Jamie Oliver Shares His Tips For Easter Entertaining And His Plans For Food Revolution Day

Launching his campaign with celebrity-philanthropy fundraising platform Prizeo, Oliver wants you to compete for a cooking lesson to raise awareness

The warm weather brings many things with it — bright colors, fresh ingredients, and more importantly, a lighter wardrobe load. Spring also brings a slew of holidays and important events including Easter, Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby, Earth Day — and Food Revolution Day.

While you can be certain that we'll be bringing you tips and recipes for all of the occasions that lay ahead, we're super excited to talk about Food Revolution Day and a certain famed British chef.

May 17 will be the second Food Revolution Day, after a resounding success in 2012. The initiative began with chef Jamie Oliver coming together with the Good Foundation and the Better Food Foundation to create a global campaign to get the world talking about real food and food education through events and dinner parties within their own communities.

Last year, famous faces like Gwyneth Paltrow, Adrian Grenier, Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher and more were involved in the movement. One hundred percent of the funds raised went to Jamie Oliver's food education projects in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.

This year, Oliver is teaming up with new celebrity-philanthropy platform Prizeo — a site that auctions off stellar and rare experiences for good causes — to raise money for the big day. Today, March 22, he kicked off a global competition where anyone can pay $3 or more to bid on a cooking class with him in his own kitchen. The auction is open for bidding for just 40 days only, and all proceeds go his food education charities that are tied to Food Revolution Day: the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, the Better Food Foundation, and the Good Foundation.

"It's all about raising awareness and individual responsibility, resuscitating dying food culture around the world and, ultimately, keeping cooking skills alive," Oliver says of his charities. "Everything we do is about educating, empowering, and inspiring people to make better food choices, for life."

While we had Oliver's ear, we asked him about his plans for spring and Easter.

"It's quite cold in the U.K. at the moment, and the forecast isn't looking like it's going to get any better over Easter, so I think it'll be more warming comforting food, like the last few months," he said of his Easter plans. "I'll probably get some roast lamb going at some point, too, and we'll encourage the kids to decorate Easter eggs. I might even dress up as the Easter bunny if they're lucky — I did it a couple of years ago and did them an Easter egg hunt around the garden, and we had a wicked time. Although, once they realized it was me in a costume and not the real Easter bunny, I'm not sure they were too impressed!"

When asked what food he just can't live without in the spring, Oliver said, "I love the first spring asparagus when it comes through each year — it's such a joy when those little spears start poking out of the ground, although it doesn't last very long. Asparagus can be difficult to grow, but we've managed it in the garden over the last few years, which is amazing." And how does he serve this tasty vegetable? "I just griddle it to bring out that amazing flavor, and then serve with a squeeze of lemon juice, a little bit of seasoning, and a fine grating of Parmesan — heaven."

To enter, head to Prizeo.com/Jamie . And for more on Food Revolution Day and how you can get involved, click here for all the details. http://foodrevolutionday.com/