Jamie Oliver

With his latest venture in America, exploring different recipes, we look at the business side of things, as well as the achievements that make Jamie Oliver stand out from other chefs.

It all started at his father's pub in Essex, since then Oliver has become a name all too familiar in the kitchen. He has helped businesses, improved school dinners and has trained and shared his secrets with dissadvantaged young adults. Generally, he has everyone thinking healthy and has developed our interest in the kitchen with his best selling cookbooks and television shows. For these reasons, he is one of many successful social entreprepreneurs.

We look at the ups and downs of the the Oliver empire, with a timeline of some of his greatest and a few not so great achievements.

Frequently nicknamed 'The Naked Chef', Jamie Oliver, MBE, is an English chef, television host, social entrepreneur, restaurateur and media personality. He is the face of Sainsbury's supermarket and is well known for his list of food focused television shows. He's held various campaigns to get the nation eating healthy, especially amongst school children.

OLIVER'S cooking roots
He was born in 1975 and Oliver himself says "it was straight into business then". His Dad owns a pub restaurant, The Cricketers, in Essex where he grew up. This is where his love of the kitchen developed. Jamie remembers being fascinated by what went on in the kitchen and described it as "such a cool place" with everyone working together and having a laugh.

They let him peel potatoes and pod peas at the age of 7 and by the age of 11 he was preparing vegetables and doing what he says as "chopping like a demon". Unlike his school friends who thought working in the kitchen was a girly thing, Jamie didn't care, after all he was making an earning which meant buying the coolest shoes and clothing.

At 16 he didn't get the results he needed to stay go into further education, but that didn't dampen his mood career wise since Jamie knew he wanted to be chef. After going to catering college Oliver worked for Antonia Carluccio as head pastry chef at the Neal Street restaurant.

After working there, he worked for Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers at the River Café for three years. "Those two ladies taught me all about the time and effort that goes into creating the freshest, most honest, totally delicious food" says Oliver.

Social entrepreneurialism
During this time, he met television producer Patricia Llewellyn. Llewellyn recognized Oliver's talent and liked his young and hip image. Oliver became the star of The Naked Chef, which aired for two successful seasons.
Oliver has worked on a number of different television specials and campaigns to help people enjoy cooking, provide them with good nutrition and make them aware of the different ingredients and recipes rather than processed food.

Since then, he has written a handful of cookbooks that have helped and inspired chefs and individuals develop an interest and love for cooking. Oliver even holds his own successful cooking classes for those who want to brush up their skills in the kitchen or learn certain recipes. He's also campaigned for various causes.

However, he's doesn't just like to help adults and those in the industry. There's a part of Oliver that wants to make the world a better place, and help people enjoy food. Oliver has campaigned heavily to get young people and children eating healthy.

Helping the young
His first venture in working with young people was in 2002 in his television series 'Jamie's Kitchen', when he opened up a top class restaurant and gave 15 disadvantaged youngsters a chance to gain professional training. The purpose of this was to empower young people who need a second chance to establish their place in the world for a better, independent, inspired and productive life.

The restaurant is named Fifteen, named after the fifteen youngsters and owned by Fifteen foundation – a registered charity- which focuses solely on chef apprenticeships for 18-24 year olds. Seven years on, it is still improving and expanding. The growth has been so positive that Fifteen restaurants are now running in Amsterdam, Cornwall and Melbourne (each with their own foundation and apprenticeship schemes), with plans of doing much more.

School Dinners
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. In the last couple of years, Oliver has been working tirelessly in campaigning to ban junk foods in schools, and instead get them to eat fresh, tasty nutritious foods.

Oliver's efforts to bring radical change to the school meals system, was aired in the series 'Jamie's School Dinners', challenging the junk food culture by showing schools they could serve healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids enjoyed eating.

Oliver has brought the subject of school dinners to the political forefront and changed the types of food served in schools. He was also appointed Ambassador for food and nutrition. However, the campaign was not well received by some pupils and parents. While the campaign proved to be ultimately successful, at the time it was a highly controversial shake-up for students and parents, some of who were actively against having their children eat fruits and vegetables.

In September 2006, a school in South Yorkshire, made headlines after a handful of parents revolted against Oliver's lunch plan by delivering junk food from local shops to the pupils through the school fence. One parent dismissed Oliver's food as "disgusting rubbish" and declared, "Food is cheaper and better at the local takeaways." But despite all this, the crusade for better school dinners continues.

Sainsbury's
In 2000 Oliver was chosen to be the face of Sainsbury's supermarket. He has appeared on various television and radio advertisements and in-store promotional materials offering his recipes and food ideas. Two of his recent promotions are the Try Nation and Feed Your Family for a fiver where he gives out ideas and promotes ways of using good, nutritious ingredients into delicious meals.

At Sainsbury's, he has also stirred a few controversies with some of his remarks about banning junk food in supermarkets, the animal welfare issues regarding chickens and the way they were slaughtered, as well as saying that he preferred getting organic and fresh produce from specialist growers.

For two years now, Sainsbury's, along with Oliver have campaigned to get 'ugly' fruits and vegetables to be put on shelves. In 2008, Sainsbury's planned to launch Halloween 'zombie brains' cauliflowers, 'witches fingers' carrots and 'ogres toenails' cucumbers using under-sized and misshapen vegetables to give people a choice to have a healthy Halloween, but due to EU regulations it meant that staff could be prosecuted.

The supermarket since launched 'Save Our British Fruit and Veg.' campaign and from July 26 2009, the EU put in action new laws in which 26 types of fruit and vegetables no longer go through specific marketing standards in relation to classification, size, shape, development, variety and labelling details.

This new law and regulation on fruits and vegetables has had good benefits on farmers and producers of fresh fruits and vegetables. Before this new rule came into place, it was estimated that 20 per cent of British farmers' produce went to waste because of EU restrictions and marketing regulations on fruits and vegetables. Oliver was not happy with those regulations and said "I've got nothing nice to say about the EU at all" when he appeared before the House of Commons Health Committee in 2008.

The change in these rules means that it reduces waste and helps to support British farmers. Buying 'ugly' or wonky fruit and vegetable also helps save cash, especially during the current economic climate. Cash-strapped Britons can save up to 40 per cent on such items, that they taste just as good as the 'normal' shaped fruit and veg.

The inventor of Flavour shaker
Not only is Jamie Oliver an inventor of exquisite healthy dishes, but he is also the inventor of Flavour Shaker. An invention that crushes, grinds and mixes flavours. His inspiration for this came from the kitchen of course, while bashing up some ingredients with a pestle and mortar. He thought to himself that there must be an easier and quicker way of bashing and grinding herbs and spices together.

He developed this idea further until he had a final design of the product that would change the way people mix and grind herbs. He named it the Flavour Shaker and it does what it says. He approached William Levene Ltd, kitchen gadget experts who turned Jamie's idea into a reality. It is sold at various department stores.

PRESENT DAY

Jamie's America
This is his very recent venture in America. Everyone's been talking about it, from New York to Los Angeles – he's shown his fans some of the most diverse recipes.
In his road in October 2009, Oliver did what other chef's hadn't done. Instead of visiting fancy restaurants, he met and learnt from real cooks who made honest food for working people at street stalls, off road diners and down to earth local restaurants. Along the way, he picked up new recipes and experience new tastes and flavours as well as learning how various cultures adapt when comming to the USA. He visited six different states with people from different cultures and walks of life, and studying at what and how they cook. He brought back these recipes to his fans and viewers who then try it out for themselves.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
Also this autumn, Oliver set out in the United States making his prime time series for American TV on ABC. He also released another cookbook on this. It is set in the town of Huntington, West Virginia, which has been dubbed to be the unhealthiest city in America.

In this series, Oliver took a look at what kids were eating at school, and what families were eating at home. The aim of this was to change the way Americans eat and depend on fast food. His biggest challenge was getting the whole community to rally together and cook with fresh ingredients. Throughout his campaigns and ventures, he has seen how with a little bit of confidence, people can quickly start to change the way they eat and live.
Jamie Oliver was born into the restaurant/ food business and through his success, he is one of the most influential people in the UK, and around the world. He is admired by adults and children and is a widely successful businessman and campaigner. He's done a lot to motivate us to become more involved with the food we eat. There's certainly more to come from Oliver in the future.