Just don't compare me to Jamie Oliver

8:30am Monday 20th October 2008

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“WHEN I first started this four years ago I was compared to Jamie Oliver – but now I find it a crude comparison.

“He always got people’s backs up.”

Mark Earden is as passionate about promoting healthy eating and encouraging people to take up cooking as Mr Oliver but the 36-year-old says he also wants to make cooking exciting – and not something to be fearful of.

The former Woolston High School pupil, who now lives and works in the north east, was speaking ahead of the launch of his Expo Chef initiative in Bolton on Thursday.

He said: “I am obsessed with healthy eating.

“I am going back 20 years to school dinners and they have never been great.

“But now they are fantastic.

“We still need to do more. We need to engage with families and with the pupils and with the schools.

“At the moment, people are being told this is what you should have and this is what you should do.

“We have lost two generations of cooking and we need to get them back. We need to make it fun and make it a hobby again.”

Mark says that while healthy eating is crucial to the future of the country, people cannot be forced into taking action.

He added: “If I cast my mind back to being in Woolston, there was always a decent meal on the table.

“But it goes full circle and that isn’t the case anymore.

“We live in a society where people are always being told what to do. But I don’t want that.

“I have made it simple, straightforward and easy and tasty, using the freshest ingredients.”

The Expo Chef website is now running in the north west, with hundreds of recipe ideas – all available for free. Mark also goes into schools to spread his message to teach youngsters and their families about healthy eating.

And he says that is the key difference between him and fellow celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver.

The Essex star has this month angered residents in Rotherham after painting the town as being massively unhealthy.

“He does get people’s backs up. So why are people going to listen to him?” Said Mark.

“He did raise the debate but for us it is not about telling people what to do, it is about making them want to do it.”

More details on Mark’s recipes can be found at expochef.co.uk