Entertain the Jamie way...

What is it with Jamie Oliver? Did he do something beautiful in a previous life? Was he conceived on a ley line? Whatever it is, he has had far more than his fair share of success over the past 18 months.

Somehow, if Jamie were a bit more go-getting, his extraordinarily speedy rise to fortune would be easier to stomach. Twenty-somethings who haven't starred in their own TV series, cooked for Tony Blair, produced two best-selling books, been voted one of TV's sexiest personalities by the readers of countless glossy magazines, married a model and then been appointed consultant chef at Monte's, could comfort themselves with the thought that he had simply worked harder at it.

But no, Jamie Oliver never asked for any of it. There he was making a spinach roulade (not easy, granted, but hardly the stuff of legends) when he was spotted by a passing TV producer who just happened to be making a documentary about the River Caf?.

The producer - incidentally the very same who united the Two Fat Ladies - immediately recognised a potential star, someone who could do for cooking what the bra-less Charlie Dimmock had done for gardening, and wasted no time in launching The Naked Chef. The effect was immediate. Suddenly, blokes who had never been within three feet of a recipe book were chucking basil and buffalo mozzarella about with gay abandon. Middle-aged women were overheard discussing the pros and cons of using a good lug of olive oil in pasta.

And so it continued. Hard on the heels of the second television series came a million-pound, two-year deal to be the 'face of Sainsbury's' - and don't claim you hadn't noticed. Anyone who has switched on their TV for more than three seconds in the past month will have seen the tousled-haired Jamie rustling up a quick 'ruby' for his mates after closing time at the pub. Which of us hasn't been touched/intensely annoyed by his crest-fallen expression when his chums pretend not to be hungry and then hilariously reveal that they were only messing about?

Which, of course, is where the secret of Jamie Oliver's success really lies. More than anything else, he wants you to believe that he lives in exactly the same world as you. When he married his long-term girlfriend, Juliette 'Jules' Norton, in June, we were treated to lashings of detail on how incredibly ordinary the wedding was (although I personally don't know many people who have had the Chemical Brothers flown to their reception by helicopter). Jamie had, we were informed at great length, made the wedding cake, personally ordered the organic topside of beef for the starters, nipped down to New Covent Garden Market the day before the wedding to pick up the fruit and veg, got up at 5am to make the bread ... you know, just the stuff that all blokes do on their wedding day.

So how do we mere mortals (ie those of us who would have hurled the ruby at our sneering mates long before they had a chance to say 'Only joking' and, in fact, would have never considered cooking the damn thing in the first place) gain entry to this charmed world? It's actually fairly simple to pull off, provided you don't attempt it on a regular basis - all that baking at 5am takes it toll after a while. Here'san easy-to-follow recipe for entertaining the Jamie way.

Step 1
Buy a huge joint of meat from your Soho butcher (it must look big enough to feed a football team). Visiting John the fishmonger at Blagden's or making friends with a fruit and veg man is optional, but make sure you call him 'my son'. Bung on your Davida open-face helmet and drive home on your Italjet Velocifero scooter with a raft of bread under your arm.

Step 2
Once home, 'whack' the joint straight into a roasting tin (no mincing about or putting it in the fridge). Any seasoning or stuffing should include fistfuls of purple basil and under no circumstances should anything be measured.

Step 3
Invent an invisible friend to be your off-camera interviewer, or hire a mate to engage you in idle conversation, while you fiddle about with broad beans. Stress what a 'wicked' recipe this is and then slam-dunk your basketball through the hoop on the wall.