Biting back at Oliver's empire

Jamie Oliver's latest healthy eating campaign is being taken up by local authorities, with one already bidding for money to set up a drop-in cooking centre like the one the celebrity chef started in Rotherham earlier this year.

Yesterday Oliver wrote to key government ministers to demand funding for a Food Centre in every British town where people can learn to cook.

Bradford, Scarborough and Hull councils have all told the Guardian they are keen to replicate Oliver's Ministry of Food initiative, showcased on his Channel 4 show, which ends today. Bradford is preparing a bid for money which may include a proposal for its own Ministry of Food centre, despite the inaugural Rotherham branch causing controversy among locals.

Many are furious that the city council and Rotherham NHS have agreed to pay over £100,000 to keep it open for a year, with several opposition politicians accusing the council of subsidising Oliver's empire at the expense of local needy people.

Yesterday bemused onlookers munched pasties from nearby Greggs as they peered through the glass-fronted façade at the shop in Rotherham's pedestrian precinct.

They were watching a group of adults on a scheme for the long-term unemployed learning how to cook healthy blueberry pancakes and mushroom omelettes. Inside Paul Clements, out of work for 14 months, was learning to crack an egg without getting the shell in the bowl.

Also on hand was Mick "the miner" Trueman, on a day off from his job at Maltby colliery. Trueman has become a favourite of Jamie's Ministry of Food viewers by transforming from a man who declared that cooking is for "poofs" to taking over all kitchen duties from his wife.

As he walked out of the shop yesterday, a group of women pounced on him for recipe advice.

One of Oliver's big ideas is the Pass It On scheme, which encourages people to learn a recipe, teach it to two people, who pass it on to another two until the world can cook.

Next door, in Thornton's chocolate shop, sales assistant Debbie Johnson said she was forever hearing ill-tempered grumbles from locals passing the Ministry of Food.

"We're always hearing people walking past chuntering about him. Since the programme has been on, no one has been positive."

The first episode of Oliver's programme angered many in Rotherham after it showed a young mother who didn't know what boiling water looked like and another who fed her two children kebabs and chips with cheese every night from her kitchen floor. "It made us all look stupid," said Johnson. "It even made me ashamed of being from Rotherham."

One local, who does not want to be named, has even set up a blog called Jamie Go Home, which aims to speak out "against celebrity worship, the nanny state, corporate greed, media manipulation, regional stereotyping, cultural elitism and hypocrisy".

One posting said: "Those of us who live in the town know that the 'movement' has had little or no effect on 99% of Rotherham people." Another said: "If you are involved in Ministry of Food - I hope you are getting paid as much as the people Jamie pretends to be friends with in his adverts. You are basically playing the same role - background artiste in a marketing campaign to boost the £20m plus fortune of Jamie Oliver MBE."

Tony Mannion, a Conservative councillor on the Labour-run Rotherham council, said: "I am absolutely astounded that we are subsidising Jamie Oliver and Channel 4 to make programmes.

"There are plenty of schemes in Rotherham that could make far better use of the money.

"It beggars belief that a multimillionaire and one of the UK's biggest TV stations are getting money from us."

Oliver's spokesman yesterday confirmed that the proceeds of the Ministry of Food cook book, which accompanies the series, would not go to charity.

He also said that Oliver was heading to the Netherlands this week to try to start his Pass It On scheme there and in Germany.

Mannion blamed Rotherham council's involvement in the project on an obsession with celebrity, which led to Dolly Parton being invited to Rotherham late last year to launch a local branch of a scheme she devised to improve children's literacy.

He said: "It's no surprise to me that they were so keen to get involved with Jamie Oliver, because this council is absolutely obsessed by celebrities. As soon as you mention a celebrity's name they fall over themselves to do something for them."

But cooking convert Mick Trueman has no time for such cynicism. "Some people say it won't work, but they're the kind of people who would have seen the first motor car or aeroplane and said 'it'll never work'; the kind of people who would win the lottery and complain that they didn't like the handwriting on the cheque.

"People said now that Jamie has gone home it'll all fall apart, but they are wrong. This is just the beginning."