Always the man for the big occasion, Jamie finally formally proposed to Jools on Millennium Eve and the wedding was planned for 24 June 2000. By then, they had been an inseparable couple for seven years, so no one could accuse them of exactly rushing into anything. Jamie might look like a young Mick Jagger but he has never lived the pop star lifestyle with different girlfriends coming and going every night. Or wanted to. But there have been many young women who have decided it would be a cool challenge to try to come between Jamie and Jools.
When Jamie presented a prize at the National TV Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1999, one pretty blonde ‘model’ and bit-part actress whose real name is Sandra, and who is endowed with rather more ambition than talent, made a huge play for him. She adjusted her minuscule dress to reveal an alarming amount of flesh and waited for Jools to leave Jamie’s side. She was patient, and she had to be, because the couple remained close for most of the evening. But when Jools was forced to answer the call of nature, Sandra knew it was her chance to pounce.
She undulated across to Jamie and got as close as she could and then started whispering some lively suggestions about how they might spend the next few minutes. She was direct and demanding and she made it colourfully clear that only he could satisfy her every need. Jamie’s expression hardly changed throughout the X-certificate suggestions and when Sandra paused for breath he smiled gently at her and said, ‘You must be joking, darling,’ before moving away.
‘He is just not interested in other women,’ said a friend. ‘He gets loads of offers. Some of them even more blatant than Sandra’s, if that is possible to imagine, and they are all politely rejected. I think he is more embarrassed than anything. He reckons it is a bit demeaning to the women and just a by-product of being on television. He said to me that he never had women coming up and wanting to sleep with him before he was on television. So he knows it is just the screen image they fancy, not him. To Jamie, it is about as bizarre as the lady old-age pensioners who reach out to grab his bottom when he is signing their copy of his book for them.’
He might appear to be the ultimate party animal with that flashing quick wit and bulging bank balance, but Jamie Oliver refuses to be slotted into predictable categories. Some passing friends tell him he should be out on the town with every available beautiful woman, but they don’t stay friends very long. Jamie loves Jools and his real friends understand and respect that. So, in putting his master plan for marriage into action, what really motivated the young millionaire was a desire to give his stunning young bride the most amazing day of her life.
‘Jamie knows he will only ever get married once, so he was absolutely determined to get it right,’ said a friend, who went to the ceremony. ‘He might seem all larky and Jack-the-lad and he knows that image goes down brilliantly on television. But there is a sensitive, thoughtful side to him as well, which viewers don’t ever get to see.
‘He hates cruelty and injustice of any sort. He is by no means a political animal. Although he was happy to cook for Tony Blair, he would certainly think twice about campaigning for him. Jamie’s beliefs are really more to do with a slightly old-fashioned concept of fairness. He does not understand why in a country as rich as Britain some people live lives of grinding poverty half-way up tower blocks that they are afraid to come out of for fear of getting mugged. But cooking is his chosen way of making everyone’s life that much more enjoyable and he concentrates on that rather than getting too distracted by politics.
‘On a strictly personal level, he has a very traditional attitude to life and, of course, one of the reasons he wants to get married now is because he and Jools very much want to have children before too much longer.’
As the year 2000 opened, Jamie was in his element. His television series was going from success to success with foreign sales swiftly following British acclaim. The Naked Chef was screened in a dozen countries, including Italy, which delighted the star. Planning his own marriage seemed to be the last piece in the jigsaw to make his life complete.
Jamie Oliver is a firm believer in the institution of marriage. He realises that he has been fortunate enough to grow up with a mother and father who have a very happy and fulfilling marriage and he has seen at first hand what a deeply enriching foundation for life that can provide. At the start of a new century, Jamie and Jools felt that the time was right for them.
But the big wedding of the Essex year almost went wrong even before it began, because Jamie’s mother mistakenly booked the wrong church on the wrong date! Jamie said, ‘She was so excited she rushed out and booked one of the churches in Clavering. Luckily we realised in time.’
The couple wanted to marry in nearby Rickling where his parents live, rather than in Clavering, site of The Cricketers, the pub where Jamie diced his first carrots under his father’s careful tuition.
The couple laughed off the blunder but Jamie’s mum was a little embarrassed. The whole family was so determined to make the day special she simply wanted to book the church as soon as possible. But the right church was fortunately still available and it was quickly reserved.
‘We were not able to arrange anything before now because last year we were just too busy,’ said Jamie. ‘And before that we just couldn’t afford it. We were always too skint.
‘I love Jools very much and marriage means a great deal to me. It is a very special thing and we are both ready to take our vows. Jools and I both come from good solid families, who believe in marriage, and it makes perfect sense to take the decision now. We have been going out for seven years so I think we are certain.’
In fact, Jamie has proposed to Jools many times in their relationship. Some three years earlier he popped the question when she was working as a waitress at a restaurant called Maxwell’s in London’s Hampstead. She accepted straight away but the couple were so hard up they both knew they would have to wait. Jamie says he had been looking forward to marrying Jools for years and ‘I just can’t wait to see her walk down the aisle in a wedding dress and veil.’
Jamie and Jools also shared the conviction that children would benefit from being born to parents who were happily living in wedlock. ‘I think it is fairer to bring up kids if you are married,’ said Jamie. ‘I would like to start on a family as soon as possible and I know Jools is keen to get cracking. I think we will make good parents. I would love a little four-year-old kid right now, but Jools has not wanted to have a child before now. Maybe now is the time and I am looking forward to it.’
Preparations were well under way long before the big day. Jamie had already made his wedding cake which was sitting in a cupboard under the stairs being fed regular slurps of alcohol which were to make it even more interesting. But with a few months to go before the big day, the menu had still to be finalised in detail. Jamie mused, ‘We’ll probably have a really fabulous antipasti, whatever is in season, with really good olive oil and some bread. I know I will probably get up at five or six and make a load of bread for 150. The main course will be roasted fish. I have decided to be spontaneous and have told my dad that as far as the food is concerned I am going to go to the market the day before to see what looks really good and fresh. It is driving him up the wall. I can’t tell you exactly what it is going to be but it will be something simple and will comprise the best quality ingredients money can buy. I am getting a couple of my boys down from London to oversee the preparation but generally it will be cooked by the team from my dad’s pub The Cricketers.
‘Dad has already planted these really special ratte pataters, so we’ll have those boiled with a little butter maybe and some dill from the garden and rocket, big bowls of salad, not wanky stuff.’
Jamie enthused, ‘It’s going to be a wild night. We’re getting married at our local church in the village of Rickling and from there we’ll walk back to the house, where we’re putting up a big marquee, eating ourselves stupid and the dancing all night. I am really hoping that the Chemical Brothers will be able to come to do some DJ’ing. I have done a deal with Tom. I have promised to cook at his wedding and in return he has promised to DJ at mine.
‘I have wanted to get married to Jools for years. She is the sexiest, coolest person I know and the only reason we didn’t get married years ago was that we couldn’t afford it.’
One of the most difficult problems for the wedding organisers was sorting out the guest list. Jamie admitted that he had had to be ‘a bit controversial’ with relatives and had ruled out anyone they hadn’t seen for five years or longer. And they had decided not to invite all of their parents’ friends. It would be mostly Jamie and Jools’s friends who kept the party going long into the night. To make matters even more complicated, Jamie said, ‘Another problem is that only half of the guests are coming to eat. A hundred are arriving later for the party and we have already got to get rid of 30 people from the dinner list.’
Viewers of The Naked Chef did get to see Jamie preparing a meal with the in-laws as they planned the big wedding. But he firmly drew the line at allowing anyone in to film their June nuptials. Jamie says, ‘This new TV series does show some really personal stuff. But we’ve got to stop at some point. And we have turned down all the magazine offers to come and photograph us. There’s no way we are selling the wedding in any way. We want it to be laid back and chilled and about us and our family and friends.’
Jamie was stunned by the size of the offers he received from assorted glossy magazines wanting exclusive rights to film the happy day. ‘They have offered us loads of cash,’ said Jamie. ‘Around £250,000. It is an immense amount, obscene money, and I’ll admit we find it tempting to take it. We probably can’t really afford to turn it down, but we are going to say “No” on a moral basis, because it’s tacky and naff.’
In fact, Jamie could have made much more than that, but once he had made his mind up he was not going to change it for even the most ludicrous offer.
Jamie sympathised with his friends Zoë Ball and Fatboy Slim because a magazine had managed to get hold of various photos of their wedding from one of the guests and had printed them with the sarcastic note that ‘the wedding would have been so much better if we’d done it’.
‘That was so ridiculous,’ said Jamie.
‘It’s funny, Jamie was really tough about this point,’ said a friend. ‘He is so accommodating with the press normally that I was surprised. And a quarter of a million pounds is an awful lot of cash to turn down. But he can afford it and he wanted the day to be absolutely perfect. He didn’t want to be beholden to anyone to have to pose up for “just one more, please” for any greasy photographer. And more than that, he told me later, after he’d had a drink or two, that the wedding was so special to him that he couldn’t bear the thought of anyone “owning” it. He said he knew he was only ever going to get married once and he knew he would always regret it if he sold the rights to what should be a wonderful personal family occasion to any magazine.’
Jamie even kept his stag night under control, although a photo of a pal mooning did creep into the tabloids. The Naked Chef certainly approved. Jamie says, ‘Moonies really make me laugh. It doesn’t matter how grumpy or sad I am feeling, if someone pulls a moonie, it make me laugh. Moonies make the world go round.’
Jamie and friends enjoyed a drink or two on a night out in Brighton in the Mash Tun pub and assorted other hostelries. Jamie escaped pretty lightly in the fun stakes just before he got married. His chums did attempt to clingfilm him to a lamppost for a wheeze but he escaped just in time and legged it.
On the big day, Jamie got up at the crack of dawn to bake bread for his own wedding. ‘We made up a new bread for the wedding,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘We rolled it out flat and rubbed it with three different flavours. We had the black of the olives, the green of smashed basil and the red of cherry tomatoes. We had wonderful salamis and the most amazing cheese. And I did just classic things that I have done over the past five years, like fresh cannellini beans braised slowly and then drizzled with good olive oil in a little herb vinegar and lots of parsley. And baby artichokes with boiled lemons, honey, roasted almonds and smashed thyme. It was all in bowls, and when I was sitting on the top table, I looked round the marquee. People were pouring stuff, ripping bread, passing olive oil, and every table was like that which was just how I wanted it to be.’
Jamie insisted on paying for the £50,000 wedding in full himself. For Jamie, it was like a present from him and Jools to both of their families. He is so grateful for the upbringing his parents gave him that he wanted to give them the sort of day he knew they would both really love. He and Jools organised everything like a military operation.
Jools arrived 15 minutes late from her home in nearby Saffron Walden in a 1951 Cadillac, followed by the bridesmaids – her sisters Lisa and Nathalie and best friend Nicola Duguid – in a pale green 1955 Buick Roadmaster that had been hired specially for the day.
Jamie waited nervously for his bride to arrive and confided to well-wishers, ‘This is more nerve-racking than cooking for Tony Blair.’
The beautiful bridesmaids escorted Jools up the aisle. Best man was Jamie’s best friend and fellow chef Ben O’Donoghue. Jamie walked the 200 yards from the family home to the church and later surprised his bride by organising a serenade from an Elvis Presley impersonator who sang ‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You’ after the traditional service at the thirteenth-century All Saint’s Church. Even the vicar, Reverend Anthony Lindsay, joined in the song. Wedding guest Doreen Winterflood said, ‘It was the most laid-back wedding I have ever been to.’
And Juliette’s proud mother Felicity said, ‘It was lovely, so relaxing. The service was very Jamie and Juliette.’
The only embarrassment for Jamie was when his middle name of Trevor was read out by the vicar. His friends in the congregation were distinctly heard to giggle. ‘I had managed to keep it secret all my life until my wedding,’ winced Jamie afterwards.
Jools wore a strapless white dress designed by Neil Cunningham with ankle-strapped white stiletto shoes designed by Jimmy Choo. Jamie was dressed in a sky-blue corduroy suit by Paul Smith – who was among the wedding guests – and a pink open-necked shirt, purple socks and grey snakeskin loafers.
Jools walked up the aisle on the arm of Jamie’s father and afterwards the groom happily admitted that his heart missed a beat when he saw his breathtaking bride. A friend who was at the wedding said, ‘After everything that has happened to him in the last few years, it was still unbelievable the effect the wedding had on Jamie. He so wanted everything to be perfect. The food had to be superlative, of course, and it was, but Jamie was so concerned that everything else ran smoothly as well. And loads of old friends from school were there. They are very important to Jamie. He likes a bit of the high life, of course, but he’s often said that he’d rather have a meal and a drink with old friends than a slap-up banquet with Posh and Becks or anyone famous.’
‘Fame is crap, mate,’ he once said with typical economy. ‘The press people are mainly fine but, after a while, the endless intrusion does get in the way of your life. You have to carve out some pieces that nobody gets near, where you can just be yourself and not worry about whether somebody is going to ask just one more question or want to take one more blasted photograph.’
As Jamie and Jools came out of the church after the ceremony, Jamie gave a thumbs-up sign to his waiting fans and admirers outside and joked, ‘The service was beautiful. I feel good. We had good fun. I’m bloody happy. We’re off for a kebab.’
Jamie was delighted to hit exactly the right fashion note. He said, ‘Jools had been completely secretive about the dress, so I thought I’d better look a bit sharp and had my suit made up by Paul Smith. I’ve never had one made before. The brief was 60s pimp – sky-blue corduroy, mate, with turn-back cuffs, which sounds weird but looks absolutely pukka. No tie. Very Quadrophenia,’ he added in a reference to the cult ’60s film about Mods.
And on top of the wedding plans, Jamie had arranged a three-week honeymoon to Italy which took some organising as they were also deeply involved in buying their first proper flat together at the time. ‘It was just the time that everything came together for me,’ said Jamie. ‘I don’t mind spending money on Jools and my family. That’s why I work so hard. I am so lucky to have enjoyed this success but what is the point of leaving money in the bank? I believe it is here to be enjoyed while you’re young.’
‘I am really looking forward to going to Italy,’ said Jamie. ‘I can’t wait. I’m going to Italy for three weeks for a bit of beef jerky, some good tucker, some fresh air, bit of sunshine, and to put a bun in the oven. Know what I mean! I have never had a two-week holiday in my life before and now we are having three weeks. It is going to be incredible, although I probably won’t know what to do with myself after ten days.’
The lease on the two-bedroom flat the couple had been sharing in West London had just run out and Jamie and Jools had just bought a new house in the same area. ‘It is a shame in a way, we have just got the flat looking nice,’ says Jamie. ‘When we first moved in it was a dump and the flat downstairs was a doss house. It was full of tramps and it really used to stink. But luckily they have moved out and we have done it up nicely with loads of decent furniture and appliances. It is a shame to move on but the new place is going to be brilliant, even though it does need loads of work. It is a little cottage and we are both very excited with it.’
When Jamie married Juliette Norton, his school sweetheart, it was, according to several survivors, a vintage Essex bash with 140 guests, including half the county’s pub trade, and The Chemical Brothers, helicoptered in from the Glastonbury pop festival at the groom’s expense.
The food was unsurprisingly delicious by all accounts. The menu began with an appetising Bresaola made from organic topsides of beef and salami with artichokes with lemon and almonds, smashed-up thyme and honey, served with marinated olives, plates of plum tomatoes, grilled baby zucchini, red peppers and aubergine, with ripped basil and olive oil. The main course was wild salmon stuffed with herbs, onion and lemon, basted with olive oil and juices while cooking and served with a green salad and ratte potatoes tossed in butter and fennel tops.
For dessert, Jamie dished up organic strawberries and raspberries picked from the farm down the road the day before the wedding ‘so they feel like they’re still warm from the sun and have that stunning just-pulled-up flavour’, served with beaten mascapone cream with vanilla and sugar.
When they married, Jools’s father was thoughtfully remembered by an apple at every place setting on the tables at the reception because he had always called his beloved daughter the ‘apple of my eye’. Jamie’s grandfather Ted had also sadly died of a stroke and, as a mark of respect and love for both men, Jamie and Jools decided to use their big day to help stroke sufferers. Instead of wedding presents, guests were asked to give donations to the Stroke Association.
Jools explained, ‘We both feel very strongly that young people should be more aware of the devastating effects a stroke can have. We have come to realise just how little is known about strokes, especially by people of our age. It is not seen as a trendy illness like breast cancer, but we believe it deserves just as much attention.’
The couple were pleased to forego wedding gifts to make their heartfelt point. ‘We already have enough pots and pans for the kitchen,’ said Jools.
The couple have spent much time and effort supporting stroke appeals ever since and Jamie was very proud to be asked to open the new stroke unit at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge last year. He said at the time, ‘Not a lot of people know how frustrating it is to have a stroke and how disruptive it is for the family. It is very underrated compared with things like cancer or AIDS, but now I am in a position where I can make a difference and help to make other people aware of what it is like.’
It was a day of high emotion and even Jamie’s father was in tears. ‘My dad is hard in business but underneath he is soppy,’ says Jamie. ‘Jools has taken him on as if he was her own father, which is exactly what I wanted. My dad is touched that she has embraced him so much. I think she needs it as well. She has missed a father figure.’
The wedding reception was held in a marquee in Jamie’s parents’ garden. After the fabulous food, Jamie’s father made a speech. ‘He spoke about Maurice and of the time he first really met him which was at Jools’s sister’s wedding,’ said Jamie. ‘Dad said that when everyone was running around and kind of ignoring Maurice, he saw me kneel down and joke with him and be quite touchy-feely. He said that sometimes a son can teach a father something and he wished he could have been more like that with Maurice. My dad’s lips were quivering and the whole room was in tears. I was just staring at my feet as I always do when I’m feeling something deeply. I find it hard to cry.
‘But then Dad completely changed. We had gone through the emotional bit with people crying and suddenly he said, “Now I am going to take the piss out of Jamie.” And two of my mates carried in this 6ft door. My dad had saved my toy cupboard door from when I was a kid. That was when we moved from living in the pub to our own house. It was covered in pictures of naked women. It was the classic Essex boy adolescence and I must say I haven’t changed all that much. I’m still pathetic. There were all the pictures of breasts stuck together that looked like rolling hills. Dad said, “When I asked Jamie what they were he said, ‘It’s wonderful countryside, Dad.’” Everybody was laughing at my expense and Dad went on to describe in detail everything on that door.
‘Afterwards, I got up to thank Jools and Mum and Dad. I thanked everybody in the room, really, because we only invited people who were special to me and Jools.’
The day finished with a lively disco and a fireworks display at 12.30am. ‘Like most people, we had our hefty arguments about the whole wedding vibe,’ said Jamie. ‘I started saying, “Whatever you like, darling,” and craving a quiet life. For dancing we had a list of tacky romantic tunes to keep Jools happy, but if it had been down to me it would have been The Prodigy and stuff. But, like I say, it was, “Whatever you like, darling.”’
They enjoyed a blissful honeymoon together in Italy but the success of The Naked Chef is such that it is almost impossible for Jamie to escape completely. The honeymoon was briefly interrupted at one point when even in a remote and tiny Italian village a fan spotted the Naked Chef and ran up waving a book to be autographed.