Jamie PQE

When Jamie Oliver introduces his ingredients he uses an upward inflexion at the end of the word ‘Basil’ to refer to the comedy sit-com character Basil Fawlty. He mimics the way Sybil Fawlty’s delivery which clues in the audience to how Oliver watches the programme, introducing an element of humour in his informal style. Oliver wants to engage an audience who is similar to his age and social background, and so this cultural reference helps him do it. Then when he says ‘Rosemary and beef are best friends’ he personifies the ingredients while passing on a culinary tip. His warm, colloquial style again engages us as an audience.

Cooking it up! 3rd PQE

P. Jamie Oliver and Nancy Lam, despite being from different cultural backgrounds, share a lot of similar linguistic features. They use: an informal style of presenting (which extends to their loose views on quantities), the use of non-standard English and use of colloquialisms. Q. ‘You’re catching me aren’t you?’ ‘You can use any pasta really (.) a little parmesan cheese (.) literally (.) that much’ E. Lam uses the rhetorical question to engage with her audience, she intimates that the audience understands her and her style of cooking. Similarly, Jamie shows us ’literally’ the amount of cheese to use. The pauses here show us he is demonstrating and rather than have an exact amount written in a cookbook, he uses the connection of a TV show to illustrate his ingredients to the audience. This is a paralinguistic technique that Lam uses at the beginning of the extract. Their friendly tone creates a positive atmosphere with us as the audience. (Personal response.)