Don’t blame failure on Brexit, Marco tells Jamie
INTERVIEW BY SANJEETA BAINS:
MARCO Pierre White has attacked “delusional” Jamie Oliver for blaming Brexit for the collapse of his restaurant empire.
Around 1,000 jobs were lost when Oliver’s Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen outlets went into administration in May.
The Naked Chef has now partly blamed Brexit for the collapse.
But in an exclusive interview with the Post, Pierre White said: “I have read Jamie is blaming his business failure on Brexit but I really don’t understand that at all.
“Wouldn’t that mean then all restaurants have gone bust too?
“I don’t think he can blame Brexit. It’s the lamest excuse in the world. I think it is wrong to blame Brexit. We’re all in the same boat. If it’s Brexit’s fault we’d all be bust.
“How can you blame everyone but yourself? Is he delusional?”
Jamie Oliver this week spoke about his business collapse and said: “The world changed, the high street changed – it started to become Uberfied... throw a bit of Brexit in, confidence goes and people’s habits changed.”
Pierre White was speaking on a visit to his own Steakhouse Bar & Grill at the top of Birmingham’s Cube.
The flamboyant chef turned restaurateur told the Post: “I’ve been reading Jamie explaining why he had to close his restaurants and the one thing I don’t get, is he did nothing wrong?
“Wouldn’t you be putting your hand up and saying ‘I f****d up’?
“Jamie’s blaming everybody, blaming the landlords – but when he took on the sites, he knew what the business rates on those sites were.
“That should have been factored into his model.”
But Pierre White went on to criticise one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants.
He added: “The only time I’ve ever dined at a Jamie’s was at Gatwick
Airport. I’ve dined twice there, most recently, last year.
“Both times I had to wait a very long time for my food. It was horrific.
“We all make mistakes, we all have bad days.
“But I’ve got to say it was consistently bad on both occasions.
“It wasn’t my decision to eat there both times – the people I was with chose to go there, but you wouldn’t want to go to another Jamie’s after that.
“Even if you enjoyed your food, bad service always leaves a sour taste in the mouth.”
In a two-part programme for BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, Oliver said his 40th birthday was “ruined because of the cloud” over his collapsed business.
Jamie’s Italian in the Bullring opened to much fanfare back in 2010 as the first chain restaurant from a big name chef to launch in the city.
He was joined in the city two years later by Pierre White, dubbed the “enfant terrible” of the British restaurant industry.
The Yorkshire-born chef opened the Pierre White Steakhouse at The Cube in 2012 – now part of his franchise restaurant venture Black and White Hospitality.
At the age of 32, he was the first British chef to win three Michelin stars and the youngest in the world at the time to be bestowed with the accolade.
He retired from the kitchen in 1999. Pierre White’s group owns the rights to eight brands bearing his name. These include Steakhouse, Bardolino and Marco Pierre White’s New York Italian.
He recently opened Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and Grill in Abu Dhabi.
Explaining his role, Pierre White said: “I franchise my brands out to owners, then my team and I do the menus, pricing, choose the decor, lighting, music.
“If I don’t like the colour of the ceiling, I will get it changed. In the past I’ve lowered the ceilings in places – because lower ceilings mean a more buzzy dining atmosphere.
“And romance is very important for a restaurant.”
Returning to the subject of Jamie Oliver’s recent business woes, he added: “As a franchiser, I don’t pay the business rates Jamie did, but I work seven days a week.
“If I’m in the UK, I’ll regularly be at one of the restaurants everything is okay.
“I don’t think Jamie could have gone to Gatwick. Had he gone to Gatwick then he would have realised there were problems there.
“It’s not enough to put your name above the door.
“There’s nothing wrong with expanding but you have to have the infrastructure in place – people who understand the restaurant business working for your brand. I don’t think Jamie had that.
“Our CEO Nick Taplin is a restaurateur and we have a massive infrastructure – people who visit the restaurants every week.”
Pierre White’s team also includes executive head chef Jason Everett.
He previously worked for Marco’s Michelin-starred restaurant Harvey’s in London in the late 80s, alongside a certain Gordon Ramsay.
Pierre White added: “Service, environment and atmosphere is key – more important than food.
“We’re selling a night out. Here we have the views, the good lighting and live music. It’s all a package.
“If you worked hard all week and want a treat, then come here and order what we specialise in – steak. We use Campbell’s, which is the Queen’s butchers. You pay for good meat.
“When we get the bill we say to ourselves – does that represent value? Nothing worse than being
–
checking stung with a sent value.
“I have a favourite place to eat near where I live in Bath. I’ll have steak and chips or maybe a burger. Is the food the best in the world? No. It’s okay food but I feel comfortable in the environment, that’s what is important.”
When asked why he believes so many restaurants are now closing, Pierre White said: “If a restaurant closes it’s because it’s too pricey.
“It’s all about price points. A lot of people don’t want to spend £50 a head on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
“They will pay £50 a head on a Friday and Saturday if they’re getting good value for the overall experience.
“A place that ticks all the boxes.” “As a customer you should have the choice on the menu to make your dinner as formal and as inexpensive as you want.
“The whole thing about restaurants is you’ve got to fill them.
“If you don’t fill them you go bust and blame Brexit!”
In a July interview with The Times magazine, Jamie Oliver said the last few months had been the “most disappointing” of his life.
He said: “I did believe I could turn it round. I put in £3 million, another £3 million, then another £3 million, however the numbers went.
“But there was no good news.”
bill that doesn’t repre
Wouldn’t you be putting your hand up and saying ‘I f****d up’?
Marco Pierre White