“If I spent every day reading reviews from journalists about me, I wouldn’t be the happy chappie that you know. I’d be sitting in the corner crying, worrying about my ego and being mortally wounded.” Chef, restaurateur, author and entrepreneur Jamie Oliver, in Dublin for a brief visit on Thursday, is sanguine about the succession of negative reviews that were published in the Irish media last autumn soon after the opening of Chequer Lane, his restaurant on Exchequer Street in Dublin 2.
“This is the celebrity restaurant that no one ordered,” said Irish Times restaurant critic Corinna Hardgrave, who was unimpressed by the coffee-rubbed lamb chops, in particular. “I have never tried this crime against lamb before and I don’t intend to again,” she wrote.
“Our experience was disappointing,” said Katy McGuinness in the Independent, whose verdict on her starter was that it resembled “a dull version of the mushrooms on toast you might make for your WFH lunch.” In the Business Post, Jordan Mooney’s review was similarly hard hitting. “Various issues with my gluten-free requests, combined with food being late, not appearing at all, and being underwhelming when it did, made for a pretty poor experience.”
Not quite the Céad Míle Fáilte and welcome to Dublin city centre that Oliver might have expected for his second Irish venture. Chequer Lane and Jamie’s Italian in Dundrum are both run in partnership with restaurateur Gerry Fitzpatrick.
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Preparing to welcome guests to a celebratory lunch on Thursday to thank his many Irish food and drink suppliers, Oliver says he doesn’t take media criticism personally, and admits that he did not read the reviews. “No, no, no, no,” he says emphatically, when I ask.
That task falls to Ed Loftus, the Jamie Oliver Group’s global restaurant director. “Ed reads them and we’ll go through the list. I have a very robust team that look at all kinds of reviews, whether they’re well written or not, whether they’re by respected people or not, and probably more so the comments online, written by customers. We don’t ignore them. We don’t mock them. We just work through them.”
He is mildly irked by the fact that the reviews were done so soon after Chequer Lane opened, in early October last year. “I’m an easy target. If you’re not as well known as me, you might not get seen for six months, when you’ve ironed out all your creases. Everyone reviewed us within weeks, some within days. I don’t think that’s particularly fair for any business. But that’s all part of being famous.”
We’ve just changed the head chef and we’re really, really busy
— Jamie Oliver
Fame is a currency he knows the value of. “I wish we could do slow launches. But I’ve never had that; unless I just didn’t put my name anywhere near it, but that’s pretty hard to do as well. Sadly, when Jamie Oliver comes around it’s a strength and a weakness,” he says with a wry laugh.
Being reviewed soon after opening is something he has become used to, however. “I had it exactly the same with Barbecoa [his London steakhouses]. I had everyone in four days.” So he should have been prepared for the early media attention in Dublin, then? There were problems getting a team together, he says. “Those first couple of months, it’s like a theatre show, and getting those rhythms right, getting people really confident in their roles, it always takes time.”
[ Jamie Oliver: ‘When I’m in Ireland, I feel at home’Opens in new window ]
He says that the slew of critical reviews last autumn has not negatively impacted the business. “We’ve just changed the head chef and we’re really, really busy.” Sebastian Scheer, who has worked in Dublin for 23 years, and has Browne’s Brasserie and Peploes on his cv, took over the kitchen a month ago. “I wanted to do a greatest hits of comfort food, through the lens of Irish produce. That’s where the brief still is, and we’ll just keep finessing,” Oliver says.
It’s not all queues out the door though. “We’d like to do a little bit more earlier in the week for lunch. But most of this street doesn’t open at lunchtime, 70 per cent of this street is closed at lunchtime for food, but we’re not.”
It’s his first visit to the restaurant since it opened for business in October. There has been a mixed reaction from customers to the fairly eclectic decor, but he likes what he sees. “We do all the design work in London, and work with Gerry’s team and Gerry’s architect. I’ve always been one for wallpaper, and pictures. I love these free-standing sofas, which are kind of booth-like, they feel really nice, and I like the cushions.”
So has it all turned out the way he wanted it? “I’m really pleased with it. I’ll be doing like, notes, as I always do, but nothing to lose any sleep about.”
