Its sad to see a project that established me in the City in the early days of my career close its doors. Working with Jamie Oliver was something I’ll never forget. I was consulting for a City bank at the time and they asked me to go see a client of theirs who was “starting up an art gallery”.
Except he wasn’t an art dealer. He was Jamie Oliver and the project was Fifteen, the first of many, near Old Street in London.
I had only gone freelance a couple of years before and to have found myself working in the City was a big deal for me, but this was something else. Channel 4 were filming Jamie’s Kitchen, a season long documentary on the project at the time, so working around them was surreal. My job was to set up the infrastructure and turn an old warehouse into the offices and breakout areas for the celebrity cook.
Getting the kit and team together wasn’t difficult – dropping someone’s name like his opened a lot of doors at the time. HP, BT, Microsoft and local company SurfControl all provided their services for free. But working with people without an established City working background was more of a challenge!
The project was wildly successful in its early days. Despite planning objections for the kitchen’s huge extractor fans and even when the offices above the restaurant had to move down the road because the neighbours complained about the noise, forcing us to fire the network across the street using radio transmitter dishes was the least of the challenges to be met.
The group expanded into Amsterdam and beyond, then came the Jamies Italian group around the UK, followed by Fifteen Cornwall.
beginning of the end
But things began to turn sour. the management company behind the group were over their heads and Jamie as a TV celebrity and author couldn’t be as hands on as he’d hoped. He also had a growing family which became part of his TV presence.
So, in 2019, it closed its doors for good. Shortly after, the pub his father ran was sold. This had been where the young Jamie had first learnt to cook. A sad moment.
a new recipe for success?
Today, Jamie has re-invented himself. He’s now back on TV at a lower profile it has to be said, but now cooking for families and the under-privileged in his healthy eating series on Channel 4, who’ve stuck by him.
Even lockdown got a look in with his Keep Cooking and Carry On TV series.
There’s even talk of a rebooted restaurant starting up to carry on his charitable ethos. Early days yet, but the vital ingredient is still there – his enthusiasm. Don’t write the man off yet!