Jamie Oliver Will Donate Cookbooks to Every UK Library

World-saving British chef Jamie Oliver will be donating a copy of his new cookbook Save With Jamie to every single library in the United Kingdom. According to the Bookseller, Oliver will be donating over 4,000 copies. Save With Jamie is about "cooking clever, shopping smart and wasting less" (buy at Amazon). Oliver told the Bookseller: "We know from the fabulous work that libraries do every day that everyone deserves a chance to learn basic skills that can improve everyday lives. Reading and cooking are two of those skills for sure." (Oliver only recently began reading for pleasure.)

The donation follows a controversy Oliver started earlier this week when he bashed the food choices of Britain's poorest families while promoting his new show Jamie's Money Saving Meals. Oliver did further PR damage this week when he claimed young British restaurant workers were lazy in an interview with Good Housekeeping. Not surprisingly, the Daily Mail reports Oliver is now facing backlash from working chefs and cooks in the UK, who are calling his comments "disgusting" and "a joke."

· Free Jamie cookbook for every UK library [Bookseller]
· 'Insulting and Inaccurate': Jamie Oliver Faces Fierce Backlash [Daily Mail]
· All Jamie Oliver Coverage on Eater [-E-]