Jamie Oliver: ‘When I’m in Ireland, I feel at home’

In the shadow of the giant Emirates stadium in north London, just off the Holloway Road, there’s a Jamie Oliver sign hanging outside a smart red brick and glass panelled building, and groups of people are tucking in to lunch at tables in the courtyard. Inside, food is being served from a long bar counter in front of a seriously smart professional kitchen. The stylishly converted light industrial space has all the buzz and energy of a hip eatery.

But this isn’t a restaurant, it’s the headquarters of the Jamie Oliver Group and workday home to its 126 staff. The chef and entrepreneur’s books are created here, food shows are filmed, there’s a cookery school open to the public, and deals are struck in a series of meeting rooms each named after a famous food writer or TV presenter.

Arriving early for my appointment, I’m ensconced in the Ruth Rogers room, while out in the open-plan office space, Oliver is eating lunch with a colleague. One-pan roast beef from his latest book, One, is on the menu as it is the official publication day for the title. The meeting room’s shelves are lined with awards and trophies, including the distinctive Bafta mask. There are neat piles of books artistically displayed, and there is a fresh dahlia in a bud vase on the desk here and throughout the building.

We’ve had incredible successes, and we’ve had failure, and grown up in the industry. I think you can only be rounded when you’ve had the best of the best and the worst of the worst, and we’ve had that

The former stationery factory, which became the group’s HQ in 2017, is the most stylish – and whimsical – office building I’ve been in and I’m grateful for the quiet moment to take it all in. Over in a corner, there’s the storm trooper costume Oliver wore when he was an extra in Star Wars. A mint green vintage Pashley bicycle is parked up, with its trailer converted to a bar, and there’s an area given over to the licensing side of the business, with shelves stacked with merchandise, from kitchen equipment to food, bearing the Jamie Oliver label (and a corner dedicated to his wife Jules’s childrenswear designs for Next). There are giant murals, and artworks and photographs, many chosen personally by Oliver, on the walls. He even chose the wallpaper that pops up on some of the walls.

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A staff member, reminding him that he has strictly only 30 minutes with me, heralds Oliver’s arrival. He looks lean and fit and healthy, a carry-over from summer holidays in Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. “I had the most beautiful summer. I got a tan for the first time, and quality time with the family,” he says.

[ First Look: Inside Chequer Lane, Jamie Oliver’s new Dublin city centre restaurant ]

His family are “really, really good”, although Jules has been suffering from long Covid. “It’s kind of like a flu that won’t go away. Apparently there are 200 different symptoms,” he says. “Jules is fine, but you know, we both want to be back to where we were two years ago. So we’ll do whatever we can.”

He’s accompanied by Ed Loftus, a close friend and confidant who is the company’s global restaurant group director. Loftus, who has worked with Oliver for 15 years and lives near him in Essex, has family connections with Ireland and the Mount Loftus estate in Co Kilkenny. He has been a regular visitor to Ireland in recent weeks, as the company prepares to open its second restaurant in Dublin in partnership with Gerry Fitzpatrick.

I feel like I’m rounded now, as a restaurateur and a chef

Chequer Lane by Jamie Oliver, a 100-seat newcomer on booming Exchequer Street, will open next week, and will be “a one-off” for the group, celebrating seasonal Irish food and drink.

Oliver has been interested in expanding his holdings in Ireland for many years, and had originally planned to launch the now shuttered Barbecoa brand in Dublin, before losing out on a site on Grafton Street. “As an Essex boy, when I’m in Ireland, I feel at home, because you know, I feel the energy coming out of Essex is not dissimilar to the energy I’ve had in Ireland. It’s enthusiastic, you know, love life, love people, love family.”

Oliver and Fitzpatrick are also partners in Jamie’s Italian in Dundrum, which was not affected by the calamities that befell the Jamie Oliver Group in 2019, when all but three of the 25 UK restaurants were forced to close, with the loss of 1,000 jobs.

[ Jamie Oliver: ‘I tried everything. We ran out of money. It’s as simple as that’ ]

“We had seven years of multiple restaurants with queues [for a table] four days a week, like 100m down the road, and we’ve gone from that to losing everything. I feel like I’m rounded now, as a restaurateur and a chef,” Oliver says. “We’ve done a lot of different things. We’ve had incredible successes, and we’ve had failure, and grown up in the industry. I think you can only be rounded when you’ve had the best of the best and the worst of the worst, and we’ve had that.”

He blames the implosion of his UK restaurant empire on spiralling rent and rates, and despite making several million pounds of his own money available to prop up the business, it wasn’t enough. “I had about 10 more tricks I could have pulled to survive, but they wouldn’t have been on brand. And what does that mean? It means like, we couldn’t have gone from sustainable fish to unsustainable fish, because it was half price. I don’t think my customers want that.”

This dream is probably five years old

Oliver still hasn’t made a return to the restaurant scene in the UK, although there is talk about a new life for his original Fifteen brand, which offered chef careers to young people who were otherwise unable to access formal training. It served modern Mediterranean food at prices way beyond the Jamie’s Italian menu. “There are rumblings of potentially bringing it back. We’re kind of working out what does 0.2 look like. You’ve got to do things carefully, don’t you?” he says, sounding like a man who has had his fingers burnt.

[ Jamie Oliver: Food to ‘make you feel like you’ve had a big hug’ ]

Outside the UK, however, the restaurant group is growing, and the Dublin project has been in the mix for years. “This dream is probably five years old. With any good site, there’s always ducking and diving, and the merging of one partner and another, and then licensing and all sorts of things. So from our point of view, we’ve just remained patient to get this site, because it’s a beautiful site, on a beautiful street.”

Chequer Lane by Jamie Oliver was first announced in early 2019, with a planned opening date of April 2020 that Covid managed to delay. It is part of a growing international portfolio, with restaurant partnerships in Australia, Bali, India, the Middle East and Europe.

“We closed a few during Covid, like everybody, but where we are today is about 70 sites,” Ed Loftus says.

“We’ve opened more than we closed, yeah, which is good,” the boss chimes in. Rapid expansion is now on the cards, according to Loftus. “This year, we’ve opened 20 new restaurants. And next year, we have the same plan to open another 20 sites.”

I’ve wanted to be in Dublin as long ago as 12 years ago. Why wouldn’t we?

“And we’re very much solely focused now on partnerships,” Oliver adds.

Oliver has made no secret of his stance on Brexit, so perhaps it is no surprise that his business has looked beyond UK borders in recent years. “I’ve wanted to be in Dublin as long ago as 12 years ago. Why wouldn’t we? It’s close to home. It’s got a bounty of ingredients and a brilliant vibe and energy. And you lucky people, you’re still in Europe, and I’m still bereft that we’re not in Europe.”

Brexit “feels like a bad divorce”, he says. “I have no problem with democracy or the idea of the result, it’s just that I don’t think it was based on truth. And I think truth is an ingredient that’s in short supply these days. Of course, everyone’s got the right to have a view, for better or for worse, but I think the biggest shame is just the fact that the lack of truth was allowed to percolate everywhere. And yeah, it’s a bit of a nightmare.”

The fallout from Brexit has resulted in a big labour shortage in the UK service industry, and the Jamie Oliver Group is feeling the effects. “Yeah, the rhetoric made them feel like they were unwanted. And now every restaurant in this country is 30 per cent underemployed, probably. I mean, they’re recalibrating, but they’re recalibrating by making their offer simpler, less cooking, less prep done on site and more centralisation.”

Chequer Lane is where me and Ed want to go and eat. It’s almost like we’re being very selfish

This is the opposite of what he and Fitzpatrick are aiming for in Dublin. The menu is composed of dishes featuring top-quality ingredients that the restaurant team in London spent a year sourcing and testing. “There’s only so many tricks you can pull. But the first thing is, if you’re going to be ingredient-led, there’s not as many tricks. I can get crab, like half the price, quarter the price, in one phone call. But it won’t be live, freshly picked.”

He says he wants the space to be comfortable, above all, and the food to be about “really wholesome, delicious ingredients treated fairly simply”. Ideas for some of the dishes came from the food served at The Cricketers, the Essex pub his parents recently sold after 46 years.

“Chequer Lane is where me and Ed want to go and eat. It’s almost like we’re being very selfish. I think this is probably why we’ve been very patient, this is not normal, like the five-year thing, but it does mean we’re really committed.”

[ ‘I’ve had my butt kicked for the past three years’: Jamie Oliver on fame and failure ]

Despite the considerable time spent planning the restaurant’s menu, he says it is still a work in progress. “We’ve opened enough restaurants to know that we have an intention, and it’s good if you can stick with that. But you’ve just got to get feedback immediately from the customers, and Gerry will be talking to everyone within an inch of their life in the first several months, and we probably will be reconfiguring the menu based on that feedback.”

He describes the staff as the “magic ingredient” in any restaurant, and is very clear on what he expects from the team in Dublin. “We don’t want subservient service. We just want enthusiastic, quintessentially brilliant Irish service, which you know, you guys are great at anyway.”

This is definitely a one-off. And I think we love it for that

Hospitality staff shortages are hitting Ireland as well as the UK, and Oliver’s recruitment campaign is: “Be kind, in whatever way, make them feel wanted is a good start, and show gratitude. Make it a nice place to work, you know, because staff is the hardest thing, and retaining staff.”

Despite the considerable investment Oliver’s company has made in its latest Dublin opening, the concept won’t be replicated in a roll-out of clones. “I don’t think we’ll be opening any more, but we’d definitely like to do more in Ireland, for sure. We’ll get this working beautifully and hopefully settling down and see what happens,” Oliver says.

“If we get it right, with my enthusiasm and Gerry’s, it should be just a nice, beautiful, classic town restaurant, and it should be there in 20, 30 years. This is definitely a one-off. And I think we love it for that.”