Jamie Oliver does not allow his name to be used by a company lightly or without getting fully involved in the project. Jamie had turned down out of hand an approach to pose naked with a can of Coca-Cola and to promote Nescafé. But when he agreed to become the new ‘face’ of Sainsbury’s, he made sure there was a full and frank exchange of views in June 2000 with the supermarket chain’s distinguished chief executive Sir Peter Davies.
Jamie said afterwards, ‘Sir Peter spent five minutes telling me about his vision for the future, then I said to him, “This is my baby, too, you know. Your hassle is my hassle.”’
The businessman smiled genially and realised that there was more to the young chef than his high-spirited television image.
The cynics were swift to scoff, but Jamie was being honest when he insisted that he agreed to get involved with Sainsbury’s so he could influence the giant grocer for the good, to improve the quality of its food. ‘I didn’t do it for the money,’ said Jamie. ‘I did because it gave me a chance to be creative and proactive.’
The opportunity to encourage a supermarket to offer better food – not to mention the lure of around £1 million – seemed too good a chance to miss. ‘We’re together for the next two years on this one – unless I get on his nerves or he gets on mine,’ he says of Sir Peter. ‘And I don’t think that’s going to happen.’
Jamie was frustrated that his local Sainsbury’s did not provide all the ingredients for his recipes so he thought by getting directly involved he could improve things. Jamie agreed to front a series of adverts as well as to develop new recipes for the supermarket chain over a two-year deal.
Part of his role – as he sees it – will be to persuade Sainsbury’s to sell more organic food. He is very keen on all that organic malarkey. ‘As a chef, ingredients are everything,’ he says in his high-speed vocal style. ‘If you’re a car mechanic and you’re passionate about it, you go for classic cars, Ferraris; you’re not going to be servicing a Skoda. There’s no turn-on from that.’
The Sainsbury’s adverts put much more work into his busy schedule. The first one was filmed during an all-night session at a London branch just before Jamie got married. How does he manage?
‘Chefs have always worked long hours,’ he shrugged. He says he is hyperactive, which is just as well. Despite all the temptations of that lovely grub, he is a good 6ft and as lean as he was at 18.
But the high-profile link with Sainsbury’s was not without its problems. Jamie was helped into the headlines at a BBC press launch by outspoken Clarissa Dickson-Wright. The surviving half of the Two Fat Ladies attracted press attention when she started spelling out her case against supermarkets and the relationship they have with struggling British agriculture. She said, ‘I don’t sell out – like certain chefs. I have turned down hundreds of thousands of pounds. My attitude has always been resolutely anti-supermarket.’
Jamie explained that he was also a great supporter of the crucial growers at the sharp end of the industry. Jamie said, ‘I do not buy from Sainsbury’s for my restaurant. For any chef, supermarkets are like a factory. I buy from specialist growers, organic suppliers and farmers.’
Jamie explained that he advised Sainsbury’s on organic suppliers, sourcing chickens and how meat should be hung. But he was not responsible for every nuance of their policy. And Sainsbury’s were clearly anxious to calm the situation. A spokesman said, ‘We have an excellent relationship with Jamie and supermarkets don’t generally supply restaurants, so there is nothing unusual there.’
Jamie’s jokey commercials were highly effective, even if they did create the impression that he was hardly off the television. And they were to spark another sharp exchange of views later.
In April 2001, Jamie’s highly successful advertising campaign for the supermarket chain upset the BBC when the commercials clashed with his television series. Sainsbury’s were forced to reschedule some of their adverts after it was revealed that a secret agreement had been struck between the company and the BBC to avoid being transmitted on the same evening. The BBC were up in arms when they saw Jamie extolling the virtues of Sainsbury’s Blue Parrot Café range of children’s meals while the repeats of The Naked Chef were running. The BBC seemed to be harking back to the broadcasting attitudes of a bygone age when they said viewers would be ‘confused’ to see such a popular figure promoting products on one channel while hosting a cookery programme on another.
An unnamed BBC source complained pompously that the clash undermined the integrity of The Naked Chef because, to many people, the kitchen in the adverts looks very similar to the one used in the series. The adverts became like an extension to the programme which was the view which did little to endear Jamie to the BBC, especially when the supermarket chain explained that the clash was the fault of the Corporation. Sainsbury’s insisted that they had an agreement with the BBC that the adverts would not be transmitted at the same time as the series repeats on the understanding that they received schedules ten weeks in advance of transmission. The BBC failed to provide the necessary notice in time and the company had gone ahead and booked adverts. In the event, Sainsbury’s did agree to move some adverts but they were reluctant to lose money over any changes.
Jamie’s characteristic honesty got him into the headlines when he cheerfully admitted that he didn’t always shop at Sainsbury’s himself. Journalists cheerfully swept on to the attack with sneering pieces about Jamie landing ‘face-first in the fettuccini’. But Jamie was unruffled. His relationship with Sainsbury’s did not mean he had to pledge his life to the supermarket chain. He still had a mind of his own about some of their products. And, unwilling to play the media game, he kept his integrity intact by spelling out his own personal food-buying policy. He said frankly that he was no big fan of the huge ‘factory-scale’ buying of the larger retailers and that he bought mainly from carefully selected specialist growers, organic suppliers and farmers.
Sainsbury’s wisely stepped back from any prospect of a dispute and pointed out that Jamie was speaking about food which he bought for his restaurant. Sainsbury’s said they did not normally supply restaurants so there was no problem.
In any case, there are plenty of precedents in which the rich and famous don’t always use the products they advertise. A few days earlier, the golf superstar Tiger Woods had confessed that he didn’t actually play with the ball he is paid $1 million to endorse. But then the balls he actually uses are so specialised that they are not even available to the general public. Ordinary golfers would, in any case, struggle to control Woods’s ball because it requires a special kind of talent. The fans know that they can take or leave the advice they receive from their heroes. The supporters of Manchester United golden boy David Beckham were certainly not disenchanted when, soon after collecting a huge fee from Brylcreem, he treated himself to a skinhead haircut.
Jamie knew that such microscopic scrutiny of his every remark was certain to create headlines but he refused to worry about it. ‘I never wanted to be a politician,’ he laughed to a friend. ‘I say what I honestly feel at the time and if people want to get excited about it then that is up to them. I couldn’t give a flying stuff.’
The Sainsbury’s ads featuring Jamie, as well as friends and family, have been a huge success and he is in the middle of a two-year contract with them. Sainsbury’s are also sponsors of a Happy Days tour which starts in Cambridge at the Corn Exchange and then moves on to the Hammersmith Apollo and then to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Jamie plans the ground-breaking events as an action-packed two-hour show which will feature him demonstrating recipes followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. Jamie says, ‘I’ll be doing some funky stuff that has never been seen before in a cookery show,’ and he promises that there will be thousands of pounds’ worth of prizes to be won.
Sainsbury’s are delighted with the link with such a popular personality and they are swamped with requests for Jamie to appear at schools and old people’s homes. Especially successful among the ads were Jumbo Fish Fingers from the Blue Parrot Café range, a range of products specifically targeted at children. Thanks to the ad, the fish fingers became a top-selling line.
Jamie took on another lucrative new role when he was appointed consultant chef to Monte’s, the uppercrust private members’ club in London’s Sloane Street which decided to open its door to the public at lunchtime. His former River Café colleague Ben O’Donoghue is head chef and together they have transformed the menus and mood of Monte’s restaurant. Jamie has insisted on a typically no-nonsense style of cooking which cleverly combines the best of British with Mediterranean influences.
‘I don’t actually own the restaurant, but hopefully next year I will open a restaurant, probably with a partner, but we need to find a site first. You can open really small, but if it’s really good food you can be really famous and really busy quickly. There are still not that many good people out there. My place won’t be mega expensive but not inexpensive, but that is because I want to work with good ingredients.’
Jamie is a great believer in giving value for money and he gets furious when he finds restaurants or hotels charging a lot for poor service. Jamie and Jools had a night in one of London’s swankiest hotels to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. It was a wonderful occasion, right up until the moment they went down to breakfast.
‘It was terrible,’ remembers Jamie. They were presented with cheap old button mushrooms that had been boiled in a huge pan and came out white with all flavour carefully removed. ‘Talk about rubber city,’ said Jamie. ‘I thought I was chewing a wine gum.’
Jamie loves scrambled eggs and it is such a simple, basic dish he can’t understand why so many establishments seem to find it so difficult to prepare. He gets angry when his eggs are so solid they stay in the shape of the serving spoon.