FAMILY MAN
IT was 20 years ago this week that an unknown, fresh-faced, tousle-haired Jamie Oliver hit our screens in TV series The Naked Chef. And while he’s now a dad of five colourfully named children, a pukka national treasure and millionaire 240 times over, it seems little has dented his cheeky-chappy, Essex-lad image.
Yes he has his critics, but those who know him best – Jamie’s friends and colleagues – agree that what you see is what you get with the celeb chef, whose wholesome screen demeanour is true-to-life.
Behind his happy-go-lucky grin lies a determination and work ethic drilled into him from an early age by his dad Trevor, 64, who still runs the family restaurant.
It was Trevor’s tough-love approach that inspired Jamie’s sprawling business empire, which until some recent financial difficulties was moving ever onwards and upwards.
One of Jamie’s friends throughout those 20 years tells the Mirror: “Jamie learned to cook in his parents’ pub from a very young age. He was always in the kitchen and could make a decent roast chicken dinner aged just seven.
“His work ethic comes from his dad, Trevor. Jamie was often woken up by his dad with a glass of water over the head and told to ‘get busy’.”
Unlike so many of today’s stars, Jamie never sought his fame or fortune, grafting away at his job in his parents’ Clavering pub The Cricketers, experimenting with his mum Sally’s AGA cooker when she wasn’t looking.
“I remember being fascinated by what went on in the kitchen,” he said of his childhood. “It just seemed such a cool place, everyone working together to make this lovely stuff and having a laugh.”
He honed his work ethic in fancy London restaurants. While working as sous-chef at the prestigious River Café, he appeared in a documentary at the Fulham restaurant and was spotted “doing spinach in the background” by Two Fat Ladies producer Pat Llewellyn.
The TV supremo, who died in 2017, could see a recipe for TV celebrity chef success and carefully styled Jamie’s energetic persona which burst on to screens on April 14, 1999, in the first episode of The Naked Chef. It was irresistible. The wide-eyed 23-yearold was filmed chatting away off camera, rather than the traditional piece-tocamera style used in cooking shows at the time, rustling up “lovely jubbly” dishes in his flat’s small kitchen.
He roped in his friends and family, cooking for his sister Anne-Marie’s hen party. The Naked Chef has spawned more than 30
television series and 20 cookbooks – but also an MBE, political campaigns and a restaurant chain.
His friend Leigh Haggerwood has told how big-hearted Jamie helped him through a cancer diagnosis. Leigh, who used to be in band Scarlet Division with the chef, revealed Jamie paid for his £50,000 treatment at Harley Street within days of discovering the cancer was in danger of reaching his vital organs. He says: “Jamie is one of the most honourable people that I know.”
It was that rock band which helped win Jamie the greatest love of his life, Jools. When she first met a LEIGH HAGGERWOOD FRIEND AND BANDMATE
Jamie’s one of the most honourable people that I know.