This week’s episode of Food Revolution centered around introducing the community of Huntington, West Virginia to Jamie’s Kitchen, where he offered free cooking lessons and advice on meal planning. Rather than working with one school at a time or one family at a time, Jamie wants to impact the entire community.
The episode starts with Jamie appearing on Rod’s radio show again. Rod continues to express skepticism about Jamie’s revolution and how the show will portray Huntington. Throughout the episode, Jamie continues to speak positively about Huntington and its 50,000 residents. Jamie and Rod make a bet on whether or not Jamie can teach 1,000 people to cook in the next five days. Rod states that if Jamie can bring 1,000 people in to his kitchen, Rod will buy Jamie a beer and start helping him in his cause by spreading the word.
Although Jamie made the typical local television and radio show appearances, he also worked with students at Marshall University to create a flash mob, an unusual experience in an every day location, to spread the word and try to get people to come to Jamie’s Kitchen. Jamie worked with a choreographer who helped him turn a stir fry into a dance, which Jamie performed with the help of several dancers in the middle of campus. Even unpacking the cooking equipment was a part of the toe-tapping choreography, and it certainly got the attention of the students who were in the vicinity.
On the third day of the challenge, Jamie shut down city streets for a cookathon. He was able to teach Huntington residents of all ages and from all walks of life to cook and the nutritional benefits of the ingredients they were using. Jamie was also able to get a local, family-owned business on board and taught the workers to cook in a hardhat. Even Alice showed up at Jamie’s Kitchen.
On the fourth day, Jamie took Rod to a mortuary to see the results of obesity, including a casket that appeared to be the size of a double bed. Afterward, they met some of Jamie’s teen ambassadors and members of the family with which Jamie was working at Jamie’s Kitchen, so they could share their stories with Rod. Jamie wanted to show Rod that the Food Revolution is about saving lives, not just about cooking.
On the final day of the bet, moved by his day with Jamie, Rod was broadcasting live from Jamie’s Kitchen, asking people to come in and help him lose his bet. Rod himself was the 1,000th person that Jamie taught to cook this week.