Jamie Oliver

Profession: Celebrity chef
Place/Date of Birth: Clavering, Essex, 27 May 1975

"Reasons for this decline are complex and include lack of consultation with pupils and parents about the new arrangements in schools; poor marketing of the new menus; the high costs for low-income families and a lack of choice in what is offered."

The inspectors warned: "If this trend continues, the impact of the Government’s food policies will have limited effect.

"This will be particularly the case for children from more vulnerable families.

"Several headteachers believed that the cost of a meal was prohibitive."

The report, Food In Schools: Encouraging Healthier Eating, said some pupils were simply taking unhealthy packed lunches into school or going shopping for junk food.

Jamie ’not buying Little Chef’ - Sept 21 2007
Jamie Oliver has dismissed reports that he is to buy the Little Chef chain.

The TV star was said to be planning a new reality show in which he would give the roadside restaurants a healthy makeover.

But his spokesman said: "Jamie is not buying Little Chef and none of his companies are buying Little Chef."

Production company Fresh One, which makes the celeb chef’s shows, approached the chain earlier this year with an idea for a series, but he was not involved.

"Fresh One did have an early conversation but decided no further progress would be necessary.

"The idea that Fresh One had in mind did not involve Jamie," the spokesman said.

Little Chef - famed for its Olympic Breakfast - went into administration in January. Private equity firm RCapital stepped in to save the firm.

There are 192 Little Chefs across the country and more than 20 million people visit every year.

Gordon Ramsay has previously offered to help the chain by revamping its menus.

Jamie restaurant third ’most overrated’ - Sept 14 2007
He has an army of fans - but Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen has been voted the third most overrated restaurant in a survey.

Fifteen opened in Hoxton in 2002 to provide chef training to disadvantaged young people, has had its fair share of criticism in the past and was described as "amateurish and overpriced" by one guide.

The Time Out restaurant poll, of 3,000 Londoners, voted The Ivy, famous for its celebrity clientele, in first spot - followed by Japanese restaurant Nobu.

However, it wasn’t all bad news for The Naked Chef. He was named as the second best-known and most popular chef behind Gordon Ramsay.

Guy Dimond, co-editor of the 2008 Time Out Eating and Drinking Guide, which launches next week, said: "The Ivy remains one of London’s most popular restaurants, but with any top restaurant that gets a good reputation and has long waiting lists for a table, such as Fifteen or Nobu, diners arrive with unrealistic expectations and this leads to disappointment.

"Perhaps the tide is at last turning against restaurants that are hyped up so much."

Jamie’s garden affair - Sept 12 2007
Jamie Oliver has apparently admitted that his new passion for growing fruit and veg hasn’t been too popular with wife Jools.

The celeb chef told The Sun: "Jools doesn’t mind being cooked for but she doesn’t really like the garden and has accused me of having an affair with it!"

Jamie says he finds the garden "really therapeutic".

"I love wandering around in the garden, it helps me to dream up new ideas and recipes."

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Biography

The young person’s, modern day Delia, Jamie Oliver catapulted himself to fame following a chance meeting at the River Café, he now commands millions for advertisements, has created a socially aware restaurant empire and influenced what our children eat at school.

Despite his slightly grating, ‘cockney’ accent, our Jamie’s actually a born and bred Essex boy. Having been raised to landlord parents he started working in a professional kitchen at the tender age of 11, when he used to peel the veg for the Sunday Roast at the pub.

He trained at Westminster Catering College and spent some time studying in France. On his return to London he bagged himself a job as head pastry chef at the Antonio Carluccio restaurant on Neal Street, before heading over to Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers gastro-delight The River Café. It was here that he was apparently ‘spotted’, whilst a television crew were in doing a dash of filming, and the result was ‘Naked Chef’ in 1998.

His new, fresh and relaxed approach to presenting and food in general went down a storm with the British public and another series followed shortly after in 1999. Over the years his stake in primetime television has grown with a number of successful programmes, including Jamie’s Kitchen, Jamie’s Great Italian Escape and Oliver Twist.

In 2000 Jamie became the ‘face of Sainsburys’, which saw the chef earn a reputed £1.2 million per year, whilst appearing in rather cringe worthy ads left, right and centre of the television scheduling programme. His over exposure led to a bit of a backlash with caricatures of him springing up on the comedy circuit; think big lips, wads of cash, ‘mockney’ accent and floppy wife.

If the Sainsburys deal signalled a temporary fall from grace for the Essex boy, then the series Jamie’s Kitchen saw him return from the back of the pack to take gold. The programme followed the chef as he launched his flagship Fifteen restaurant in London. Part of a charitable foundation, the business offers training for underprivileged kids and branches have gone on to be launched in Newquay, the Netherlands, Amsterdam and Melbourne.

Jamie’s social conscious doesn’t end there either – in 2005 the geeza chef took on the British education system, with a good, long, hard look at what we were feeding the minds of tomorrow – fat, salt and sugar being the main ingredients. The series signalled a social crisis in parliament and forced the Government to reassess school dinners around the country, with the aim of educating our kids about food and it’s origins, whilst providing them with a well-rounded diet.

In 2003 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

He married Juliette Norton in 2000 and the couple have two daughters.

February 2008