Jamie Oliver: it’s hot in the kitchen!
Times are tough for the Naked Chef as his restaurants face closure. But don’t worry, he’s still coining it!
HE’S ONE of the original breed of celebrity chefs – a lispy, chubby-faced dude next door who chucked ingredients into pots willy-nilly and ate with as much gusto as he cooked. Jamie Oliver was soon a household name as the Naked Chef, the author of runaway hit cookbooks, the guy who concocted all sorts of slurpy deliciousness in his home kitchen.
And the success just kept coming. He was the healthier-food advocate who changed the way British schools prepared school lunches. The restaurateur who owned eateries around the world.
For a while it seemed everything the 42-year-old king of the kitchen touched turned to gold.
Yet it turns out not even Jamie Oliver is above the woes that affect the world: a Britain battered by Brexit, people feeling the economic pinch, cut-throat competitors, greedy landlords . . . And there’s the rise of order-in apps that make it easier than ever for people to dine well at home.
And it’s all led to Jamie feeling the heat in his culinary kingdom.
In January his Italian chain – which he started in 2008 and is the centrepiece of his restaurant division – announced it would close 12 of its 37 British branches after incurring debt to the tune of £71,5 million (about R1,2 billion).
The move comes after the chain shut six branches in the UK early last year, citing competition and rising costs in a The celebrity chef and cookbook author has seen his restaurant empire take a financial hit over the past year. “tougher” financial market.
In December Jamie desperately tried to save the remaining underperforming eateries, pumping £3 million (about R50 million) of his own money into the business and begging landlords to cut his rent.
But it didn’t help. Court documents show the chain owes millions in wages, loans, overheads and rent.
“As every restaurant owner knows, this is a tough market and post-Brexit the pressures and unknowns have made it even harder,” says Simon Blagden, chief executive of the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group.
He blames a combination of the high cost of ingredients – most of which are sourced in Italy – the expense of staff training, and increased competition.
The closure will see 450 people losing their jobs but the company says it hopes to go forward “with the strong brand and reshape itself ”.
But an industry insider told the Daily Mail it was more than that. “There was big hype around Jamie Oliver – as much, or more than, the food. The Jamie Oliver hype sustains itself for one or two visits. But over a period of time it comes down to what differentiates this from any other Italian dining brand.
“And there was nothing that was better than anything else.”
JAMIE’S Italian isn’t the only division to be affected though. Last month he was forced to shut the doors of his beloved Barbecoa steakhouse in Piccadilly, London. The restaurant, along with its sister branch near St Paul’s Cathedral, had also been battling in the face of escalating rentals and an abundance of steakhouses in the area.
The chef has been making headlines in his homeland, with claims abounding that his epicurean empire is crumbling.
Last year he closed his food magazine, Jamie, after 10 years of publishing, and in 2015 he shut down the last of his Recipease chain, where people could attend cooking classes.
But Jamie, never one to shy away from speaking his mind, lashed out at his critics. “I’ve had six closures, Marks & Spencer have had 200, but they put me on the front page with Cheryl Cole.”
He went on to say his insistence on wholesome, ethically sourced food had pushed up his overheads. “I can’t compromise my procurement. It’s like a religion for me. I would rather close all my restaurants than sell you intensively reared, never-seen-a-bit-of-daylight chicken.
“All those lovely restaurants that look the same as mine, some of the poshest new restaurants that are flying at the moment, they cook and burn-mark their steaks off-site, putting them in a little bit of plastic and regenerating them [in the restaurant] like airplane food,” he ranted.
Jamie may be unrepentant about his approach but he’s never shied away from acknowledging he’s made mistakes. Last year he revealed he’d “lost loads” over the past few years after a series of “poor, unprofitable projects with friends”.
Although he doesn’t mention names, one failed venture is believed to be the Union Jacks pizza restaurant chain which he started with friend-turned-partner Chris Bianco, a US pizza expert. They started with four outlets in 2011 but by 2014 they’d closed three and last year Jamie closed the remaining restaurant, citing economic reasons. But restaurant experts say it failed because “the idea of a British-themed pizzeria was confusing to the average English person”.
Still, don’t feel too sorry for Jamie: with a personal fortune of £240 million (about R3,8 billion) he won’t be surviving on beans and toast just yet.
IT’S not all doom and gloom. Jamie’s Italian has outlets in 20 countries and most of them seem to be keeping their heads nicely above water. Jamie and his team are also said to be eyeing the launch of a second restaurant in Dublin in the next six months. Many of his other business ventures are thriving. Last year he topped Amazon’s print and e-books charts with his 5 Ingredients cookbook. He was named the UK’s fourth-best-selling author with total sales of £11,4 million (R182 million). His presence on YouTube – where he has more than 3,5 million subscribers – has become one of the platform’s biggest food networks.
His next campaign, he says, is to work with the “best cancer dietician in the country” to help those living with the disease to eat better. No doubt this will further guild the golden life the son of a pub owner has become used to.
Jamie and Jools (43), his model-turned-fashion designer wife of 18 years, live in a £10-million (around R160-million) home in the upmarket suburb of Hampstead in North London. The seven-bedroom house has a historic rating and is home to their five kids, Poppy (15), Daisy (14), Petal (8), Buddy (7) and River (1). The family also have a country home in Jamie’s native Essex.
In December Jools was accused of flaunting their wealth when she shared photos on social media of their Hampstead property. The pictures showed their Louis XV bed, decked-out kitchen, chic piano room, kids’ playroom and 10m-long formal lounge.
Asked whether he thinks he and Jools are finished having kids, he joked, “I think we’re done.”
He says his wife prefers him to say, “Never say never.” “Jools would never stop having babies if she could.”
Fortunately he still has mountains of cash to support them all.