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Agence France-Presse

With his often simple but inventive dishes, British chef Jamie Oliver revolutionised home cooking for his compatriots – but could not save his restaurant chain from going under.
Oliver’s restaurant group, comprising 25 outlets across Britain, collapsed on Tuesday with the closure of 22 restaurants and the loss of 1,000 jobs, leaving him “devastated”.
Oliver’s fresh looks, messy hair, scooter riding and relaxed banter earned him many fans around the world, who watched his television shows and bought his books in their millions.
The 43-year-old, now a multimillionaire, had cooking in his blood.

He grew up in the village of Clavering in Essex, eastern England. His parents ran a gastropub and this is where he first tried cooking.
Oliver had a tough time at school due to dyslexia. He finished a book for the first time at the age of 38. He went to study cookery at Westminster Kingsway College in London aged 16.
“I think I had a lot to prove”, Oliver says.
“I did so, so badly at school, I had to prove myself at work. Even though some people think I’m a middle-class kid from a private school background, I’m not.
“My dad had nothing and I worked in a family business so it couldn’t be more opposite.”

His first job, aged 19, was as a pastry chef at chef Antonio Carluccio’s Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden, London.
He learned about Italian cuisine and forged a close relationship with his mentor Gennaro Contaldo.
Oliver moved to become a sous-chef at The River Cafe where his appearance in a 1997 BBC television programme turned heads. He was swiftly offered his own show.
Two years later, The Naked Chef hit the small screen and a star was born.
Rather than get bogged down in technical terms and fancy utensils, Oliver, wearing jeans and T-shirt and exuding natural enthusiasm, incessantly described the food before him as “great” or “fantastic”.
However, it was not all plain sailing.

“I’m never happy with things, so striving for perfection can be quite tiring. I also tend to make extra work for myself,” he says.
In 2002, he sunk a large chunk of his fortune into creating Fifteen, a London restaurant staffed with disadvantaged youngsters. The project was chronicled in the documentary series Jamie’s Kitchen.
Promoting a healthy and balanced diet, with fresh and well-sourced products, he went to war with junk food in 2005, lashing out at the burgers, fries, and lack of fruit being dished up in school canteens in the TV series Jamie’s School Dinners.
“We are killing our children” with junk food, said the father of five, who married his childhood sweetheart Juliette Norton in 2000.

He campaigned for a tax on sugary soft drinks – something the British government introduced in 2018 – and for junk food adverts to be banned on television before 9pm.
But for all his popularity, Oliver has been no stranger to controversy.
He is regularly criticised for attacking the processed foods that the poorest in society can afford, and for his tie-ups with big supermarket chains, such as Sainsbury’s from 2000 to 2001 and Tesco from 2018.
Oliver was accused of cultural appropriation in August last year for calling a new product “punchy jerk rice”.

He was blasted again in December last year for his £5 million (US$6.4 million) deal to launch a new deli range in Shell fuel stations.
How good is Jamie Oliver’s new Hong Kong kids’ menu? We asked five children to rate it
Oliver continues to make significant profits from books and products bearing his name.
In 2017, the tide began to turn for his restaurants and he was forced to close a dozen Jamie’s Italian outlets, launched nine years earlier.
On Tuesday, administrators KPMG were appointed to run the chain and close all but three of its 25 restaurants.


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Food and Drinks

Jamie Oliver: from dyslexic student to multimillionaire TV chef with a mission

British chef and activist Jamie Oliver arrives to speak to members of the media after speaking on the subject of childhood obesity to a parliamentary committee. Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP

CORRECTION - A picture shows the signage at a closed-down Jamie's Italian restaurant in Glasgow on May 21, 2019. - British celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver said Tuesday that he was "devastated" to announce that his restaurant group had collapsed, with the loss of 1,000 jobs. The group, which comprises 25 restaurants across Britain and includes the chains Jamie's Italian and Barbecoa steakhouse, has appointed administrators KPMG. (Photo by Andy Buchanan / AFP) / “The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by Andy Buchanan has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Glasgow] instead of [Manchester]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continu

A8G3MR The Cricketers pub, Clavering, Essex, England, UK

FP0F5B Westminster London, UK. 16th March 2016. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver does not hide his joy after the sugar tax announcement  by chancellor George Osborne to introduce a sugar levy on soft drinks firms. Jamie Oliver has been campaigning for a sugar tax to tackle the growing obesity problem amongst the young population of Britain Credit:  amer ghazzal/Alamy Live News

D6XXWK Berlin, Germany, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, at a Produktpraesentation by Philips at IFA 2012

DP9YXJ stack of three Jamie Oliver cookbooks on a granite worktop

More than 1,000 jobs at risk as British chef Jamie Oliver’s restaurant chain set to enter administration

Chef Jamie Oliver. Photo: Handout

Lifestyle

Food & Drink


Jamie Oliver has come a long way, from cooking in his parents’ Essex pub to owning 25 restaurants (22 of which closed last week)
He spearheaded a number of initiatives in Britain, from restricting junk food advertising to making school dinners more healthy



Jamie Oliver has come a long way, from cooking in his parents’ Essex pub to owning 25 restaurants (22 of which closed last week). He spearheaded a number of initiatives in Britain, from restricting junk food advertising to making school dinners more healthy.
