Jamie Oliver says we can't cook for a downturn

By Frank Prenesti

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are entering the downturn unable to cut household costs because they don't know how to cook cheap meals, turning instead to fast food, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver said on Wednesday.

The country is witnessing a "new poverty that we have never seen before," Oliver told parliament's health committee.

"This isn't about flash trainers or mobile phones or Sky dishes or plasma TV screens. It is a poverty of being able to nourish their family, in any class (of society)," he said.

"It directly runs with the outrageous obesity that is actually happening now."

Oliver, who is on a crusade to improve eating habits, said that in previous downturns households were more equipped to trim costs and still make food "nice and tasty."

"But this is the first time in British history where you haven't got most of the population able to cook and you can statistically see where people are spending their money now and fast food options are up," he said.

Oliver added that the problem straddled all social classes.

"It is genuinely classless. There's plenty of City boys, who used to earn a load of money, that can't nourish their kids properly even with a gold (credit card)," he said.