JAMIE OLIVER

'James Trevor Oliver ' MBE (May 27, 1975), better known as 'Jamie Oliver' and nicknamed 'The Naked Chef', is an English celebrity chef. He is well known for his role in campaigning against what he believes to be unhealthy, processed foods in British schools. Since his early years, his Essex accent has become infamous - particularly the use of the hindi word "pukka" (colloquially meaning "brilliant" or "solid", originally "cooked" or "ripe").

Contents

Biography

Personal Life

Advertising

Television shows

Live Shows

Controversy and Criticism

Books

Trivia

References

External links

Biography

Jamie Oliver was born in May 1975, and grew up in Clavering, Essex, where his parents owned a pub-restaurant, The Cricketers. From an early age, Oliver helped in the pub kitchen; by the time he was 11, he was adept at vegetable prep and could chop "like a demon". In 1989, Oliver formed the band Scarlet Division with best friend Leigh Haggerwood, and dreamed of pop stardom. He was the drummer of the band. However, by age 16, Oliver knew he wanted to be a chef, so he attended Westminster Catering College and then studied in France, learning as much as he could, before returning to London to work as head pastry chef for Antonio Carluccio at The Neal Street Restaurant. After The Neal Street Restaurant, Oliver worked for Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers at the River Café for three and a half years; Oliver credits Gray and Rogers with teaching him to create the fresh and simple food which would become his signature.
The result was "The Naked Chef", a cooking programme. Two highly successful seasons of "The Naked Chef" were filmed in 1998 and 1999. The popular series brought Oliver worldwide fame, and more television programmes and book deals followed. As of 2006, Oliver had six additional television series and eight books to his name. Now in 2007, he has a new TV show called Jamie at Home. Showing people how easy it is to grow fresh produce from scratch and make good meals. He also has a book out with the same name.
In 2005 Jamie Oliver received the prestigious Beacon Fellowship Prize for his contribution to disadvantaged young people, offering training and practical experience in the catering industry.

Personal Life

On 24 June,2000, Oliver married former model Juliette Norton, also known as "Jools". The couple met in 1993 and have two daughters: Poppy Honey (born in March 2002) and Daisy Boo born in 11 April 2003. They live In Hampstead, London.
After a brief appearance on "The Naked Chef", Oliver's band, Scarlet Division, was offered a record deal by Sony. Its debut single "Sundial" reached 42 in the UK charts, but, in spite of having been together for ten years, the band had trouble being taken seriously due to Oliver's fame as a chef, and was dropped by Sony. Soon after, Oliver asked Haggerwood to write the music for his new show, "Oliver's Twist". The series, a massive worldwide success, featured Haggerwood's popular theme song "Just The Start".
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Wanting to create something positive' using his wealth and fame, Oliver conceived and established the Fifteen charity restaurant where he trains 15 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 opened in May, 2006, and Fifteen Melbourne opened in September, 2006, with Australian friend and fellow chef, Tobie Puttock. The process of creating and opening the original Fifteen was documented in the series "Jamie's Kitchen".
Next, Oliver began a formal campaign to ban unhealthy food in British schools and get kids eating fresh, tasty, 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.
In June, 2003, Oliver was appointed an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. Reputedly a multimillionaire, he has also written columns for ''The Times''. A great proponent of fresh organic foods, in May, 2005, Oliver was named the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry when he topped the inaugural CatererSearch 100. The list saw Oliver beating out 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 2nd on the list behind fellow celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Advertising

From 2000, Jamie Oliver was 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.[1] By 2004, the company had made 65 adverts with Jamie.

Television shows

''' The Naked Chef''' (1998-1999) was Oliver's first series. 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. (In the UK edit of the show, the opening titles include a clip of him telling an unseen questioner "No way! It's not me, it's the food!") The success of the programme led to the books ''Return of the Naked Chef'' and ''Happy Days with the Naked Chef''.
'''Jamie's Kitchen''' was a 2002 documentary series. It followed chef Jamie Oliver as he attempted to train a group of disadvantaged youth, who would - if they completed the course - be offered jobs at Oliver's new restaurant Fifteen. This was followed by ''Return to Jamie's Kitchen'' in 2003.
'''Jamie's Kitchen Australia''' was a 2006 television series, similar to Jamie's kitchen, that was based in and aired in Australia.
''' Jamie's School Dinners''' (2005) was a 4-episode documentary series. Oliver took responsibility for running the kitchen meals in Kidbrooke School, Greenwich, for a year. Disgusted by the unhealthy fare being served 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, subsequent to Oliver's efforts, the UK Government pledged to spend £280m on school dinners (spread over three years). Tony Blair himself acknowledged that this was a result of Oliver's campaign. Following the success of the campaign, Oliver was named "Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005" in the Channel 4 Political Awards 2006.
'''Jamie's Great Escape''' (also known as ''Jamie's Great Italian Escape''), a travelogue series, was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK in October 2005.
'''Jamie's Return To School Dinners'''
'''Jamie's Chef''' (2007) continues where Jamie's Kitchen left off. Five years and fifty trainees later, Oliver's most recent series aims to help the winning trainee establish their own restaurant at The Cock, a pub near Braintree in Essex. The charitable Fifteen Foundation retains ownership of the property and has provided a £125,000 loan for the winner, Aaron Craze, to refurbish the establishment.
'''Jamie At Home''' (2007)
Oliver's programmes are shown in over 40 countries, including the USA's Food Network, where he is the second most popular presenter. ''Oliver's Twist'' and "Pukka Tukka" picked up where "The Naked Chef" left off.
'Other appearances' have included guest hosting Channel 4's The Friday Night Project in January 2006 and also in January 2007, becoming the first guest presenter to host two episodes. He has also starred on Top Gear becoming one of the fastest around the test track on BBC2

Live Shows

The Happy Days Live tour was Oliver's first live show in 2001 and included several dates in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. 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 appears at the BBC good food show each year and 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. Jamie also performed a new song written by Leigh Haggerwood called Fish Stew which Jamie cooked to and also drummed along to at the end of the show. The shows were a great success and are featured in a one-off TV documentary called Jamie Oliver: Australian Diary.

Controversy and Criticism

In 2003, Oliver was ranked number 28 in Channel 4's poll of "100 Worst Britons". The poll was inspired by the BBC series ''100 Greatest Britons''. The poll specified that the nominees had to be British, alive, and not currently in prison or pending trial.
In 2005, Oliver was widely criticised for killing a fully conscious lamb live on his TV show^[1].
In September, 2006, Jamie Oliver and Rawmarsh Community School, South Yorkshire, UK, made front page headlines after a group of parents revolted against Oliver's lunch scheme, in which all 1100 pupils on site were fed two portions of fruit and three vegetables every day. The parents, declaring, "Our kids have the right to eat what they like," took orders over the school fence for nearby sandwich and fast-food outlets. The food was then delivered over the fence to the waiting pupils.^[2]

Books

'Cookbooks'

★ ''Something for the Weekend'', ISBN 0-1410-2258-2

★ ''The Naked Chef'', ISBN 0-7868-6617-9

★ ''The Return of the Naked Chef'', ISBN 0-7181-4439-2

★ ''Happy Days with the Naked Chef'', ISBN 0-7868-6852

★ ''The Naked Chef Takes Off'', ISBN 0-7868-6755-8

★ ''Jamie's Kitchen'', ISBN 1-4013-0022-7

★ ''Jamie's Dinners'', ISBN 1-4013-0194-0

★ ''Jamie's Italy'', ISBN 0-7181-4770-7

★ ''Cook With Jamie'', ISBN 0-7181-4771-5
'Biographies'

★ Stafford Hildred, ''Jamie Oliver: The Biography'' (2001) ISBN 1-903402-55-7

★ Gilly Smith, ''Jamie Oliver: Turning Up the Heat'' (2006) ISBN 0-233-00168-9

Trivia

★ Oliver is reportedly a friend of Brad Pitt who, when married to Jennifer Aniston, asked Oliver and his wife Jools to their Los Angeles home to cook for them. Pitt, in particular, has watched Oliver's cooking programmes for a number of years. The two have often been pictured together at film premieres.^[3]

★ During the school dinners programme, Oliver's Fifteen London was visited by Bill Clinton. Clinton asked to see Oliver; however, Oliver refused, as Clinton's party had asked for other diners to be removed to make room for their larger-than-agreed-upon group. In episode 2 of Jamie's School Dinners, Clinton's party had 36 show up for a booking of 16 and many of them were on a South Beach Diet and did not want the special menu that had been prepared, even though the menu had been approved in advance. ^[4]

★ Oliver is reported to be worth an estimated £25 million.^[5]

★ David Tennant, the current actor to portray The Doctor on the hit BBC series Doctor Who, stated on an interview on Parkinson in May 2007 that the design for the costume of The Doctor came from "a white version" of what Oliver wore on an appearance on Parkinson a year earlier. ^[6]

★ Despite popular belief, Jamie Oliver is not related to the DJ Steve Oliver. This misunderstanding often rears it's head due to the fact that Steve Oliver lived in Essex for a period in the 1990s

References

1. Jamie Oliver: The silencer of the lamb
2. Sinner ladies sell kids junk food
3. "Brad Pitt flies Jamie Oliver to LA to cook dinner"
4. "Enough Rope with Andrew Denton episode 121 18 September, 2006"
5. "TV helps Ramsay cook up a £60m fortune"
6. "David Tennant on Parkinson 05.05.2007 Part 1"

External links

★ Jamie Oliver's official website

★ BBC Jamie Oliver biography

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