Jamie Oliver


Jamie Trevor Oliver is an English celebrity chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, and he has fronted many television shows and opened numerous restaurants.
Oliver reached the public eye when his BBC Two series The Naked Chef premiered in 1999. In 2005, he started a campaign, Feed Me Better, to introduce schoolchildren to healthier foods, which was later backed by the government. He was the owner of a restaurant chain, Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, which opened its first restaurant, Jamie's Italian, The chain went into administration in May 2019.
Oliver is a best-selling British non-fiction author., Oliver had sold more than 14.55 million books. His TED Talk won him the 2010 TED Prize. In June 2003, Oliver was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for "services to the hospitality industry".

Early life

Jamie Trevor Oliver was born and raised in Clavering, Essex. His parents, Trevor and Sally Oliver, ran a pub and restaurant, the Cricketers, where he practised cooking in the kitchen with his parents. He has a sister, and was educated at Newport Free Grammar School, in Newport. A surprise revelation from 2009 suggested he had a sixth-generation Sudanese ancestor through his grandfather's side.
He left school at the age of 16 with two GCSE qualifications in art and geology and went on to attend Westminster Technical College. He earned a City & Guilds National Vocational Qualification in home economics.

Career

Oliver's first job was a pastry chef at Antonio Carluccio's Neal Street restaurant, where he first gained experience at preparing Italian cuisine, and developed a relationship with his mentor Gennaro Contaldo; later in his career Oliver employed Contaldo to help run his chain of high street restaurants, Jamie's Italian. Oliver moved to the River Cafe in Fulham, as a sous-chef. He was noticed there by the BBC in 1997, after making an unscripted appearance in the documentary Christmas at the River Cafe.
In 1999, Oliver's BBC Two show The Naked Chef debuted, and his cookbook became a bestseller in the United Kingdom. That same year, he was invited to prepare lunch for Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. After three series of Naked Chef programmes for the BBC, Oliver moved to Channel 4 in 2002, following BBC Two's decision not to renew his contract with the network, after Oliver had appeared in similarly-themed TV cookery advertisements for Sainsbury's supermarket.
His first Channel 4 series was a documentary, Jamie's Kitchen, which began in November 2002, and followed the setting up of Fifteen restaurant in London.
Oliver's holding company, Jamie Oliver Holdings Ltd., earned enough for Oliver to be listed on The Sunday Times list of richest Britons under 30 in 2005. Oliver's net worth was estimated in 2014 at £240 million. A decade later, his net worth was estimated at £173 million. Oliver was chosen by Disney Pixar to provide the voice of the health inspector in the UK version of Ratatouille. In December 2009, Oliver received the 2010 TED Prize. He hosted Jamie's 15 Minute Meals on Channel 4, which aired for 40 episodes in 2012.

Restaurants

Oliver's restaurant Fifteen, in Westland Place, London continued to train young adults who have a disadvantaged background for careers in the restaurant business until its closure on 21 May 2019.
The Fifteen Foundation opened further restaurants in Amsterdam, Cornwall and Fifteen Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne restaurant cut ties with Oliver in 2011. The London, Amsterdam and Cornwall restaurants closed in 2019 when his restaurant group went into administration.
In June 2008, Oliver launched a restaurant, Jamie's Italian, his first high street business venture, in Oxford, England. At its peak, there were 42 Jamie's Italian restaurants in the UK. The brand was franchised via the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, and included branches in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Qatar, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, the UAE and Singapore.
In 2011, Oliver, an advocate of cooking meals from scratch and using local produce, caused controversy after it turned out the sauces used in Jamie's Italian in Glasgow were from an industrial park almost away in Bicester. That same year, he came under fire for lack of food safety protections in his restaurants and illnesses associated with under-cooking mincemeat that may have been contaminated with E. coli.
In 2011, Oliver set up Barbecoa, a barbecued meat-based restaurant with his friend, American barbecue expert Adam Perry Lang. There were two outlets, both in London, one in Piccadilly and a second in St Pauls. In 2014 the Piccadilly outlet voluntarily closed for 24 hours after hygiene inspectors gave it the second-lowest rating. The Times reported they had found mouse droppings, mouldy carcasses and out-of-date meat. In February 2018, JORG confirmed that they had "instructed a firm of real estate agents to ascertain the potential value and market suitability of two of our sites". On 19 February 2018, Barbecoa Ltd went into administration, with Oliver immediately buying back the St Paul's site in a pre-packed agreement via a new subsidiary.
In 2014, he partnered with Toronto restaurateur King Street Co. and executive chef Rob Gentile to open 10 planned branches of Jamie's Italian, including a location in Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The business collapsed in 2020.
In January 2017, chief executive Simon Blagden announced the closure of six restaurants in the UK affecting 120 jobs, at sites in Aberdeen, Cheltenham, Exeter, Royal Tunbridge Wells, and in London at Ludgate and Richmond.
In January 2018, as part of an agreement with creditors to secure £71.5M of debt, JORG proposed to enter the UK company Jamie's Italian Ltd into a company voluntary arrangement, seeking rent reductions on eight outlets and closing a further 12 in Bath, Bristol, Bluewater, Chelmsford, Harrogate, Kingston, Milton Keynes, Reading, and St Albans, and Greenwich, Piccadilly and Threadneedle Street in London. As part of the agreement, court papers revealed that Jamie's Italian had debts of £71.5m, including £2.3 million in wages owed to staff; £30.2 million of overdrafts and loans; £41.3 million owed to landlords, HM Revenue and Customs, suppliers and other creditors; with £47 million of the debts covered by loans from HSBC Bank and Oliver's other companies.
The group went into administration on 21 May 2019 with 22 of 25 restaurants closed and 1,000 jobs lost. Jamie's Italian restaurants and Jamie Oliver's Diner at Gatwick Airport continued operations until they were sold to catering company SSP Group. Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall at Watergate Bay, as well as 61 overseas locations and the catering services operated by Aramark in the U.S., are all operated by franchisees so they were unaffected.
In January 2020, KPMG, the firm administrators, said that most of the £80 million Oliver's restaurant chain owed after its collapse in May 2019 will not be recovered. Hundreds of suppliers, as well as some town councils, will bear the brunt of the losses. In 2020, an employment tribunal ruled that Oliver's restaurants broke labour laws by failing to consult employees prior to making them redundant.
In November 2023, Oliver opened a new restaurant in London, his first since the collapse of his restaurant chain. Jamie Oliver Catherine Street was launched in partnership with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In March 2024, Oliver opened a restaurant in Serbia, Jamie's Italian Belgrade, his first in this part of Europe, located in the Belgrade Waterfront quarter.

Television shows

Books

Oliver has published over 30 books. He is the second-best-selling British author, behind J. K. Rowling, and the best-selling British non-fiction author since records began., Oliver had sold more than 14.55 million books, generating just under £180m for the chef.
In 2023, Oliver released his first children's book "Billy and the Giant Adventure". A sequel, Billy and the Epic Escape was released the following March, depicted the same children as the first book on a fantastic summer vacation. Led by an Australian Indigenous Australian education advocacy group, the sequel was sharply criticised for its representation of Indigenous Australians, and as being insensitive to the history of the Stolen Generations. In November, Oliver recalled the book and said he apologised for unintentionally causing offence.
  • The Naked Chef
  • The Return of the Naked Chef
  • * Published in the United States as The Naked Chef Takes Off
  • Happy Days with the Naked Chef
  • Jamie's Kitchen
  • Funky Food for Comic Relief
  • Jamie's Dinners
  • Jamie's Italy
  • Something for the Weekend
  • Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook
  • Jamie's Little Book of Big Treats
  • Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life
  • Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours
  • * Published in the United States as Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals
  • Jamie's Red Nose Recipes
  • Jamie's America
  • Jamie does...Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, Greece, France
  • Jamie's 30-Minute Meals
  • Jamie's Great Britain
  • Jamie's Monster Bake Sale
  • Jamie's 15-Minute Meals
  • Save with Jamie
  • Jamie's Comfort Food
  • Everyday Super Food
  • Super Food Family Classics
  • Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook
  • 5 Ingredients – Quick & Easy Food
  • Jamie Cooks Italy
  • Jamie's Friday Night Feast Cookbook
  • Veg: Easy & Delicious Meals for Everyone
  • 7 Ways
  • Together
  • One: Simple One-Pan Wonders
  • 5 Ingredients Mediterranean
  • Simply Jamie
  • Easy Air Fryer: Big & Bold Delicious Food
  • ''Eat Yourself Healthy: Food to Change Your Life''