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Biography
Jamie grew up in a small Essex village called Clavering. His parents own a pub called 'The Cricketers'. He formed the band Scarlet Division with Leigh Haggerwood in 1989. He attended Westminster Catering College when he was 16. He spent several years working alongside the London chef, Gennaro Contaldo, who he regards as one of his culinary 'mentors'. His first TV break came in 1996 when he was "discovered" by television producer Pat Llewellyn while working at the River Café in London. She saw him on a documentary called Christmas at the River Café and recognised his star potential immediately.
Two highly successful series of The Naked Chef were filmed in 1998 and 1999. And on June 24, 2000 he married Juliette Norton, also known as Jools. The couple met in 1993 and currently have two daughters, Poppy Honey (born in March 2002) and Daisy Boo (born in April 2003).
In June 2003 he was appointed an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. He set up the Fifteen charity restaurant where he trains 15 disadvantaged young people to work in the hospitality industry. Plans for similar restaurants are underway around the globe: Fifteen Amsterdam was opened in December 2004, and Fifteen Cornwall and Fifteen Melbourne are scheduled for opening in Summer 2006. He has also written columns for The Times.
Advertising deals
Since 2000 Jamie Oliver has been 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 earns him an estimated £1.2 million every year. In the first two years these advertisements are estimated to have given Sainsbury's an extra £1 billion of sales or £200 million gross profit. By 2004 the company had made 65 adverts with Oliver.
In February 2002 the BBC broke off contract negotiations with Oliver after failing to come to terms. Reports suggested that the corporation was unhappy with his increasing association with Sainsbury's. The proposed series called Oliver's Army, where he would train 16 unemployed young people to cook, was cancelled. Channel 4 quickly seized the moment and produced the series, known as Jamie's Kitchen.
In 2003 fellow chef Clarissa Dickson Wright called Oliver a "whore" for endorsing Sainsbury's Scottish farmed salmon and accused him of "selling his soul" to the company.
In 2005 Oliver fronted Sainsbury's new advertising slogan urging customers to try something different by suggesting recipe ideas. In October the company claimed sales of some featured products had more than doubled.
In New Zealand Jamie Oliver starred in a series of television adverts for the Pam's brand belonging to Foodstuffs. These adverts featured Jamie as the cheeky next door neighbour able to produce the finest food from Pam's ingredients.
Television shows
The first series that featured Jamie Oliver was The Naked Chef on BBC Television. The title was a reference to the simplicity of Oliver's recipes, and has nothing to do with nudity. Oliver has frequently admitted that he wasn't entirely happy with the title, which was devised by producer Patricia Llewellyn. The success of the programme led to the books Return of the Naked Chef and Happy Days with the Naked Chef. His work on the Fifteen restaurant was shown as Jamie's Kitchen and Return to Jamie's Kitchen on Channel Four. His programmes are shown in over 40 countries, including the USA's Food Network, where he is the second most popular presenter. His latest show in the United States is "Oliver's Twist".
In 2005 Channel 4 screened Jamie’s School Dinners, in which Oliver took over responsibility for running the kitchen meals in Kidbrooke school, Greenwich (The UK's first Comprehensive) for a year. Disgusted by the unhealthy fare being served up to schoolchildren and the lack of healthy alternatives on offer, Oliver began a campaign to improve the standard of Britain’s school meals. Public awareness was raised, and following on from the campaign the UK Government pledged to spend £280m on school dinners (spread over three years), although it denied that the pledge was made in response to the campaign.
Books
He has written several successful cookbooks. These include:
- The Naked Chef, ISBN 0786866179
- The Return of the Naked Chef, ISBN 0718144392
- Happy Days with the Naked Chef, ISBN 078686852X
- The Naked Chef Takes Off, ISBN 0786867558
- Jamie's Kitchen, ISBN 1401300227
- Jamie's Dinners, ISBN 1401301940
- Jamie's Italy, ISBN 0718147707
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