Jamie Oliver Biography
Although Jamie Oliver seems to have been on British television for years now, he is in fact still only 36 and it must a measure of the impact he has had in the world of the television chef that Oliver is one of the first names that spring to mind when one thinks of a celebrity chef.
Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver’s rise is not unlike that of Rachael Ray, a modest beginning followed by a spot of good luck and then hard work which have culminated in enormous success. Jamie Oliver was born in Clavering, Essex in 1975; his parent ran a pub called ‘The Cricketers’ in that village. Following an unsuccessful attempt to obtain any qualifications at Newport Free Grammar School (possibly because of dyslexia), he earned a qualification in Home Economics from Westminster Kingsway College, following which he managed to get a job as a pastry chef at Neal’s Yard, an Italian restaurant owned by Antonio Carlucci.
Oliver then upgraded his role to become a sous chef at Fulham’s River Cafe and it was
Jamie's Kitchen
here, in 1997, that the BBC noticed him when they were making a documentary called ‘Christmas at the River Cafe’. His appearance in that show was unplanned but it prompted the BBC to talk to Oliver about hosting his own television show and, in what must have seemed like some sort of fairytale, his show ‘The Naked Chef’ was debuted that same year. Not only that, a cookbook based on Jamie Oliver and the television show was published, becoming a best-seller in the United Kingdom.
Fourteen years later and Jamie Oliver has now appeared in something like twenty different television shows and is a well-known face of the culinary art in many countries around the world – English speaking and non-English speaking. He has said of his food philosophy:
“My philosophy to food and healthy eating has always been about enjoying everything in a balanced, and sane way. Food is one of life’s greatest joys yet we’ve reached this really sad point where we’re turning food into the enemy, and something to be afraid of.”
Charity Work
In more recent years, Jamie Oliver has undertaken several high profile charitable ventures. These have all been based on food and his most notable is probably the Fifteen charity. The charity advertised for fifteen young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to to be trained by the charity for a future career in the catering and hospitality industry. The succes of the venture has led to the inauguration of the Fifteen charity in several other countries around the world, including Holland and Australia.
Jamie’s School Dinners was another attempt to perform a good deed for the community and this was an effort to introduce cost-conscious, healthy school meals for children which would replace the junk food that he saw being served in schools. Jamie’s School Dinners made politicians sit up and take some notice of what children were being fed in schools and it marked Oliver’s first (unintentional) foray into politics.
Jamie Oliver has not always been popular with the entire television-watching population, largely because of his supposed ‘cheeky chappie’ Essex character but surely also due to an element of jealousy. As long as he keeps doing good things, who are we to complain?