Jamie and Hugh “to live like broiler chickens”
by the editor in At home on 01.04.08
Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are to follow-up their free-range chicken campaign with a more radical approach to changing the nation’s patterns of consumption.
Plans are underway for a Channel 4 series that will see Fearnley-Whittingstall living in a small cage for eight weeks.
The curly-mopped free-ranger will have his nose ‘tweaked’ to simulate the way that hens’ beaks are clipped.
He will also be unable to turn around properly in his cage, even to autograph copies of his new River Cottage cookbook.
“This is serious stuff. I’m going to have my head shaved and be inoculated against the H5N1 virus,” said the Dorset foodie.
“If this doesn’t get Tesco’s in Axminster to sell my book, nothing will,” he added.
Meanwhile, Oliver is to be packed into a darkened shed with thousands of other celebrity chefs and eat from a trough for two months.
“It’s going to be pukka chocka,” said the Essex chef, 32. “If this is what it takes to show the people of this country what it’s like to be a celebrity chef right now, then it’s worth doing.”
Channel 4 has declined to comment on rumours that Delia Smith will address the “battery chefs” with a loudhailer twice a day, screaming “let’s be having you” while brandishing a meat cleaver.
“I can’t give away the details,” said a spokesperson for Channel 4. “But it’s fair to say that people will see intensively-farmed reality TV in a whole new light after this series.”
The winner will be the chef who sells most DVDs whilst still in captivity, and the programmes will be presented by MasterChef judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
“This is going to be one tough competition,” they commented.
IMAGE by Flickr user alexasigno.
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