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Jamie Oliver

Born	27 May 1975 (1975-05-27) (age 32) Clavering, Essex, England
Cooking style	Fresh and occasionally Organic
Education	Westminster Catering College
Restaurants	Fifteen (London)
TV show(s)	Oliver's Twist, Jamie's School Dinners, Jamie's Great Italian Escape, Naked Chef, Jamie's Kitchen, Jamie's Chef, Jamie at Home

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^{[citation needed]} - particularly the use of the hindi word "pukka" (colloquially meaning "brilliant" or "solid", originally "cooked" or "ripe"). Oliver is reported to be worth an estimated £25 million.^[1]

Contents 1 Biography 2 Personal life 3 Advertising 4 Television shows 5 Live shows 6 Controversy and criticism 7 Books 8 Further reading 9 References 10 External links

James "Jamie" Trevor 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 friend Leigh Haggerwood, in which he was the drummer. At age 16, he attended Westminster Catering College and then studied in France, 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," which shows 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.

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.

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 off 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.

From 1998, 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 Oliver. Oliver has recently started promoting a line of non-stick pans and cookware for Tefal.

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 2000 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. 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. ^[2]

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)

Jamie at Home Christmas special (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 twice guest hosting Channel 4's The Friday Night Project. He has also appeared in the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment of BBC Two's Top Gear, becoming one of the fastest celebrities to drive around the show's test track.

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.

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^[3].

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.^[4]

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-X
• 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
• Jamie at Home, ISBN 0-7181-5243-3

• 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

• Official website
• Jamie Oliver biography at bbc.co.uk
• Jamie Oliver at the Internet Movie Database
• Q & A With Jamie Oliver