Alain De Botton!

Hello!

How are you sir?

Thank you so much.

Tell these lovely people about your channel.

The School Of Life channel is where you should go for all your problems with relationships, work, anxiety, insomnia.

All the kind of stuff that keeps us troubled and worried.

It's the number one place to get an emotional education.

And this is the stuff you don't get taught at school.

That's right, that's why we called it The School Of Life.

It's all the stuff that's weirdly fallen through the cracks.

So go check out his channel, watch it and then you're hooked.

What do you know about philosophy?

I don't know, possibly what I think philosophy is, it isn't so maybe you can help me.

I'd love to help you.

Our brain is a faulty walnut.

The task of culture and philosophy in particular is to give that faulty walnut things that will keep it balanced,

steady, calm, honest, all these things that we want.

But we can't do that on our own.

You know we still live in a culture where what's going in our minds is so presumed to be disconnected from what we're eating.

Tell them what you've told me to do.

The challenge was simple, Jamie how can you help us to think better by eating better?

So is there a kind of food that will keep your mind fresh, active and you know, keep things in perspective?

That's the challenge.

Your body is basically like a loofah right, there's lots of little caverns and pockets where it's sucking up all the things it needs.

Some things it needs everyday, some things it can hold on to and keep over reserves for weeks and months.

I can show you foods that are really rich and great sources of things that particularly your brain likes.

The more you mix it up and the more whole foods we mix up, the more chance you've got to be the very best we can be.

The obsession by one thing that's going to make you clever or fast I think we need to let go straight away.

Yep I agree, it's like in philosophy people always say what's the meaning of life?

It's like well life is made up of many many rivers that flow into a central sea of meaning, it's not one thing.

But it's funny we live in a culture where people do expect one answer.

Now philosopher Epicurus is one of the great philosophers of the ancient world said:

The only things to feast on that you need to be a king, he said are cheese and bread.

It reminds us that human beings are not that complicated in the end. We just need a few basic things.

Sometimes we just think that we're machines that we can never understand.

Some of these things are just simple roots to happiness.

This is a collection of things that you like.

This is just a map of happiness. Colours look great, it's just health isn't it.

Shall I tell you what we're going to make?

Please.

Alain's Pesto Taglierini with his favourite artichokes.

Alain if you could just roll that lemon and when you start to feel your hand slipping a little.

That's the natural oils coming out.

So we're gonna go lemon zest. Okay. Just a little.

You my bro are going to put the basil in here.

Okay.

Grab the nuts and the cheese. We're not using Parmesan, we're using Swiss cheese.

Why? Because he likes it.

Whazz this up. Full whack.

Now we stop.

So now pour in there about 5 seconds of olive oil to start off with.

Garlic goes in.

Yep.

And then we'll squeeze in the juice of a quarter of a lemon.

Give it another little whazz.

We're such idiots for eating badly aren't we?

This is what you teach us.

What's beautiful about this is a tablespoon is all you need per portion.

We're now going to add pasta, this is taglierini.

Straight into the pan, salted okay.

And we'll just give it a little of a move around and that will break up.

I'm gonna do an artichoke, so there we go.

So much of it is inedible and then the bit that isn't is just great.

Divine.

What I'm going to do is slice them this thin so they cook with and in harmony with the pasta.

Wow.

I'm in awe.

Here is the artichoke and the taglierini going in.

Wow.

Right.

And we're going to just toss it around. The water is going to emulsify with your swiss cheese.

And it's going to be sucked up even more so with the pasta.

We're getting there, we're getting there.

This is how I'm gonna cook in the future, I'm so converted.

It smells divine, it looks amazing.

This food has got good fats, it's got herbs, it's got the goodness of the nuts and the answer is there isn't a golden bullet.

And that's not necessarily a golden bullet but love, care, attention will make you happy.

Now I stress-fully wait over here.

For the verdict.

What I'm loving is that all the different flavours are coming out.

It's like listening to music and all the notes are clear and yet it's coming together in a wonderful symphony.

I mean it really is.

Can I try some?

Yeah, yeah.

Having a varied diet, real food, fresh food is the best gift you can give to your mind, body and soul frankly.

Yea we've allowed ourselves to forget that actually you can be happy on very little and this is the proof of it.

And it's so simple, happiness is simple right with a bit of knowledge.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you Jamie.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

Have fun with friends and family with this dish.

Lots of love.