

As an Asian who cooks fried rice with different variations every other day, using pre cooked packaged rice is like a mortal sin. The problem with cooking fried rice is that rice picks up moisture very easily and I doubt the moisture content of packaged rice and also the quality. A perfect fried rice should use 1 day old rice stored in a chiller that way cold dry air would dry up the rice making it hard. So if even if you put moisture in it while in the cooking process for (example mositure from chopped vegetables) it would not be too moist. Besides the packaged pre cooked rice, what really ticks me off is breaking the silken tofu like paper. It looks more like a livestock food than an actual dish for humans. He even put the tofu while the eggs are not even fried properly. And finally if it would not get any more worse, he top it off by putting oil on the bowl. He just adds another layer of moisture to an already wet looking rice. Its like putting salt in an already gaping wound.