Jamie’s kitchen confidential
The chef lifts the lid on fame to writer Rosa mu nd Dean
I’m in a hot kitchen with Jamie Oliver, who’s instructing me to slice yellowfin tuna with a massive knife and toss it into a sizzling pan. “That’s it, darling – go, go, go! Don’t be afraid!”
He’s teaching me how to cook tuna fettuccine from his new book Jamie Cooks Italy and he’s immensely charming. Everyone who sets foot in his London HQ is “sweetheart”, “girl”, “darling” or “tiger”. From anyone else, this over-familiarity might feel inappropriate. From him, it is impossible to be offended.
“Quarter those, my darling,” continues Jamie, 43, talking about the tomatoes I’m now chopping. “There’s no science behind it – just make it look cute. My days of looking cute are well gone.”
I’d argue that’s debatable, but next year will mark 20
years since cooking show The Naked Chef
introduced a 23-year-old Jamie into our kitchens. “God, such a lifetime ago,” he sighs wistfully.
Once the food is cooked, Jamie is quieter and more thoughtful. Is the anniversary making him reflective? “Very. That and hitting 40. I was so young. I mean, I’m not quite Michael Jackson – I wasn’t five or six – but I’ve grown up on the telly.”
It’s easy to forget just how big a deal Naked Chef was. “It exploded globally,” he nods. “I was being flown to New York to cook at Vanity Fair parties and because I was younger, it was like One Direction – it was nuts.”
What did Jools, 43, his childhood sweetheart, make of all the attention? “She was
surprisingly cool with it,” he says, adding, “I’ve never really talked to her about it. She’s always been good at being in the background.”
Which is just as well, really, since the BBC initially wanted to write her out of Jamie’s story. “They didn’t want Jools to exist in series one,” he says. “I kind of get it, but I wouldn’t define that as good TV now because it’s not real.”
Has Jamie, with his flirty schtick that worked so well in 1999, felt he has had to alter his behaviour at all since
then? “Not really,” he shrugs. “Living with three girls and a wife, I’m often the biggest feminist at that table.”
He claims responsibility for one of the big changes of the last two decades – men taking over in the kitchen. “Before
NakedChef, they weren’t there. I know I was part of that. There was this idea that cooking was for girls and my job was to change it to cooking gets you girls.”
Initially, this made him unpopular. “For the first two or three years, I got abuse. Not just verbal – I got roughed up. Women were going out to work en masse and when the men asked, ‘What’s for dinner?’ the girls were saying, ‘I’m knackered too. If Jamie can do it, you should have a go.’ A lot of fellas were put out by that.”
More recently, Jamie has become somewhat infamous for his campaign against junk food. So how does he talk to his five children – Poppy, 16, Daisy, 15, Petal, nine, Buddy, seven, and two-year-old River – about healthy eating?
“We don’t, really,” he says, preferring to simply eat healthy food as a family and make that the norm. “If you don’t buy s***, you don’t eat it. The only time I talk to them about healthy eating is if I hear one of them spout a load of bollocks that they’ve heard online. Specifically with 13 to 15-year-old girls, it gets quite wobbly, so you’ve got to be on it like a car bonnet.”
This feels like the right moment to ask Jamie about his body image, since his weight appears to fluctuate.
“I’m pretty happy,” he nods. “I feel flexible and fairly strong. I train three or four days a week, but my job is to eat for a living, so that’s a hard dichotomy. If I could have a magic wand and be fitter, stronger, buffer or go back 20 years, of course, I’d probably do it.”
To keep up with all those children? “It’s quite hard having five kids and a job, and keeping the energy to do that,” he agrees. “I had to take Buddy aside and say, ‘Look, dude, you woke me up at three last night and I have to get up at four.’”
He gets up at 4am? Jamie explains, “It’s the only time that’s mine because the rest of my day is so scheduled.”
Back in the kitchen, our photographer asks why every ingredient is sprinkled with a flourish from great height.
“I’m making it look good for you – big bollocks!” Jamie yells from across the room. “Listen, 20 years in, if you’re wondering why all the other great cooks don’t do that, well, it’s because they’re not very good at telling stories with pictures. I’m not better than everyone else – I’m just better at doing it than everyone else.”