Jamie Oliver



I like the bloke but my one meal in his restaurant in Sydney was bang average and that was the consensus from others who had been there. It's a cutthroat industry in Sydney and you won't last long here on name alone.
 
I like the bloke, his series when he was trying to modernise school dinners and make them healthier was very good, you could see how passionate he was about trying to do the right thing.

Doesn’t seem to be the smartest bloke though, if you own restaurant chains it is probably not a good idea selling cook books and doing TV cookery shows which show people how to make decent food in 30 minutes.
 
Arkle said:
Same for me. Cambridge is very good for independents generally. However, I regularly walk through a Leisure Park (has a cinema, bowling alley, pretty good gig venue, apparently a karaoke place) on my way back from work and it's chain restaurant hell. Chiquito, Bella Italia, F&Bs, Five Guys, Nando's etc. The only non chains in it are an all you can eat global buffet, somewhere called Rocker's Steakhouse and a shipping container that sells pizza. Always seems busy and it amazes me how many Deliveroo pickups are made at the chains. Who decides to order food for delivery anf, given the full range of restaurants available on Deliveroo or Just Eat orders from Frankie and Bennies'?
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I've seen Deliveroo lads in Spoons before.
 
I'm going to start by saying that I have absolutely no idea if this story is true, or if it's one of those "I know someone who..." urban legend stories that get regurgitated by Billy bullshitters.

But here goes...

My mam retired from teaching at hillview last summer.
One of the women she worked with told her that her and her husband had been to Jamie's in Newcastle, this would have been just after it opened.

They finished their mains and waiter came to clear table and mentioned to them that as they'd just opened, Jamie was actually in the kitchen overseeing things and would they like to come and meet him?

They went into kitchen, met him, got pics with him etc. Went back to table. About 10 mins later, he comes out and sits at their table (they're last ones in restaurant)
He tells them to try his favourite wine - a bottle appears, 3 of them drink it. He leaves, they're on cloud nine, what an experience etc.

Bill arrives - £100 For a meet & greet and cost of wine (not cheap) have been added to bill.

They complained and after lengthy chat with manager, it was wiped from bill as they hadn't "ordered" it but we're invited to meet him and offered the wine.


I have always wanted this to be true but I've no way of knowing if my mam got spun a tall tale.

If anyone else has heard this, please shout up Haha!
 
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Roger Mellie said:
I'm going to start by saying that I have absolutely no idea if this story is true, or if it's one of those "I know someone who..." urban legend stories that get regurgitated by Billy bullshitters.

But here goes...

My mam retired from teaching at hillview last summer.
One of the women she worked with told her that her and her husband had been to Jamie's in Newcastle, this would have been just after it opened.

They finished their mains and waiter came to clear table and mentioned to them that as they'd just opened, Jamie was actually in the kitchen overseeing things and would they like to come and meet him?

They went into kitchen, met him, got pics with him etc. Went back to table. About 10 mins later, he comes out and sits at their table (they're last ones in restaurant)
He tells them to try his favourite wine - a bottle appears, 3 of them drink it. He leaves, they're on cloud nine, what an experience etc.

Bill arrives - £100 For a meet & greet and cost of wine (not cheap) have been added to bill.

They complained and after lengthy chat with manager, it was wiped from bill as they hadn't "ordered" it but we're invited to meet him and offered the wine.


I have always wanted this to be true but I've no way of knowing if my mam got spun a tall tale.

If anyone else has heard this, please shout up Haha!
Click to expand...

Interested to hear more like but I’d be astounded if that was true. Why why would he ever need to do it for starters (or dessert!)

It does sound a bit “penguin in the bath” to me...
 

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