More news on the celebrity chef front! For the last few months Ecorazzi has kept you abreast on all the chicken reform that’s taking place in the UK. Together, celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have worked hard to spotlight the plight of food animals and change the way chickens are treated. So to say thanks a million, the RSCPA presented the chefs with an award for their efforts earlier this week.

Jamie and Hugh have both been strong supporters of the RSPCA’s Freedom Foods scheme – an initiative that guarantees animals have been raised on farms that meet the organization’s standards. They’ve also both produced television documentaries to shed light on the truth about factory farming and help improve the welfare of animals. 

Jamie and Hugh received the honors at the organization’s AGM in London earlier this week. A rep from the RSPCA said: “We are delighted to present both Hugh and Jamie with these awards in recognition of their valuable ongoing work in this area,” said Dr Marc Cooper, RSPCA senior farm animal scientist. “We look forward to carrying on our partnership with the chefs and hope that with their support, the revolution in raising chicken welfare standards throughout the UK will continue.”

Congrats and keep up the good work fellas!

thanks: looktothestars.org

For the past year or so Ecorazzi has kept you abreast on the food reform initiative that’s taking place in the UK. Celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have all been deeply involved with raising the bar on animal welfare.

A couple months ago Ecorazzi reported news that Jamie Oliver had convinced Tesco (a popular Brittish supermarket) to double their order of premium chickens, bringing the proportion of higher welfare chickens to about 30 percent of total poultry sales-an increase of 70 percent from this time last year. However, Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall doesn’t think that’s enough and claims that Tesco is serverely lagging in animal welfare issues. Wittingstall is urging Tesco to adopt the RSPCA’s higher standards on chicken or drop its claims that it fulfils the government’s aspirations on animal welfare. And this chef ain’t just whistling dixie!

Wittingstall has received official support from the PIRC, the corporate governance adviser, and will be recommending its members to vote in favor of his special resolution at Tesco’s annual meeting next week. For all you Ecorazzi readers that live abroad, you have the chance to watch Hugh tonight on Channel 4’s River Cottage Spring program as he speaks about the benefit of using free range and organic chickens.

I think it’s safe to say that whatever your dietary choice might be, everyone would agree that no animal deserves to be the subject of cruelty and torture. So if you do choose to eat meat, spend the extra buck or two and purchase the more humanely treated variety — it’s healthier, happier and all around more environmentally sound. Don’t believe me? Just ask Hugh.

via: business.timesonline.co.uk

This coming Thursday in London, a massive organic dinner party called The Feast of Albion will provide a five-course gourmet experience to the 400 guests paying over $2K for the evening. The get-together is the result of a partnership between award-winning sustainable and ethical chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Mark Hix. Everything served will be local, seasonal, and deliciously organic. Nothing beyond a 50 mile radius of London will be included in the ingredients. From Smartplanet,

“It’s been reported that the five-course Feast of Albion menu will include venison from Windsor Great Park, mutton from Prince Charles’ Highgrove, herrings from Thames Bay, beetroots from Romney Marsh and nettles (for a soup) picked in London by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall himself. We’ve heard vegetables will come from the extremely low-carbon Tolhurst Organic Produce, which have been transported to London by fit cyclists.”

Celebrities partaking in the fun of the evening include Jemima Khan, Sophie Dahl, Tom Parker Bowles, Richard E. Grant and many others. The headlining entertainment for the evening will be none other than Annie Lennox. All profits earned for the evening will go to the Soil Association’s Farm School Project, which aims to connect kids with organic farming and the countryside. Curious as to what the full menu for the evening looks like? Have a taste after the jump below.

The £1,000 feast of forage

Richmond Maids of Honour
Farmhouse cheeses served with rosehip jelly
Cheeses: soft blue cheeses made from cows’ and ewes’ milk by Two Hoots Farmhouse Cheese, in Berkshire

Celebrity Chef’s, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have been challenged by Animal Aid, a UK based animal rights organization, to go Veg for one month. 

A spokesman for Animal Aid said:

“Animal Aid was encouraged by the recent campaigns by the high-profile chef, which exposed the terrible plight of farmed animals. However, the chef’s attempts to alleviate animal suffering by promoting ‘high welfare’ production systems can only ever have a marginal impact on their welfare and does not mean the consumer can rest easy. This is why the national campaign group has challenged celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to try the veggie diet for a week or a month.”
 

No word yet on whether the twosome will be putting down the mean and picking up the bean, but I sure hope they at least try it.  I’ve been vegan for almost 7 years and it is BY FAR one of the proudest decisions of my life. Plus, not only will they feel the difference, but eating in a new way can only diversify their cooking knowledge and make them stronger chefs.

If you’re teetering on the Fence O’ Veg (it’s made from soy) visit GoVeg.com and get a free vegetarian starter kit.  It’s way easier than you think. I promise!

A bunch of celebrity chefs were sick of all the piss poor conditions that most chickens are forced to endure. So, they decided to go VERY public with their concern, asking supermarkets and consumers to raise the bar on poultry standards. Jamie Oliver talked some trash and got in a little trouble with Sainsbury’s, but at the end of the day, the large grocery retailer agreed to adopt higher standards, so it was all kind of worth it. However, every time we’d write a story about the “premium” British chickens (do they have cool accents?), we’d get tons of comments that they were all sold out. Well here’s some good news:

The British supermarket, Tesco, has just doubled their order for premium chickens!!! This will bring the proportion of higher welfare chicken to about 30 percent of total chicken sales-an increase of 70 per cent from this time last year. What’s also great is that the media is acknowledging the fact that the crew of celebrity chefs had everything to do with the rise in awareness. You guys…THIS IS AWESOME!!

Now even though I don’t eat chicken (go vegans) and even though I’ve never been out of the country (go ignorant Americans), I’m basically flapping my wings over the fact that things seem to be getting better. My personal thanks to Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for seriously stepping to the plate and really making a difference. Now British readers, it’s up you! If you’re a meat-eater, visit Tesco this week and let Ecorazzi know if “premium” chickens are back in stock. If not, I’ll just have to finally get a passport and go abroad for some undercover Ecorazzi reporting.

photo credit: famouschicken.com

Top chefs Raymond Blanc and Tom Aikens will join forces with Greenpeace to urge the culinary world to support only sustainable seafood.  The campaign begins tomorrow night at Old Billingsgate Fish Market in London, where celebrity chefs and food writers such as: Antonio Carluccio, Brian Turner and Rose Gray, will sign a pledge to stop using or promoting unsustainable fish species and to support the creation of marine reserves to help fish stocks recover. Along with the previously reported celebs, Michelin-starred chefs, Heston Blumenthal and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have also jumped on the boat.

Raymond Blanc insists: “Protecting the diversity of fish in our seas is as important as looking after wildlife on land. Those of us who are passionate about cooking and serving seafood will be equally passionate about using only sustainable species, as the fish we cook and eat now will determine what we have in the future.”  

If this all sounds “fishy” to you, take a swim on over to EarthEasy.com and learn which fish are on the naughty list this year.  So, YAY Greenpeace on another perfect score. If you need me I’ll be in that dark corner over there with barbecue chip hands and unaccomplished dreams.

As Ecorazzi reported previously, some of the UK’s top celebrity chefs like Jaime Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, are getting involved to help spread the news about the dastardly poultry market that dominates their country.  Now, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is taking it one step further with his Chicken Out campaign.

The Chicken Out campaign attempts to educate the British consumer on the plight of the broiler chicken who is often reared without light or proper space for the sake of mass production.  In fact, there are 850 million chickens reared in the UK each year, but only a pathetic five percent are free range, and even less than that get the organic seal of approval. Whittingstall hopes to improve those numbers.

As you can imagine, The National Farming Union isn’t overly excited about Whittingstall’s attempts, saying, “Hugh’s Chicken Run could increase confusion among consumers” and that “we would prefer it if consumers were able to make an informed choice.”

I mean how to you want me to sum this one up, kiddies? I’m overwhelmed here. Of course as a person who is greatly concerned with the welfare of our planet and the rights of all animals I think Whittingstall actions are incredibly noble, but I know that not everybody shares my views.  I think (or hope) most of us can agree that when we have the choice to buy a product that’s a little cruel or very cruel, we’d always choose the former. To me, this attempt is an example of real progress, and I so respect Whittingstall for trying to change the world one plate at a time.

The UK’s Channel 4 is getting ready for a season of programming on eating healthy and informing people where processed food comes from; including the horrible conditions present in factory chicken farms and other operations. Helping them along the way are chefs Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

You can read more about the effort in a past post here. To put aside any differences, the three were sent into the woods to perform some team building exercises and shoot a trailer for the series. What follows in the video is some hilarious tongue-in-cheek humor that’s worth a look.

For more information on the series, jump here.