DK Publishing - Naturally Sweet Baking

Jamie Oliver

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Why we are writing this book
We both associate childhood very strongly with special, carefree times spent outside in the garden. We enjoyed wonderful experiences, such as eating fruit from the berry bushes in summer and, in the fall, gathering up old apple varieties, picking juicy pears, or collecting mushrooms in the woods. From an early age, we learned from our parents and grandparents when each kind of fruit and vegetable was in season and how they could be used in cooking and baking. During the weekend, a delicious cake would invariably be baked using freshly harvested fruit from the garden, so our intimate connection to nature began pretty much from birth. Nowadays, we still love to unwind from the hustle and bustle of everyday life by baking timeless classic cakes at the weekend or by giving them a new interpretation and enjoying the results with family and friends.

From an early age, we learned when each kind of fruit and vegetable was in season.

The health aspect of cooking also plays a big role in our recipes. As we grow older and our daily lives become more stressful, naturally we become more interested in our bodies and general health. This interest links to the topic of nutrition and its significant impact on our well-being. We have been focused on using natural ingredients in our food for over 15 years now, so eating healthy has become second nature and doesnt feel like an effort.

Once you begin to look more closely into nutrition, it soon becomes clear that the highly processed foods that are so ubiquitous are not only deficient in terms of natural ingredients, they also foster an unhealthy diet. According to a 2016 survey by ReportLinker, only 36 percent of Americans cook and eat at home daily. Shared meals are no longer an integral part of our daily routine, as we eat at home far less often. Instead, people often grab food while they are on the move, eating when they happen to see something that looks delicious or simply to fulfill a craving. In a dynamic worldwhere the key preoccupations are work, stress, or leisure activitiesthe motto is quick and easy. Many kids no longer learn how to cook from scratch. In the past, girls were taught how to cook in home economics, or grandmothers passed on their knowledge to the next generation. Today, too often, this knowledge isnt passed on.

And yet the natural world continues to provide a diverse and rich cornucopia of ingredients that are incomparable when it comes to flavor. All too often, ingredients are gradually being forgotten thanks to industrial-scale mass production. For understandable reasons, industrial production focuses on the ingredients that are easiest to use and which can be processed most efficiently to generate the largest revenues. High quantities of sugar and fat are often added to conceal the substandard quality of other ingredients. This situation is what prompted us to design and write this book. We want to restore our relationship with natural ingredients. Of course, theres an element of nostalgia involved, too. But, most importantly, it has become very clear that we are harming ourselves and exploiting our planet with our current lifestyle, sometimes with disastrous and incalculable consequences. We would like our book to make a contribution (however small) to changing this.