How Jamie Oliver (51) Gets His Kids to Try More Vegetables

Jamie Oliver has spent decades trying to get other people’s children to eat their greens, but the tactics that actually work best come from his own kitchen table. None of them involve much lecturing about nutrition.

Getting Them Into the Kitchen Early

Oliver’s team is direct about the starting point: a child who helps prepare a meal is far more likely to actually eat it. “If a child has had the opportunity to take part in their food preparation, they feel more invested in a meal,” his site explains, treating that involvement as the real gateway to trying something unfamiliar.

That logic flips the usual approach on its head. Rather than presenting a finished plate and hoping for the best, the vegetable becomes part of something the kid already helped build, which changes how willing they are to actually taste it.

Buddy’s Own Cooking Show Proves the Point

Oliver has leaned into that philosophy publicly through his youngest son Buddy, who fronts a BBC series built entirely around kids cooking. “We underestimate our kids’ abilities,” Oliver has said of the show, adding that “they often do so well when we give them responsibility.”

He’s been equally candid about the mess that comes with it, noting that a child is never going to cook as cleanly as an adult would. Letting go of that tidiness, in his view, is part of the trade-off for actually getting a kid engaged with real ingredients.

A Rainbow on Every Plate

Beyond kitchen involvement, Oliver’s team pushes a simple visual rule: aim for a different colored fruit or vegetable at every meal rather than repeating the same green thing on repeat. Thinking in terms of a rainbow turns the plate into something closer to a game than a chore.

It’s a low-effort shift that doesn’t require any new recipes, just rotating what’s already in the fridge so the same handful of vegetables don’t become the only ones a kid will recognize. Variety, in this case, is doing more work than any single ingredient could on its own.

Texture and Temperature Matter as Much as Flavor

Serving the same vegetable the same way every time risks a kid deciding they only like it in that one specific form. Oliver’s site recommends deliberately varying the texture and temperature, baking an apple instead of always serving it raw, or trying broccoli cold in a quiche instead of only steamed.

That range keeps a kid from getting boxed into narrow preferences before they’ve really had the chance to explore. A vegetable rejected in one form isn’t necessarily rejected for good, it just hasn’t been tried enough different ways yet.

When Vegetables Disappear Into the Dish

For genuinely stubborn cases, Oliver doesn’t rule out simply blending vegetables into something else entirely. “If you liquefy the vegetables, chances are they’ll love it,” he’s said, pointing to soups as an easy way to get something like broccoli into a bowl that no longer looks like broccoli at all.

It’s less about tricking anyone long-term and more about lowering the stakes for a first bite. Once a food has been eaten and enjoyed in disguise, it tends to become a little less frightening in its original form the next time it shows up.

A Slow Cooker Does Some of the Persuading

Oliver has also pointed to slow cookers as an underused tool for pulling natural sweetness out of vegetables that often get dismissed outright. Carrots, squash, and onions left to cook low and slow develop a deeper, almost caramelized flavor that a quick steam or boil never quite reaches.

That extra sweetness does a lot of the convincing without any extra seasoning or sauce required. It’s a hands-off method, too, which matters on the nights when getting a kid to the table is already effort enough.

Keeping the Freezer Stocked Removes the Excuse

Oliver keeps frozen vegetables on hand as a default rather than a backup plan, treating them as just as legitimate as anything fresh. That stock removes the common excuse of not having anything green in the house on a given night.

According to his own advice, frozen options tend to be both cheaper and longer-lasting than fresh produce, which makes them easier to reach for regularly rather than occasionally. Consistency, more than any single trick, seems to be the thing actually doing the work over time.

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