Stop using your kids to make money, Jamie
TELLY chef Jamie Oliver has never been shy about thrusting his wife and five children into the media limelight. But his decision to forfeit his family’s privacy for commercial gain has caused a rift with his former mentor, Antonio Carluccio. The king of Italian cuisine, who gave Jamie his first job aged 18 as a pastry chef at Terence Conran’s Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden, has turned on his protege and accused him of exploiting his children.
‘It’s too much, I don’t know why he does it,’ says Carluccio, 80. ‘I know how social media works and I know that he does it to promote his family, but it’s not fair on his family. His children aren’t making that choice.’
Jamie’s children are already saddled with weird names – Poppy Honey Rosie, 15, Daisy Boo Pamela, 14, Petal Blossom Rainbow, eight, Buddy Bear Maurice, six, and River Rocket, nine months. This week, Oliver, who has six million followers, posted this snap of son River, left, wearing a white bathrobe emblazoned with his name. Within hours, it attracted more than 105,000 ‘likes’. ‘I don’t have any children,’ adds Carluccio. ‘But if I had, I wouldn’t use them to get more famous.’