OLIVER’S UNSURPRISING FOOD TWIST

The least surprising economic news is surely that Jamie Oliver’s restaurant empire is crumbling.

The only time I had the misfortune to visit a Jamie’s Italian I was given, after a horrendous wait, overpriced, undercooked food which had been oversold to us by a smarmy waiter who was beckoned to another table mid-sales pitch to take something back to the kitchen that was inedible. Meanwhile, everywhere you looked, Oliver’s face stared back at you from products they were trying to flog, giving you the eerie feeling you’d entered The Mentalist room in Alan Partridge. It seems The Emperor’s New Clothes have been stripped from the carefully packaged hype to reveal, well, a Naked Chef.