The people who built brand Jamie
With the collapse of his UK restaurant chain, Jamie Oliver is facing his most serious setback. But what became of the friends who helped him to stardom? Joe Shute reports
From the moment in the very first series of The Naked Chef when he slid down the spiral staircase of his trendy London gaff to greet a mate with a double hand-slap and barrage of “oi ois”, Jamie Oliver made it clear he would be doing things differently.
Talent-spotted by a television crew in 1997, while working the kitchens at The River Cafe in London, within two years he had been given his own BBC Two series in which the young Oliver would epitomise late Nineties lad culture: Vespa, tick; Fred Perry T-shirt, tick; questionable mockney overtures – tick, tick, tick.
Putting the “cheeky pukka” shtick aside, he was at the centre of a slick operation to build Brand Jamie and make cookery programmes relevant to a modern aspirational audience, specifically by being the first to bring his nearest and dearest along with him.
When he wasn’t making “munchie, lunchie, snacky kind of things” ahead of his sister’s hen-do, he was off to the Walthamstow dog track with “the lads”, bagging a wheel of Parmesan for a “pastafest with me uncle Alan”, or washing a duvet cover in a launderette to use as a tablecloth for dinner with the in-laws.
These cameos introduced a core group who have remained close to Oliver throughout his career. As the collapse this week of Jamie’s Italian, his UK restaurant chain, sees his multi-million-pound empire show signs of crumbling, we look at the people who turned Oliver into a star.
The mentor – Gennaro Contaldo
The Italian chef had an inauspicious introduction to viewers in series three of The Naked Chef, when Oliver turned up at his house 20 minutes late for a fly-fishing expedition and screamed “ouvro la porto” through the letter box, but nevertheless Contaldo has been a constant presence throughout his career. Oliver, fresh out of catering college, went to work for him at Carluccio’s restaurant in Covent Garden. One of his duties was preparing baking trays by dusting them with polenta: to endear himself, Oliver would trace dirty messages in the crumbs. “He used to be quite strict and say no a lot,” Oliver said in an aside on The Naked Chef. “But he’s like a father figure now.”
Contaldo describes Oliver as his “sixth child” and over the years has become a key part of his business, making numerous appearances on his television shows. Contaldo was the inspiration for Oliver’s first restaurant, Fifteen, and co-founded Jamie’s Italian in 2008. “I learnt everything from Gennaro,” Oliver once said of his mentor. “Heart, soul, romance, fantasy – every nice word you can say.”
The chef – Rose Gray
Co-founder of The River Cafe, where Oliver washed up in the mid-nineties, she introduced the budding chef to new recipes and ways of cooking, and opened his eyes to the potential in successful spin-offs – The River Café Cook Book was first published in 1995. Gray presented a 12-part series on Channel 4, The Italian Kitchen, through which Oliver was talent-spotted. She died of cancer, aged 71, in 2010, but Oliver continues to pay tribute to her legacy, describing his time at The River Cafe as the “only reason I got discovered”.
The TV producer – Pat Llewellyn
The driving force behind Oliver’s television career, she cast him as The Naked Chef and crafted his on-screen persona. As well as being a producer, she was also the narrator of the original series. In pilot episodes, Oliver’s speaking directly to camera was deemed too awkward, so she changed the style of filming, engaging him in conversation as he whirled about his kitchen, a flailing mélange of Ben Sherman and oversized denim.
By selling Oliver’s lifestyle, as well as his dishes, Llewellyn was credited with teaching a whole generation of men that if they wanted a girlfriend, they should learn how to cook. Described by Oliver as one of “TV’S most gifted matriarchs”, she was also credited with launching the television careers of Gordon Ramsay and Two Fat Ladies. She died of cancer in 2017, aged 55.
The band – Scarlet Division
Formed in Oliver’s Essex, the indie band was the spiritual font of his indie swagger. He played drums between the age of 14 and 17 and during the nascent stages of his television career briefly reformed the group with Leigh Haggerwood, a childhood friend. Despite lyrics such as, “I wanna live my life like a wild horse racing through the sky”, Scarlet Division faded into obscurity, but Haggerwood went on to become a composer who has written several soundtracks for Oliver’s television ventures, including Jamie’s School Dinners. As for Oliver’s musical ambitions, he had to console himself in the last series of The Naked Chef by whipping up lunch at the country pile of Jay Kay, of Jamiroquai.
The sous chef – Ben O’donoghue
“Bendooo” is how Oliver greets the Australian chef, who appeared numerous times in The Naked Chef, after they met in the kitchen of The River Cafe. In an early episode, while shucking scallops, O’donoghue describes his first impressions of Oliver as “really quiet, head down and within about a month he was this loud gregarious young lad hopping about the kitchen. It was quite infectious, really.”
The man nicknamed “tiger” by Oliver – also oddly the name given to his grandma, Betty – has since returned to Australia, where he has gone on to forge his own successful television and cookery career.
The family – Trevor and Sally Oliver and sister Anna-marie Hunt
Oliver and his sister Anna-marie grew up at The Cricketers pub in Clavering, Essex, which his parents Trevor and Sally still run. His family are present to the point of ubiquity in Oliver’s shows and in one early episode of The Naked Chef, Oliver and his dad rustle up a hearty meal to celebrate his sister’s pregnancy. “Dad can you pass us some salt, me old mate?” was a typical Oliver kitchen command.
Anna-marie’s husband is Paul Hunt, a former City trader (fined for insider trading in 1999) who Oliver appointed as chief executive of his empire and director of the restaurant business in 2014. Things began to go south in 2017, the year Oliver’s businesses reported losses of £20million, leading to 18 of his restaurants – and 600 jobs – being wiped out. The following year, a further 12 Jamie’s Italians were closed. Various reports emerged criticising Hunt’s business approach, though Oliver has always defended his brother-in-law: “He’s honest and he’s fair. I absolutely trust him,” he said. Only three of Oliver’s Italian outposts will now remain open, and 1,000 jobs are thought to be under threat.
The best mate – Jimmy Doherty
Childhood friend, pig farmer and fellow cheeky chappy: see ’em both down Southend Pier dishing out cones of chips from their pop-up caff as part of Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast. The pair are so close even the checks on their (slightly too tight) shirts seem to align. They met as three-year-olds in nursery and, aged 18, Doherty introduced Oliver to the woman who would become his wife. The plan had been to go on a double-date to the cinema in Cambridge, but Oliver crashed his Ford Fiesta en route. Doherty now runs his Jimmy’s Farm enterprise in Suffolk, which boasts a restaurant and summer festival.
The wife – Jools
Officially Juliette, his childhood sweetheart is a key component of Brand Oliver. But a few years ago, Oliver admitted that in series one of The Naked Chef, the former model was “kept away in the bedroom”, as television executives wanted him to appear single. They married in 2000, have five children and live in a mansion in Highgate, north London. They also have a country pile in Essex. Jools has expanded the family empire, launching her own clothing range, Little Bird, with Mothercare.
When Oliver picked up a lifetime achievement gong at the GQ Food and Drink Awards this month, Jools wrote on Instagram: “So well deserved, such a lovely humble human love him more than I can say.” Oliver replied: “Thank you Jools, you are my inspiration now get the kettle on I’m on my way back.”