Buddy Oliver: Junior star chef's recipes put to the Cork teens' taste test 

Caroline Hennessy’s daughters Maya and Hannah, along with two friends, pull out pots, pans and a rolling pin to see if Buddy Oliver’s new children’s cookery book delivers

Caroline Hennessy and her daughter Maya in the kitchen cooking from 'Let's Cook' by Buddy Oliver. Picture: Dan Linehan

Buddy Oliver has had a role in his dad’s TV shows, along with his four siblings since he was small. His popular YouTube channel, ‘Cooking Buddies’, was set up in 2020 and now has 135,000 subscribers. ‘Cooking Buddies’ has also made the move to television with a BBC show.

Dad, of course, is Jamie Oliver, the one-time Naked Chef, who made his first TV series at the ripe old age of 24 in 1999. The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, and now 13-year-old Buddy, Oliver’s second youngest child, is here to put his own slant on healthy home cooking for a new generation with his YouTube videos, TV series and Let’s Cookhis just-released cookbook. The theory is great, but does it work in practice?

With friends staying for a week, I had a panel of four critics on hand when young Oliver’s book arrived on the doormat. My daughter Maya (12) and her sister Hannah (15) were joined at the kitchen table by Fi (13) and Claire (11) to leaf through the recipes. They had just spent three afternoons doing live online cooking classes with Galway-based Cepta Mahon of Cookalicious, an hour and a half each day during which they had made substantial lunches such as beef burritos, marry me pasta and buttermilk chicken burgers. After managing that (mostly) by themselves - they don’t seem to count the washing up as being part of the cooking event - they felt eminently qualified to pass loud and vociferous judgment on Let’s Cook.

The first recipe they spotted was chocolate porridge, something they decided they were all too grown up for. “I would not eat that,” said former porridge lover Claire, who very much disliked the idea of chocolate being involved. The egg section was approached more positively, with recipes for poached and scrambled eggs considered a good idea. “Anyone who makes soft-boiled eggs and soldiers is a good person,” commented Fi.

Other recipes my panel approved of included sausage and bean casserole, crispy chicken with slaw, corn and wedges, fish finger sarnies—where you make the fish fingers from scratch—and new potato and pesto focaccia (“I would eat that,” said Maya.)

“I love pasta,” said Fi when she turned to the pasta chapter. This will be good.” And so it proved, as the girls gave many dishes an approving thumbs up: spicy tomato pasta, that scruffy lasagne bake (“but without the cottage cheese,” pleaded Maya), and even the greens pasta, although the inclusion of spinach was a divisive issue.

“We make way better mac and cheese,” was Claire’s reaction to the cauliflower mac and cheese.

Maya Hennessy and her Mum Caroline in the kitchen cooking from Buddy Oliver's new cookbook at her home in Tragumna, Co Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

A chapter on skills for life was nodded over approvingly, with recipes for perfect cooked rice, flatbreads, baked potatoes, and jam-jar dressings striking a chord. They all thought Buddy was making sweet things a bit “too healthy” as they dismissed his grilled fruit salad and a rocky road that included a small amount of nuts alongside the familiar chocolate, biscuits, and marshmallows.

Overall, my critics agreed that they liked the book and that there were plenty of dishes they would cook, although a few were deemed “just weird,” including a savoury breakfast muffin that I was looking longingly at. Over the following days, I noticed more than one child quietly reading through the cookbook, and when Fi and Claire left for Dublin, it was with the gingernut recipe in their pocket.

Research done, it was time to get down to some proper experimentation in the kitchen. Maya decided to make the scruffy lasagna bake and a new potato and pesto focaccia for lunch while Hannah took on those gingernuts. While the lasagne recipe looks short, it’s a three-parter with Buddy’s Bolognese and fresh pasta dough on other pages, involving much flipping through the book. I was set chopping veg for the sauce while Maya carefully made the pasta, cracking an egg into a pile of flour, mixing all the straggly bits together and kneading it - while standing on a stool - until it was, as Buddy says, smooth and elastic.

With the dough resting, she fried sausages and mince for bolognese while chopping garlic (one of her favourite jobs). The instruction to “scrunch in the tomatoes” initially caused a little consternation, but after she figured out that she needed to crush the whole tomatoes in with the meat - making a nice mess in the process - it was set to simmer. As the lasagne had become such an involved project, we cheated on the foccacia: I showed Maya how to make the dough in my ancient bread machine and our pesto-making plans were abandoned for a pre-made jar. The rolling pin was out, the pasta was rested and it needed to be rolled until it was just 2mm thick.

We all love ginger. Hannah doubled the recipe to make a big batch of gingernuts, involving plenty of mental arithmetic as she easily baked her way through that recipe. While Maya and I were still stretching pasta, Hannah had the gingernuts in the oven. The focaccia followed, and then, the appropriate scruffiness achieved, the lasagne.

Lunch was well deserved. The girls happily devoured the lasagne, using the warm cheesy focaccia to mop the sauce. However, they noted that the potatoes would have worked better if they had been sliced thinner than halved, as per the recipe. The gingernuts were a little crumbly but perfect with a cuppa or even a hot chocolate. It’s that kind of summer, after all.

Let's Cook: Fun, Easy Recipes For Kids by Buddy Oliver

Ultimately, Let’s Cook was a success in our house. Fresh from their Cookalicious online classes, all four girls had plenty of opinions about Buddy’s choice of recipes, the photographs and his inclusion of what they called “healthy” ingredients (basically, what their parents and I include in most of the meals they eat anyway).

While off school and looking for things to do, Let’s Cook allowed us to talk about food, learn new skills, and have them take more responsibility for family meals. Maya was our head chef on that particular day, delighted that she had made that delicious silky egg pasta using just her hands and a rolling pin, but we now have a long list of recipes to try and different foods to taste. Getting kids into the kitchen is never a bad idea, even if you have to do the washing up. Thanks. Buddy.

Buddy Oliver's Ultimate Burger

Homemade burgers are fast, fun and taste juicier than the ones you buy. Plus, you can stack up the toppings and layer in your favourite sauces exactly as you like them.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 30 mins

Cooking Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 45 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 4 gherkins

• 2 ripe tomatoes

• 200g red cabbage

• red wine vinegar

• ½ an iceberg lettuce

• ½ a cucumber

• extra virgin olive oil

• 1 x 400g tin of green lentils

• 250g higher-welfare minced beef or veggie mince

• olive oil

• 4 slices of Cheddar cheese (60g total)

• 4 small burger buns

• optional: tomato ketchup and/or mayo

Method

1. Slice the gherkins (use a crinkle-cut knife, if you’ve got one) and tomatoes, and set aside. Finely slice or grate the red cabbage, then toss in a mixing bowl with 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar.

2. Shred the lettuce and slice the cucumber, then place in another mixing bowl and dress with 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

3. Drain the lentils and pat dry with kitchen paper, then blitz in a food processor with the mince and a pinch of black pepper. Divide the mixture into 4 equal pieces and shape into 3cm-thick patties.

4. Place a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat. Brush the patties with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then carefully place in the hot pan and cook for 4 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through, nudging the patties towards the edge of the pan to sear the sides.

5. When the burgers are looking good, place a slice of cheese on top of each one, add a splash of water to the pan (the steam will help the cheese to melt), then cover for an extra 4 minutes, or until melted.

6. Cut the buns in half (toast them if you like), add a dollop of ketchup and/or mayo (if using) to each base, then place a burger on top.

7. Layer the gherkin, tomato and cucumber slices, and a pinch of lettuce on top of each one, then pop the lids on. Serve the rest of the lettuce, cucumber and tomato on the side, along with the pickled cabbage.

Buddy Oliver's Rocky Road

With white chocolate drizzle.

Servings

16

Preparation Time

 4 hours 30 mins

Total Time

 4 hours 30 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• olive oil, for greasing

• 100g dark chocolate (70%)

• 100g quality milk chocolate

• 125g unsalted butter

• 75g golden syrup

• 50g marshmallows

• 150g biscuits, such as ginger nuts, digestives

• 75g unsalted nuts, such as pistachios, toasted hazelnuts

• 75g chocolate-covered honeycomb

• 75g glacé cherries or dried fruit

• 50g quality white chocolate

Method

1. Lightly oil a 25cm x 30cm roasting tray and line it with a sheet of damp greaseproof paper.

2. Sit a heatproof bowl on top of a pan of lightly simmering water, snap in the dark and milk chocolate, add the butter and golden syrup, and stir occasionally until melted.

3. Halve the marshmallows, snap up the biscuits, roughly chop or bash up the nuts, bash up the honeycomb and halve the cherries or dried fruit (if needed), then stir them into the chocolate mixture.

4. Pour into the lined tray and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, then carefully turn out.

5. Snap the white chocolate into a clean heatproof bowl and melt as described in step 2 (or melt in the microwave, if easier). Drizzle the melted chocolate over the rocky road, leave to set in the fridge, then slice up and serve.

Buddy Oliver's Barbequed Chicken Lollipops

With pepper and pineapple salsa, and lemony couscous.

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 30 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 50 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 150g wholewheat couscous

• olive oil

• 2 lemons

• 2 x 120g higher-welfare skinless chicken breasts

• 4 sprigs of rosemary (tied together with a piece of string)

• 1 tsp runny honey

• 1 red pepper

• ¼ of a small red onion

• 150g pineapple

• extra virgin olive oil

• optional:

• ½ a bunch of soft herbs, such as mint, flat-leaf parsley (15g)

• 4 tbsp natural yoghurt

Method

1. Soak 6 wooden skewers in cold water to stop them burning later on.

2. Place the couscous in a bowl with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil. Finely grate in the zest of ½ a lemon and squeeze in the juice, throwing the squeezed half into the bowl. Just cover the couscous with boiling water, then cover and leave aside to fluff up.

3. Carefully push 3 skewers horizontally into each chicken breast (trim the skewers, if needed), season with black pepper, squeeze over the juice of ½ a lemon and drizzle with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil.

4. You can cook the skewers on a hot barbecue or in a non-stick frying pan on the hob. Either way, cook them for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the chicken is golden and cooked through, turning regularly. For the final minute of cooking, use the rosemary sprigs to brush the honey over the chicken, giving it a lovely sticky glaze.

5. Halve, deseed and finely chop the pepper, then peel and finely chop the onion and pineapple, and scrape everything into a bowl. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil, then taste and season with sea salt and pepper, if needed. Pick and finely chop the herbs (if using), then add to the bowl and toss together.

6. Fluff up the couscous with a fork, season to taste with salt and pepper, and divide between serving plates.

7. Slice the chicken between the skewers, making sure it’s cooked through – if it’s not, give it a little longer. Place 3 chicken lollipops on each plate and divide up the salsa. Serve with yoghurt for dipping and cut the remaining lemon into wedges for squeezing over.

• Let’s Cook by Buddy Oliver (€23) is published by Penguin Michael Joseph. 
• Find Cooking Buddies at www.youtube.com/c/cookingbuddies
• www.cookalicious.ie