Chef Jamie Oliver kicks kick off his new series celebrating ingredients as they come into season in spring

After the bleak winter months, it is an exciting time for cooks and chefs when they can make the most of some of the UK’s wonderful seasonal produce.

For chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver it is one of his favourite times of the year, and so it’s fitting that he has decided to kick off his new series celebrating ingredients as they come into season in the UK, in spring.

Jamie Cooks… is an extended series split into four parts – Jamie Cooks Spring, Jamie Cooks Summer, Jamie Cooks Autumn and Jamie Cooks Winter.

For every season, he will showcase inspiring recipes using sustainable ingredients that are in bang in season – whether you’re out shopping or growing your own.

The chef, who turns 49 next month, explains: “I can’t wait to show people how wonderful the world of seasonal cooking is – how ingredients can taste, feel, look and cook better in their prime time.

“The show is packed with delicious ways to enjoy local, British produce in our kitchens all year round.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have your own garden patch or windowsill space, you can tap into what is in the supermarkets and farmers’ markets at that moment and get closer to fresher, more sustainable ingredients.”

In tonight’s first edition, Jamie picks some rhubarb from the garden and celebrates its tart tanginess by making a lip-smacking sauce for marinated pork belly, pan-fried until crispy in his hot and sour rhubarb crispy pork noodles.

He then picks some new season spinach for a silky and luxurious spinach and goat’s cheese risotto, before celebrating a veg that has seen us through the winter – the leek – as he cooks up a scruffy spring tart.

Jamie also shows us how to divide shop-bought basil into lots of individual plants to last us through the year and celebrates the vibrantly coloured stalks and leaves of chard in a crowd-pleasing cheesy spring cannelloni.

Jamie Cooks is already the chef’s second new show for Channel 4 this year, following on from the recent Jamie’s Air Fryer Meals.

And although some critics may think he’s in danger of over-exposure, he thinks viewers will see a different side to him in Jamie Cooks…, including his love of gardening.

He says: “What you’ve seen of me on screen has always been authentic, but Jamie Cooks… allows me to be excited and eccentric, as well as calm as it’s a bit of a slower pace, so you get both gears of me.

“My family is around, as is my faithful dog Conker, and I enjoy the quiet moments where we say nothing.

“I’m in the garden every day I can be. I’m obsessed. I probably spend an hour in the garden every night, picking and eating.

“Before meals, I’ll say to my family, ‘Guys, before we start, everything is from the garden’. They’ll look at me and reply, ‘Yes, you say that every day’. I do feel like a very eccentric father, but I don’t care, because nature’s so bloody clever.”