Jamie Oliver is not someone (or something, so huge is his franchise now) that I despise, despite popularity. He is a champion of various righteous causes, he's encouraging people to cook better food and he is a realistic kind of guy. Well, maybe a meal in 30 or 15 minutes is a stretch since not everyone has a team helpfully assembling everything for you, but still. There are decent recipes in there and we've all made a Jamie dish at some point.
What I cannot abide, however, is the horrendous mockney shtick, the endless development of new ways to get the face on screen, the cavalcade of books (would you buy a book on great American cooking from a chef who half-trained in an Italian restaurant in London?), the ludicrous number of ingredients thrown into food which simply does not need it... So maybe there are some issues there after all. But, as I started by saying, the guy's alright.
Going to Jamie's Italian should be a sure thing, a home banker. Italian food is one of the things Jamie should be good at, given his background, and there can be great things in the simplest of Italian restaurants. The problem is, given that Jamie has put his name on everything, you're caught between expecting fantastic food which you 'n all yer mates can get stuck into and an apprehensive distaste for the oi oi saveloy feel of the place. The waiting staff all pedal a degree of the pseudo-cockney and it's not that enjoyable.



So there you have it. I think I wanted to dislike the place but in truth it isn't that bad. Given the array of restaurants in and around Covent Garden, it's not somewhere I would go back to, but if it was a family occasion with children I could totally see the appeal. This is not a restaurant striving for culinary perfection or epicurean purity, it's just trying to put people at tables. And it's doing so with ease.
And that's what I really do admire about Jamie Oliver. For all that's irritating, he's a remarkably savvy businessman. The success of his ventures speak for themselves and he's making a lot more money than some of his former contemporaries who were far more decorated cooks than he. Our obsession with Jamie has got to the point we'll eat just about anywhere he slaps his name on. My first musings on the guy were when the wife and I were surprised with his take on pizza at Union Jacks, which has sadly now only one location remaining, also in Covent Garden. Whilst that might have been a commercial failure, Jamie's Italian remains an internationally-renowned brand.
Maybe after all I just feel indifferent to Jamie Oliver. Unless he starts doing stuff like this. Then he invokes all the kind of unfettered loathing I usually reserve for the likes of Simon Cowell ventures and reality television.
Jamie's Italian
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