JOOLS & JAMIE OLIVER: OUR BABY BATTLE, PLUS WHY THIS CHRISTMAS IS DIFFERENT
FOR THE TV CHEF, IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE, LAUGHTER AND LEFTOVERS
There’s one important fact Jamie Oliver wants you to remember about Christmas – it never goes to plan. But if you keep laughing, somehow everything will turn out just fine.
He should know – as a father of five, chaos is the daily norm in the Oliver homestead, and when you add the stress, bedlam and business of the festive season, plus a fair few relatives who turn up on the doorstep hoping for a feed, you’ve got all the ingredients for a holiday breakdown.
However, the beloved TV chef now has a secret for getting through: leftovers, bread and plenty of bottles of bubbles – and cutting down the guest list!
“Normally, the day before Christmas Eve I will take over the kids and start preparing Christmas dinner,” he tells.
“I always enjoyed it up until about two years ago. We started with 12, then 14, then 16 guests and as the families that came got bigger – and I have five kids – we got to 26. It was like running a restaurant!
“Last year, for the first time, there were just the seven of us and we made the big party Boxing Day. It is an easier gig; I made an Italian mixed roast with enough leftovers for a week and added lots of prosecco!”
There’s no doubt Jamie (42) will be looking forward to a more relaxed Christmas, following one of his biggest years yet, which has seen him release yet another cookbook as well as preside over a global restaurant empire, plus TV shows, merchandise lines and endorsement deals.
He’s also managed to land himself in a controversy over school bake sales – he reckoned they should be banned, before quickly backtracking – admitted he was once declared bankrupt and even hinted at a possible retirement – all while being a dad to Poppy (15), Daisy (14), Petal (8), Buddy (7) and 15month-old River, and husband to longtime sweetheart Jools.
But through it all, it’s family that means the most, he tells – and he believes Jools (42) is keen to add to their brood, an idea he met with sheer horror. So much so, when he wrote the introduction to his latest tome, Five Ingredients, he even tried to immortalise his wishes by declaring his five favourite ingredients as his three daughters and two sons.
“You might see that as very sweet... but that’s actually a legally binding contract!” he laughs, adding he knows Jools would love nothing more than baby number six.
“I wouldn’t put it past her.
But tactically speaking, I don’t think I can fall for the same tricks any more. Once bitten, twice shy. I’m battle hardy now. If I get that sense, I’m going to leg it to the doghouse at the bottom of the garden.
“I love babies, I love children. And I love the fact that Jools loves them, but I think we’ve both agreed that we’re done!”
Having kids ranging from 15 to one is a fact that still amazes both Jamie and Jools, or as Jamie puts it, “we’ve got teenagers, mid-batch and nappies”. Jools also can’t believe she’s a mum to two wee lads after having her three daughters first. “I still feel in shock that I have boys,” she says, adding she was chuffed Buddy now has a brother. “I’m so used to having girls!”
Jools, who founded kidswear line Little Bird, and Jamie seem to be expert jugglers, considering they have no nannies and two different business empires to manage between them. While Jamie’s learnt it all when it comes to business, Jools tells she’s still hesitant to ask her husband for help with her own ventures. “I mean, I would never give feedback on his risotto!” she laughs.
It was after the pair had River that the first rumours emerged the foodie legend, formerly known as The Naked Chef, was to retire, after a UK newspaper reported him saying, “I have not told anyone this in the public domain. I am 42 now, I have got five kids and I am actually sort of looking at my days... I try to be a good dad. I could retire.”
And while Jamie’s publicists were quick to deny the chef is hanging up his apron, there’s no denying that Jamie and Jools, who met when they were only teenagers, live for their chaotic life in Essex that, fittingly, centres around the kitchen.
Though, it seems there’s only one little Oliver who wants to follow dad into business – seven-year-old Buddy.
“He’s the only kid of ours at the moment who wants to be a chef,” he tells. “I got home the other day and he had gone to the garden and picked crab apples, fennel and rosemary to make a kind of compote or thick jam, and left it with a message, ‘To Daddy, I made this recipe for you.’
“It was very cute and it was all going so well until he put one weird ingredient in it, like garlic, which was a clanger of a flavour. Maybe I’ll use it to baste ham.”
Perhaps it’s a new Oliver family Christmas tradition!