Re: Jamie Oliver

I've never eaten at one of his restaurants so I can't critique the food, I know people who have though and it was visit once and that was enough.

I think he's overplayed his hand trading on his name and opened up more outlets than he could conceivably manage and doesn't seem to employ key staff.

I think he's coming to realize you can't operate a large franchise thru' the internet and his business sense doesn't seem to up to par.

Having said that he's just opened a branch in Cyprus, allegedly.

How does his daughter long tall Poppy affect things, I wonder, lol ...

Re: Jamie Oliver

The thing is, he and other 'celebrity' chefs are only as good as their employees. They don't actually cook the meals.

I have never been a big fan of Oliver but I prefer him to the psychopathic Blumin' Hestenthal.

Re: Jamie Oliver

It seems to be part of the British mentally, to laud a person, put that person on a pedestal then knock them off, there does seem to be a surfeit of schaden freude amongst posters here. Look at the positives of his career and celebrate what he has achieved, but if you find it more satisfying to stab the guy in the back when he is down doesn't that say something about you?

Re: Jamie Oliver

I've never eaten at his restaurants because it's mainly pasta and pizza which is no big treat as I cook plenty of pasta dishes myself and we have an excellent pizza take out close by too.

I never get why people go out to eat pasta .... it's so cheap and quick and easy that I don't need somebody else to cook it for me.

J olivers restaurant in Norwich had bad publicity the other year when diners had maggots falling on them and their tables. I know several people who have been there and have not been impressed and wouldn't go again because the food was noting special and it was very overpriced.

Re: Jamie Oliver

Don't rate Oliver at all.

Once TV chefs align themselves to supermarkets they lose all credibility. They exist purely to rake in £millions by promoting specific supermarket products.

Jamie Oliver's was the face of Sainsbury's for many years and is thought to have earned than £10m during those ad campaigns.

Oliver appeared in more than 100 adverts for the supermarket group, offering endorsements that have consistently triggered huge leaps in featured groceries.

In 2005 Oliver's suggestion that home cooks grate nutmeg over spaghetti bolognese led to the supermarket selling nine tonnes of the spice, an amount equivalent to the previous two years' sales.

Particular successes for Sainsbury's included the Oliver-fronted "feed your family for a fiver" promotion, which is said to have seen sales of featured lines leap by up to 200%.

Oliver tried his campaign to raise awareness of how chickens are reared shocking the nation by gassing live chicks on live TV. Looking back you can see how much of a failure that campaign was as Jamie failed to deal with the underlying issue causing millions of people to buy cheap battery farm chickens . . . cost. He tried to use shock tactics to make us all buy free-range chickens, a much much more expensive product. Doubtless there was a short initial success for the supermarkets, but walk into Sainsbury's today and you'll very little offerings in the way of free-range chickens. People just don't want to pay the exorbitant price hike.

This is why you can't take these stooges seriously. Oliver, Fearnly-Whittingstall whoever. They're all just being sponsored by supermarkets and promoting products and ingredients. Just fickle TV celebs hiding behind a variety of campaigns.

Ignore them all imo. Just stick to good raw food ingredients, and preferably from local suppliers, not supermarkets.

Re: Jamie Oliver

his food must be pretty piss poor if hes had to close down 6 restaurants, you
never hear of mcdonalds closing down restaurants and their food is like eating cardboard so can only imagine how poor his food is in comparison.

Re: Jamie Oliver

Ive never eaten in any of his resturaunts so I can't comment on those

I do however enjoy his cookery shows and his recipes, I have a few of his books and use his web site quite often

I'm not sure where I sit on his campaigns, bit too nanny state for me, and do any of them really do any good? Does anything really change ?

I'm fortunate that I can afford to buy happy meat, however if I had to count every penny and had a young family to feed, if caged was the difference in a roast dinner or not, I'd buy caged

He's supposed to be a working class lad but he markets himself to the middle classes

Re: Jamie Oliver

This.

They are not cooking the meals, just the name above the door.
Seems to me he chose the locations badly and is charging ott prices for pretty ordinary food.

A bad business decision on his behalf, but rather than admit it, blame Brexit instead. Sounds like a chump!

Re: Jamie Oliver

Good post.

I do believe he tried to address the 'child obesity' problem and - love him or hate him - he has made people more aware of what they are eating and how it is produced.

Perhaps he overreached himself by going into the restaurant business but, at least, he had a go.

I much prefer his recipes to some of the totally weird things Heston Blumental concocts and, as far as know, he can cook without resort to the foul language of Gordon Ramsay.

Re: Jamie Oliver

We ate once at his eat and run place at Gatwick it was rubbish and the staff were useless .
Probably would have been OK if he had cooked it.
He did well with those young hopeless people but they didn't have his drive ,passion or work ethic.