Jamie Oliver – Chef Profile
The Naked Chef’s Missionary Zeal for Cooking Fresh Local Food
May 2, 2009
The Foodie Profile for May is on English chef, television personality and food activist Trevor “Jamie” Oliver, born May 27th, 1975.
Early Culinary Influences on Jamie Oliver
Jamie began cooking by age 8. As the biography on his website quotes him:
My dad runs a lovely pub-restaurant, The Cricketers, in Clavering, Essex, where I grew up. I remember being fascinated by what went on in the kitchen. It just seemed such a cool place, everyone working together to make this lovely stuff and having a laugh doing it.
Always under foot, Jamie was assigned the task of shelling peas and peel potatoes. A dyslexic, Jamie left school at 16 to attend Westminster Catering College in London. After traveling France to learn more about food and cooking, Jamie was fortunate enough to land an apprenticeship as head pastry chef for Antonio Carluccio at the Neal Street Restaurant.
Television Discovers Jamie Oliver
After Neal Street, Jamie moved on to work three and half years at River Café under Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, an experience Jamie called amazing. As he recalls it:
Those two ladies taught me all about the time and effort that goes into creating the freshest, most honest, totally delicious food.
It was there that I first got in front of a TV camera. A documentary about the restaurant was being filmed and the editors decided to show a lot of this cheeky kid who was so into the cooking that he'd answer back to the crew. The day after the programme was shown, I got calls from five production companies all wanting to talk about a possible show. I couldn't believe it and thought it was my mates winding me up!
The Naked Chef is Born
Jamie has admitted that he never liked the title. The Naked Chef does not refer to Jamie’s clothing or lack thereof. His producer and Channel 4 came up with the title to highlight the simplicity of Jamie’s recipes.
Viewers got a glimpse of Jamie’s world, zipping around London on a scooter and hosting parties for all of his mates, always with rock'n'roll playing in the background. The food was simple and hearty. Jamie was always snatching up a handful of fresh herbs and glugging on the olive oil. The show was not only an overnight success, but it attracted a new audience, one that didn't normally watch food programs.
Dyslexic Makes Good
The book that accompanied The Naked Chef TV series quickly became a bestseller and Jamie was catapulted into celebrity and new wealth. Jamie says that he was brought up to be ashamed of money, and perhaps that liberal guilt has prompted his many philanthropic pursuits.
Jamie is credited with getting the Government to increase funding for healthy school meals.
In his project “Fifteen,” Jamie took 15 young people who had been homeless or in trouble with the law are turned most of them into professional chefs to work at his new restaurant Fifteen in London. There are now three more Fifteen restaurants, in Amsterdam, Melbourne and Cornwall.
His latest effort, “Ministry of Food,” seeks to redeem the three generations of British who have grown up no knowing how to cook.
Check out Jamie Oliver: Food Activist for more on his philanthropic efforts.
Jamie Oliver Cooks for the G20
Last month, Jamie - with the graduates and chefs from Fifteen- cooked a proper British meal for Barack Obama and the other members of the G20 summit and their wives at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's residence, 10 Downing Street. Go here for more details on that meal.
Jamie married former model Juliette Norton –he calls her "Jools"- on 24 June 2000. His first daughter, Poppy Honey was born during the hectic first year when Jamie was scrambling to hold together his “Fifteen” project. Since then they have had two more daughters, Daisy Boo (born 11 April 2003), and Petal Blossom Rainbow (born 3 April 2009), whose birth Jamie announced on Twitter. They live in Clavering, Essex.
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