Jamie in tears in TV documentary
A TEARFUL Jamie Oliver admitted he was “reckless and a bit of a knob” as he discussed the collapse of his restaurant empire in an emotional TV documentary.
The celebrity chef also likened one of his former restaurants to a bomb site after revisiting the abandoned flagship London venue which he described as “eerie”.
Jamie went on to tell his non-restaurant staff that he got cocky and thought everything he did would work after the collapse of his empire.
The majority of Jamie’s restaurants, including the one on The Hayes, Cardiff, closed after going into administration in May, with Fifteen Cornwall being one of the few to survive.
Speaking to his non-restaurant staff on the programe, Jamie said: “It’s a really tough one. For many, many months now I have been walking around the office and you have been like ‘Jamie, are you all right’ and I have gone ‘Yes’ but the truth was no I’m f ***** g not, it’s f **** d.
“I am utterly devastated, financially I have exhausted everything I could, I used every card, I used every trick, I used every contact.
“We got cocky, we thought anything we did would work.
“Massive lessons learnt, I will never make them again, never again, never again, never again.”
The chef was seen in tears when speaking to Davina McCall on the documentary, Jamie Oliver: The Naked Chef Bares All, about the restaurant collapse.
When asked by Davina what went wrong, Jamie added: “To survive in this industry is really tough, I was very naive at the time.
“I was good at running one restaurant but I wouldn’t call myself a businessman.
“I’m good at quite a few things but not necessarily brilliant at everything and I we did plenty wrong.
“I opened a lot of big restaurants and I think people like sized restaurants.
“You have these big cathedrals that you can’t fill.”
Davina also spoke to Jamie about his life, from his struggles at school to how he found fame and became The Naked Chef.
There was no studio, script or a weighing scale in sight when he started the show as Jamie wanted it to be real.
It was one of the first of its kind on television when it started in 1999 and it was a show that grabbed the attention of men.
Fifteen Cornwall is the only one of Jamie’s restaurants still open after the others went into administration back in May.
More than 1,000 jobs were lost as the majority of his 25 restaurants closed.
Three outlets at Gatwick Airport – Jamie Oliver’s Diner, Jamie’s Italian and Jamie’s Coffee Lounge – were bought out of administration by food-to-go specialist SSP Group, which saved 250 jobs.
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
smallmedium