Chatting to Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 show, Naked Chef star Jamie Oliver revealed a "really clever" tip to help people speed up the preparation of their festive dinners
16:10, 29 Nov 2025
Jamie Oliver has shared a "really clever" tip to help people speed up the preparation of their Christmas dinners, a meal that he dubbed a "beautiful thing". In a recent chat with Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 show (November 29), the Naked Chef star shared some useful advice for anyone planning to save some time when they cook their dinner this year.
In the segment, Zoe posed a question to the celebrity chef after recounting how she'd seen "loads of people" making their Christmas vegetables in a particular way, and wanted to know if she could do it in the same fashion.
She described how she'd seen people peeling potatoes, parboiling them, "ruffing them up" and then freezing them, a method Zoe said was also used for parsnips and carrots, and queried if she could also "do that".
Jamie said: "Yeah, make sure you toss them in a chosen fat first, so, but yeah, I mean, I think, interestingly, a raw potato will not freeze in any kind of quality, but a cooked one does."
He continued: "So, if you're going to be really clever, what you would do is do exactly what you said. Have the fat around it as well, which will protect it. Cover it and put it in the tray. Buy those very affordable, like, enamel trays.
"So, put it in the thing you're gonna cook it in, so it's one move, and then on Christmas Day, or should I say Christmas Eve, you get it out, and that's a job done."
He added that Christmas dinner is a "beautiful thing", but conceded that it involves "quite a lot" of pans and "coming together". It wouldn't be the first time that he has shared a veggie-themed tip, however.
Last year, Jamie shared a 10-minute method to help you make the most out of your veggies with "very little effort". He shared the recipe for his super steamed greens in a clementine and chilli butter on his website.
He wrote: "Infused butters are a no-brainer when it comes to adding big flavour to your veg, with very little effort. I've chosen a combo of clementine, fresh chilli and thyme here, but feel free to mix things up depending on what you have."
In other developments, Jamie recently spoke to to Long Lost Family's Davina McCall about his "incredibly kind" and "very funny" wife of 25 years, Juliette Norton (also known as Jools).
Wed in 2000, the couple have five kids- Poppy, Daisy Boo Pamela, Petal Blossom Rainbow, Buddy Bear Maurice, and River Rocket Blue Dallas - and Jamie touchingly confessed that he loves his wife "to bits".
Speaking to Davina's Begin Again podcast, he said: "I can't really talk about it for her, but she has neurodiversities (sic) that make her life really interesting and really challenging, and, of course, there's positives, but there's loads of things that like, you know, she makes us the way that we are, and I'm very grateful for Jools."
The Big Brother legend then asked about what first attracted Jamie to her when they met at the young age of 18, leading him to describe her as "very beautiful and pure" and "quite quirky, quite clumsy".
He added: "Very cute, and she was like... she was always, like, the odd dresser. She like...she wore really cool clothes, like bonkers stuff that, really, our part of Essex wasn't really ready for."