English celebrity chef Jamie Oliver cooked with eight selected dining ambassadors earlier today in the Arrillaga Family Dining Commons teaching kitchen as part of his campus visit to celebrate the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation’s new collaboration with Stanford Dining. All students were also treated to a special meal in Arrillaga and an opportunity to meet Oliver.

Oliver, who first appeared on television in a popular English cooking show, “The Naked Chef,” started The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation in 2002 to spread awareness about good nutrition and the source of our food. Oliver has been instrumental in banning unhealthy meals in English schools through both political campaigns and his show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.”

According to its website, the foundation’s projects are about “raising awareness and individual responsibility, resuscitating the dying food culture around the world and, ultimately, keeping cooking skills alive.”

Stanford is the first university in the United States to collaborate with The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation. The University was chosen due to its sustainable buying commitments and its already implemented healthy-food focus.

“It’s exciting to collaborate with people who are very passionate about what they do,” Oliver said.

Stanford will be opening the Teaching Kitchen @ Stanford to share hands-on cooking classes with the student body. The classes will utilize Oliver’s recipes to teach cooking fundamentals and build healthier eating habits in the student body.

The classes will be structured similarly to the pilot that Oliver led today. A Stanford chef will first demonstrate how to make the dish, then students grouped into pairs will then have a chance to imitate.

“How do you inspire students in a busy environment? With short, sharp, dynamic, exciting cooking classes,” Oliver said.

According to Eric Montell, the executive director of Stanford Dining, Teaching Kitchen @ Stanford is the next step in positively influencing student’s eating habits.

Montell said that passion for sustainable eating is a habit that many Stanford students eventually leave the University with, and that alumni have gone on to implement healthy eating programs within companies.

“History says that there’s a lot of leaders that come out of Stanford,” Oliver said. “We want to make sure [those leaders] are the kind that care.”

Contact Alexandra Nguyen-Phuc at amn17 ‘at’ stanford.edu.