CELEBRITY chef Jamie Oliver has provoked accusations he portrayed Rotherham's citizens as "dumbos" and "numpties" in his television show set in the town.
In the first episode of Ministry of Food, small children were shown devouring kebabs, while one mum didn't know what boiling water looked like.
He also met a woman who ate 10 packets of crisps and a bar of chocolate for dinner.
In the Channel 4 show, Oliver teaches 10 recipes to eight people who cannot cook. They are supposed to pass on their skills to two people each and they then teach two further people until the whole town can cook.
One restaurateur who got to know Oliver while filming said the chef never intended to come across as rubbishing the town and would be upset at suggestions he was a snobby southerner taking the mickey out of the 'poor north'.
Trevor Dakin, who owns upmarket Vasco's restaurant in Bawtry Road, Wickersley, said: "Jamie came in for lunch nine or 10 times while filming and he doesn't have one ounce of snobbery about him. He's from a simple background – his dad owns a pub."
Mr Dakin revealed Jamie and his production team were initially going to set the series in Southend and only swapped the rundown seaside resort in favour of Rotherham after mum Julie Critchlow achieved notoriety doing junk food runs for school pupils in Rawmarsh.
He said: "What's come over so far on television certainly looks distasteful but Jamie's not come to make us look like numpties at all.
"It's unfortunate that the people he met on his first programme were those with the poorest backgrounds but those in better circumstances perhaps wouldn't need as much help.
"Jamie is a very nice young man with a lot of honesty and integrity and he would certainly not want to come across as a posh southerner rubbishing northern people."
Rotherham residents are awaiting tonight's second instalment of the four-part programme with bated breath to see whether Oliver's portrayal of the area improves.
But Mr Dakin reckons people shouldn't worry about the forthcoming episodes.
He said: "I think the series will improve. Jamie's demeanour changed as filming went on and he became more positive."
Mr Dakin revealed Oliver was met with hostility when he first arrived – twice being turned away by Julie Critchlow, whom he had dubbed a "fat scrubber".
But his reception by Rotherham folk warmed as the filming continued, to the extent that he and Julie even came into Vasco's for a meal together.
There was uproar after the first programme, with residents complaining Oliver had tarred everyone with the same brush.
Coun John Gilding, leader of Rotherham Council's Conservatives, said: "It gave the impression that everyone was down at heel and it made us look like dumbos.
Jamie was this hero, a knight in shining armour coming into the backwoods to save us."
Emma White, 38, a catering industry project administrator in the town, added: "They picked people from a certain social background who seemed to be single parents on benefits."
But Rotherham Council leader Coun Roger Stone called on residents to be patient and watch the series unfold.
He said: "Jamie Oliver is trying something new and innovative, and whether good or bad, it's got people talking about good food and good health.
"The time to judge is after the show has finished in three weeks time."
Jamie Oliver's spokesman Peter Berry added: "I think over the course of the series Rotherham is shown in a generally good light."
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