Happy Birthday to my favourite chef Jamie Oliver!

I decided to dedicate this post to my favourite chef that is Jamie Oliver, by celebrating his success. Ohh and it's his birthday today sooo Happy Birthday chef! For those who are not that familiar with Jamie’s early work as a foodie, Jamie has begun his career at a very young age. His passion for food started to grow when he was found helping at his parent’s pub, The Cricketers in Clavering. At the age of 16, he left school and completed his training at Westminster Catering College and had a lot of experience in different restaurants such as the River Café. Just like Jamie, I have always been interested in the world of food from a young age. In my 18 years of existence, I have experienced different flavours and dishes from around the world and I tend to continue this hobby for a long time. I have a great passion for food, but not to the point where I want it to be a career. I also enjoy watching food shows, but out of all the food shows I’ve watched, I’ve always been keen on Jamie’s shows because of his blasé attitude towards cooking.

Today, we see Jamie Oliver as one of the most famous celebrity chefs worldwide. He is well-known in the media as he not only appears in his own food shows, but I have also seen him appear as a celebrity guest in talk shows such as The Jonathan Ross Show and Chris Moyle’s Quiz Night. Furthermore, Jamie Oliver has evolved his brand image from being a laid-back chef to an international chef tackling different aspects in other parts of the world. Although Jamie is known as one of the most controversial chefs in Europe, Jamie has introduced a healthy way of eating which is attested from his food shows and his brand restaurants across the world. This is also one of the reasons why I adore his recipes because of his healthy approach to cooking by using fresh ingredients.

Jamie’s different approach to cooking with his laid-back attitude inspired a lot of people, including myself, to cook and enjoy food. It was Jamie’s honest unique selling point from his relaxed style towards cooking that made him known to be one the world’s best-loved television personalities. Not only he inspired everyone, but he also won a BAFTA Award for the best television series in the Features Category in 2000. In addition, his company, Sweet As Candy, has made Oliver successful making it to the list of richest Britons under 30 on The Sunday Times.

Jamie still continues to delve deeper with food and he expresses his research and own knowledge of food through a range of promotional materials. He had huge success with a variety of different television shows. One of Jamie’s first successful TV programmes is ‘Jamie’s Kitchen’ which was aired in 2002, broadcasted by Channel 4. It’s a five part documentary series, targeted to young people, especially those who doesn’t have any motivation with school work, or those who didn’t finish GCSEs and doesn’t have enough qualifications. In the show, Jamie attempted to train disadvantaged youths, and once the course is completed, they will be offered jobs at Oliver’s new restaurant “Fifteen”. I think that this is inspiring and that it follows the need for social and self-identity because audience of young people will find reinforcement for personal values as well as finding role models from the show. This is due to Jamie being a good role model by giving second chances to disadvantaged youths as he experienced the same situation in a young age. Youths in the show are also seen as good role models as they try their hard to succeed. Moreover, ‘Jamie’s Kitchen’ will give the ideology to young people like me as well as older people, that there are other choices in life as long as you don’t give up. The show also creates an ideology of moral authority as he can inspire those who think lowly of themselves. In addition, ‘Jamie’s Kitchen’ became a huge success as the achievement of the restaurant won Tatler Best Restaurant Award and the Academy Award of Excellence at the TioPepe Carlton London Restaurant Awards in 2003. After the show, Jamie also won an MBE award in 2003 for his generosity contribution within his work.

Jamie’s shows also illustrate problems in the food industry such as not using organic food, increase of obesity, unhealthy eating habits, and unhealthy food in school diners. I think that the way Jamie tackles these problems is helpful for everyone to be aware of. I also love the way that Jamie’s shows are also relaxing as it includes comedic scenes which are very entertaining. 

Jamie Oliver was also known for his controversial work, which made him even more successful worldwide. One of the most polemic shows that he had was ‘Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution’, which represents America negatively as it the show illustrate scenes of how America produces their food, and how they deliver these unhealthy produce to the society. Unhealthy habits that are shown in his campaign represent that society are not aware of what they are eating and this increases the number and cases of obesity.

‘Jamie’s Food Revolution’ was one of Jamie’s controversial works but he ensured that nothing obscene should be represented in the media. It was seen as offensive from America’s point of view because they are being stereotyped as obese and unhealthy. Unfortunately, this lowered the ratings in the second season and it was announced that the show will not return for a third season. But for me, the show was a good starting point for people to see that eating healthily is important. In addition, Jamie also initiated a campaign called ‘Feed me Better’, which inspired a lot of adults to encourage school children towards eating healthy food. As a result, the British government perceived his work and promised to address this issue. This shows that Jamie’s work has a big impact towards the society. Due to his inspiring work, Jamie was voted the ‘Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005’.

To finish this post, we all know that we have our own favourite cooks, but for me, Jamie Oliver will always be my ol’ time favourite. He’s exceedingly successful at promoting himself as a media brand as he now owns his own magazine and books as well as a website that focus on his shows and successful work (which I am a subscriber CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!). Recently, Jamie is working in new series of 'Jamie’s Great Britain', which I found educational as it gave me an insight that original ‘British recipes’ like Fish and Chips are originated from different countries and origin. This represents how Britain has changed and had become more diverse and global. He introduced healthy eating by setting up his own restaurants in different countries and it was reported in 2009 that he raised US$22 million to fund thirty of his Italian restaurants in Asia. Oliver also has many campaigns which include teaching different parts of the world how to eat and maintain healthy by buying organic food and teaching them healthy, quick recipes that we will enjoy. I believe that Jamie will continue to delve deeper with food as well as teach the society about healthy lifestyle, and I’m looking forward to it! Best wishes to Jamie and his family! Happy Birthday!