Jamie Oliver Tops Sainsbury's Poll Shock

Jamie Oliver has won three gongs in a survey by, um, Sainsbury’s Magazine. It’s even more impressive considering there were only ten categories.

Now, of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Oliver advertises the supermarket chain on TV.

It was in recognition of all the culinary prowess the fat-tongued cook has shown over the past decade - cooking bangers for taxi drivers, introducing shoppers to alien ingredients like a “nice bit of dill”, ground-breaking forays into the world of pasta bakes and beans on toast, and single-handedly changing a nation’s eating habits by putting the makers of turkey twizzlers out of business.

In the scientific poll, voted on by 800 Sainsbury’s shoppers, Oliver won Food Campaign of the Decade' for Jamie’s School Dinners, and came runner-up in TV Food Show of the Decade for Jamie at Home, and Recipe Writer of the Decade (if it wasn’t for that pesky Delia...)

How he lost out to Heston Blumenthal in the category Chef of the Decade is anyone’s guess. Perhaps he didn’t kill off enough diners? Perhaps he just lacks the headline-grabbing genius of a man who recently horrified a table of celebrity guests by serving up a dormouse lollipop as a festive treat? Perhaps it’s just because he isn’t a chef?

Have you seen Oliver in the Sainsbury’s adverts? When’s he going to give it up? He’s clearly run out of ideas...

“Err, next time you, err, make yourself some breakfast in the morning, try sprinkling a nice bit of, err, paprika on your cornflakes...taste the difference!...even turns the milk pink!...can I go now?”

Anyway, if you’re interested at all, here are Sainsbury’s Magazine’s results in full...

Food campaign of the decade: Jamie’s School Dinners. Runners up: the Government’s 5-a-day campaign, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chicken out! campaign for a free-range future.

TV food show of the decade: MasterChef. Runners up: Jamie at Home, Come Dine with Me.

Recipe writer of the decade: Delia Smith. Runner’s up: Jamie Oliver, Nigel Slater.

Chef of the decade: Heston Blumenthal. Runners up: Gordon Ramsay and Raymond Blanc.

Cookbook of the decade: Delia’s how to Cheat at Cooking. Runners up: The RiverCottage Year by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cafe Cookbook Easy by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.

Brand of the decade: Green & Black’s. Runners up: Dorset Cereals, Innocent.

Ingredient of the decade: Blueberries. Runners up: cherry tomatoes, chorizo.

Food product of the decade: Innocent. Runners up: Tilda steamed basmati rice pouches, Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae sauce.

Sainsbury’s product of the decade: Sainsbury’s tomato ketchup. Runners up: Sainsbury’s vanilla dairy ice cream, Sainsbury’s blackcurrant high juice.

Dish of the decade: braised lamb shanks. Runners up: Thai green curry, posh fishcakes.

And lastly, a disturbing prediction of a future decade - not sponsored by Sainsbury's...