James Trevor Oliver, (born 27 May 1975) is a British celebrity chef and restaurateur. His typically English cuisine has garnered him numerous television shows and restaurants.
Born and raised in the village of Clavering, Essex, he was educated in London before taking his first culinary engagement at Antonio Carluccio's Neal Street restaurant as a pastry chef. When he moved to serve as a sous chef at The River Café he was noticed by the BBC and in 1999 debuted his television show, The Naked Chef which was followed by his first cook book subsequently becoming the No. 1 best-seller in the UK. After his Naked Chef Series he was endorsed by multiple companies and expanded his television capacity to include a documentary called Jamie's Kitchen; garnering him an invitation from the Prime Minister to 10 Downing Street. In June 2003, Oliver was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
In 2005, Oliver initiated a campaign originally called Feed Me Better to move British schoolchildren towards eating healthy foods and cutting out junk food; this campaign was eventually backed by the British government. Soon after he launched his first high-end restaurant, Jamie's Italian, in Oxford in 2008 and hosted a TED Talk winning him the 2010 TED Prize.
Early life
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James Trevor Oliver was born and raised in the village of Clavering. His parents, Trevor and Sally Oliver, ran a pub/restaurant, The Cricketers, where he practised cooking in the kitchen with his parents. He has two siblings and was educated at Newport Free Grammar School.
He left school at the age of sixteen with two GCSE qualifications in Art and Geology and went on to attend Westminster Technical College now Westminster Kingsway College. He then earned a City & Guilds National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in home economics.
Career
Oliver's first job was a pastry chef at Antonio Carluccio's Neal Street restaurant, where he first gained experience with preparing Italian cuisine, and developed a relationship with his mentor Gennaro Contaldo. (Later in his career, Oliver employed Contaldo to help run his collection of high street restaurants, Jamie's Italian), Oliver moved to The River Café, Fulham, as a sous chef. It was there that he was noticed by the BBC in 1997, after making an unscripted appearance in a documentary about the restaurant, Christmas at the River Cafe.
In 1999, his BBC show The Naked Chef débuted, and his cookbook became a No. 1 best-seller in the United Kingdom. That same year, Oliver was invited to prepare lunch for the Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street.
After three series of Naked Chef programmes (The Naked Chef, Return of the Naked Chef & Happy Days with The Naked Chef) for the BBC, Oliver moved to Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, where his first series was a documentary, Jamie's Kitchen which followed the setting up of Fifteen restaurant in London. The restaurant, in Westland Place, London, continues to train young adults who have a disadvantaged background for careers in the restaurant business.
In June 2003, Oliver was awarded an MBE for his services to the hospitality industry. Although it is customary to wear a tie for the prestigious event, Jamie Oliver had decided to wear a brown suit instead, since wearing a tie had made him nervous
In 2005, Oliver initiated a campaign originally called Feed Me Better to move British schoolchildren towards eating healthy foods and cutting out junk food. As a result, the British government also pledged to address the issue. Delving into politics to push for changes in nutrition resulted in people voting him as the "Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005," according to a Channel 4 News annual viewer poll. His emphasis on cooking fresh, nutritious food continued as he created Jamie's Ministry of Food, a television series where Oliver travelled to inspire everyday people in Rotherham, Yorkshire, to cook healthy meals. Another television series is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (2010â€"11), where he travelled first to Huntington, West Virginia and then to Los Angeles to change the way Americans eat, and address their dependence on fast food.
Oliver's holding company, Jamie Oliver Holdings Ltd., earned enough for Oliver to have been listed on The Sunday Times list of richest Britons under 30.
In December 2009, Oliver received the 2010 TED Prize. Oliver hosted Jamie's 15 Minute Meals on Channel 4, which aired for 40 episodes in 2012.
Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group
In June 2008, Oliver launched a restaurant called Jamie's Italian, his first high-street business venture, in Oxford, England. At peak, there were 42 "Jamie's Italian" restaurants in the UK. The brand has been franchised and includes branches in the UAE, Australia (which Oliver part-bought back in November 2016 after its founders went bankrupt), Canada, Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Russia, Turkey, Singapore and Hong Kong. In January 2017, Chief Executive Simon Blagden announced the closure of six restaurants in the UK affecting 120 jobs, at sites in Aberdeen, Cheltenham, Exeter, Tunbridge Wells; and in London at Ludgate and Richmond. In January 2018, as part of an agreement with creditors to secure £71.5M of debt, JORG proposed to enter the UK company Jamie's Italian Ltd into a Company Voluntary Agreement, seeking rent reductions on eight outlets and closing a further 12 in: Bath; Bristol; Bluewater; Chelmsford; Harrogate; Kingston; Milton Keynes; Reading; St Albans; and Greenwich, Piccadilly and Threadneedle Street in London. As part of the agreement, court papers revealed that Jamie's Italian had debts of £71.5m, including: £2.2m in wages owed to staff; £30.2m of overdrafts and loans; £41.3m owed to landlords, HM Revenue and Customs, suppliers and other creditors; with £47m of the debts covered by loans from HSBC Bank and Oliver's other companies.
In 2009 his chain of cooking school/delis called Recipease were opened in several locations in the UK including Brighton, Clapham and Notting Hill in London. By the end of 2015 all stores had been closed.
In 2011 Oliver set up Barbecoa, a BBQ meat-based restaurant with his friend, American barbecue expert Adam Perry Lang. There were two outlets, both in London, one in Piccadilly and a second in St Pauls. In 2014 the Piccadilly outlet voluntarily closed for 24 hours after hygiene inspectors gave it the second lowest rating. The Times reported they had found mouse droppings, mouldy carcasses and out-of-date meat. In February 2018, JORG confirmed that they had "instructed a firm of real estate agents to ascertain the potential value and market suitability of two of our sites." On 19 February 2018, Barbecoa Ltd went into administration, with Oliver immediately buying back the St Paul's site in a pre-packed agreement via a new subsidiary.
Advertising
From June 2000, Oliver became the public face of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain in the UK, appearing on television and radio advertisements and in-store promotional material. The deal earned him an estimated £1.2 million every year, although neither J. Sainsbury nor Oliver have ever discussed the exact figure. By 2004, the company had made 65 advertisements with him, but the arrangement was not without controversy. Oliver was reported to have admitted that he does not use supermarkets. He criticised Sainsbury's CEO Justin King when Oliver slammed the "junk" sold by supermarkets that ends up in the lunchboxes of millions of children. King reportedly hit back, saying: "Dictating to peopleâ€"or unleashing an expletive-filled tiradeâ€"is not the way to get engagement." In July 2011, after eleven years, the partnership between Oliver and Sainsbury's ended. The final television advertisement was for Christmas 2011.
Oliver also markets a line of non-stick pans and cookware for Tefal and has appeared in Australian television commercials for Yalumba wines, using Del Boy's catchphrase of "Lovely Jubbly".
In August 2013, Oliver and Canadian supermarket chain Sobeys announced a partnership in improving nationwide nutrition and advertising campaigns. In October 2013, he began a partnership with the Australian chain Woolworths Supermarkets on a series of better nutrition initiatives and advertising campaigns.
On January 2016, Jamie Oliver and HelloFresh, an international meal kit subscription service, announced a partnership to incorporate his recipes to the weekly subscription deliveries. Customers receive one recipe written by Jamie Oliver with all the exact ingredients and steps for the dish. HelloFresh also agreed to the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation per Meal Box in addition to supporting other Foundation activities.
Controversies
In 2005, Oliver was widely criticised by animal rights groups for slaughtering a fully conscious lamb on his TV show, with PETA stating that it showed to the public problems with the methods used within slaughterhouses. PETA spokesman Sean Gifford said that the footage hopefully "could turn the more diehard carnivore into a vegetarian". British TV regulator Ofcom reported seven complaints from the public.
Oliver has been known for his comments about other chefs and has spoken out against Marco Pierre White, who has been critical of Oliver in the past, and the swearing of Gordon Ramsay.
In 2005, Oliver embarked upon his school dinners campaign to improve the quality of food fed to pupils in schools. While the campaign was arguably successful, at the time it was a controversial shake-up for students and parents, some of whom believed that the students should have a healthy option available, but still be given the choice as to what they want to eat.
In 2011, Oliver, an advocate of cooking meals from scratch and using local produce, caused controversy after it turned out the sauces used in Jamie's Italian in Glasgow were from an industrial park almost 400 miles away in Bicester. That same year, he came under fire for lack of food safety protections in his restaurants and illnesses associated with under-cooking mince meat that may have been contaminated with E. coli.
Oliver and Gordon Ramsay are spokeschefs for the "Big Fish Fight", which campaigns for sustainable seafood, but were criticised for their use of endangered fish.
Oliver was criticised for underestimating the cost of supposedly cheap food he encouraged poor people to prepare for themselves, also for an unrealistic view of poverty in Britain and round the Mediterranean. Cookery writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe stated that Oliver's comments "support damaging myths that poor people are only poor because they spend their money on the wrong things, rather than being constrained by time, equipment, knowledge or practicalities". Monroe added, "When I was living on £10 a week for food, because of mistakes with housing benefit payments, I didn't need a hug. I needed a fiver, just to have a little bit more to eat. I didn't need [a trip] to Sicily to see how the street cleaners ate, I needed someone to point out that the 21p can of kidney beans could be the staple ingredient in a nutritious meal. I needed practical advice about what to do with the tins of food given to me by the food bank."
In 2014 Oliver became the culinary face of Woolworths Supermarkets. Oliver came under strong criticism over the funding of the advertising surrounding his relationship with the supermarket.
"Moreover, in this case he is not a spectator but effectively a beneficiary of these demands on our farmers. If he doesn't approve of Woolworths' ethics, he can withdraw from the campaign, and refund his endorsement fee. In the last 12 months, the average vegetable grower has gone from making a small profit to making a loss. In the same 12 months, Mr Oliver's wealth rose by an estimated £90 million. Now we know how."
In February 2017 Oliver criticised the Red Tractor scheme saying that he wouldn't feed it to his kids.
Charity and campaigning
Oliver conceived and established the Fifteen charity restaurant, where he trained disadvantaged young people to work in the hospitality industry. Following the success of the original restaurant in London, more Fifteens have opened around the globe: Fifteen Amsterdam opened in December 2004, Fifteen Cornwall in Newquay in May 2006 and Fifteen Melbourne in September 2006 with Australian friend and fellow chef Tobie Puttock. Fifteen Melbourne has since closed.
Oliver began a formal campaign to ban unhealthy food in British schools and to get children eating nutritious food instead. Oliver's efforts to bring radical change to the school meals system, chronicled in the series Jamie's School Dinners, challenged the junk-food culture by showing schools they could serve healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids enjoyed eating. His efforts brought the subject of school dinners to the political forefront and changed the types of food served in schools.
Oliver's Ministry of Food campaign began in 2008 with the Channel 4 series of the same name and the opening of the first Ministry of Food Centre in Rotherham. More MoF Centres have since opened in Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle/North-East, Stratford (now known as Food Academy) and Alnwick. Ministry of Food Centres and trucks have opened in Australia in Ipswich, near Brisbane and Geelong, Melbourne. State governments in Australia provided valuable funding for these Centres.
In December 2009, Oliver was awarded the 2010 TED Prize for his campaigns to "create change on both the individual and governmental levels" to "bring attention to the changes that the English, and now Americans, need to make in their lifestyles and diet." In 2010, he joined several other celebrity chefs on the series The Big Fish Fight, in which Oliver and fellow chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gordon Ramsay made a variety of programmes to raise awareness about the discarding of hundreds of thousands of saltwater fish because the fishermen are prohibited from keeping any fish other than the stated target of the trawl. He is a patron of environmental charity Trees for Cities.
Oliver's net worth was estimated in 2014 at £240 million.
Awards and honours
In June 2003, Oliver was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. A proponent of fresh organic foods, Oliver was named the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry when he topped the inaugural Caterersearch.com 100 in May 2005. The list placed Oliver higher than Sir Francis Mackay, the then-chairman of the contract catering giant Compass Group, which Oliver had soundly criticised in Jamie's School Dinners. In 2006, Oliver dropped to second on the list behind fellow celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. In July 2010, Oliver regained the top spot and was named as the most powerful and influential person in the UK hospitality industry once again.
In 2013, Oliver was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of General Practitioners for his work in tackling childhood obesity by improving the nutritional value of school dinners.
On 29 October 2015, Oliver was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of 100 Most Influential British Entrepreneurs.
Personal life
In July 2000, Oliver married Juliette Norton. They have five children: Charlene Honey Rosie (b. March 2002), Daisy Boo Pamela (b. April 2003), Petal Blossom Rainbow (b. April 2009), Buddy Bear Maurice (b. September 2010) and River Rocket Blue Dallas (b. August 2016). The family lives in Clavering, Essex.
Oliver has severe dyslexia, and read his first novel (Catching Fire) in 2013, at the age of 38.
In 2015 Oliver lost two stone in three months by getting enough sleep and diet he told The Times magazine.
Television shows
Other television appearances
Oliver has twice guest-hosted Channel 4's The Friday Night Project and has made two appearances in the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment of BBC Two's Top Gear. In his first appearance he attempted to make a green salad in the back of his Volkswagen Microbus, which was fitted with a Porsche engine, while the Stig drove it around the Top Gear test track.
Oliver is the second British celebrity chef (after Robert Irvine) to appear as a challenger on Iron Chef America, taking on Iron Chef Mario Batali in 2008 in a losing battle with cobia as the theme ingredient.
Oliver was one of the judges in the Oprah's Big Give hosted by Oprah Winfrey in the United States in 2008.
The Happy Days Live tour was Oliver's first live show in 2001 and included several dates in the UK and Australasia. Performing to sold-out venues, he cooked on stage and interacted with the audiences with competitions, music and special effects only usually seen in pop concerts. He took the audiences by surprise by singing and drumming to a song called Lamb Curry written by his longtime friend Leigh Haggerwood.
Oliver took to the road once more in 2006 on an Australian tour where he performed in Sydney and Melbourne. Following the entertaining format of his first live show, the 2006 Australian tour featuring special guests including mentor Gennaro Contaldo, and students from Fifteen London. He performed a new song written by Leigh Haggerwood called Fish Stew which Oliver cooked to and also drummed along to at the end of the show. The shows were considered by some to be a great success and are featured in a one-off TV documentary called Jamie Oliver: Australian Diary.
Books
- Something for the Weekend, ISBNÂ 0-14-102258-2
- The Naked Chef, ISBNÂ 0-7868-6617-9
- The Return of the Naked Chef, ISBNÂ 0-7181-4439-2
- Published in America as The Naked Chef Takes Off, ISBNÂ 0-7868-6755-8
- Happy Days with the Naked Chef, ISBNÂ 0-7868-6852-X
- Jamie's Kitchen, ISBNÂ 1-4013-0022-7
- Jamie's Dinners, ISBNÂ 1-4013-0194-0
- Jamie's Italy, ISBNÂ 0-7181-4770-7
- Cook With Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook , ISBNÂ 0-7181-4771-5
- Jamie's Little Book of Big Treats, ISBNÂ 0-14-103146-8
- Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life, ISBNÂ 978-0-7181-5243-7
- Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours, ISBNÂ 978-0-7181-4862-1
- Published in America as Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals, ISBNÂ 978-1-4013-2359-2
- Jamie's Red Nose Recipes, ISBNÂ 978-0-14-104178-0
- Jamie's America, ISBNÂ 978-0-7181-5476-9
- Jamie does... Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, Greece, France, ISBNÂ 978-0-7181-5614-5
- Jamie's 30-Minute Meals, ISBNÂ 978-0-7181-5477-6
- Jamie's Great Britain, ISBNÂ 978-0-7181-5681-7
- Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, ISBNÂ 978-0718157807
- Save With Jamie, ISBNÂ 978-0718158149
- Jamie's Comfort Food, ISBNÂ 978-0-7181-5953-5
- Everyday Super Food, ISBNÂ 978-0718181239
- Super Food Family Classics, ISBNÂ 978-0718178444
- Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook, ISBNÂ 978-0718183653
- 5 Ingredients - Quick & Easy Food, ISBNÂ 978-0718187729
References
Further reading
- Stafford Hildred, Jamie Oliver: The Biography (2001) ISBNÂ 1-903402-55-7
- Gilly Smith, Jamie Oliver: Turning Up the Heat (2006) ISBNÂ 0-233-00168-9
- Gilly Smith, Jamie Oliver: The Kitchen Crusader (2006) ISBNÂ 978-1-86200-414-6
External links
- Official website
- Jamie Oliver on IMDb