Jamie Oliver Q&A

Good Food Revolution sent the following questions to Jamie Oliver in anticipation of his Toronto appearance  with Lynn Crawford at Roy Thomson Hall, November 22, where he will talk about the principles behind Jamie's Food Revolution, just released in North America.

GFR: What has the financial crisis of the last 12 months meant for your restaurant businesses? And what has it meant for your charitable foundation, Fifteen?

Jamie Oliver: I'm happy to say that both Fifteen and my Jamie's Italian chain of restaurants have been doing really well. Fifteen does well because I think people know it will be great food and also that they're helping young people at the same time. Jamie's Italian still has queues of people outside pretty much every day because it's fantastic food and great value.

GFR: Has the financial crisis affected your ability to convey your message of a good food revolution?

JO: Not really. If anything it's encouraged people to try and get into home cooking because it works out cheaper than takeaways and ready meals so long as you have a bit of knowledge - which is what the Food Revolution book gives.

GFR: If you could get a great number of people to change one thing about how or what they eat, what would it be?

JO: I'd get more people to cook delicious, balanced meals using fresh ingredients. I'm not using the word "healthy" because I'm more interested in balance. If people want to have a takeaway once a month - fine. If people want to make a creamy, cheese filled macaroni once and a while - great. Just balance it up with more nutritious stuff for every day.

Click here to find out about Jamie Oliver's Toronto appearance, and visit jamieoliver.com to find out more.

Fifteen Foundation

On a sunny October morning, I am wandering around an East London neighbourhood looking for the house that Jamie built. After a false start, I round a corner and there it is, 15 Westland Place, home of Fifteen the foundation and the restaurant of the same name that Jamie Oliver mortgaged his house to found seven years ago.

Inside I am met by Angela Morris, Fifteen's marketing and communications manager, who brings me a perfectly made cappuccino. We sit in the sun-lit bright pasta bar that Oliver has opened on top of his subterranean fine dining restaurant. Angela hired on to the project as it was coming together as a temporary post and has been part of the organisation ever since, watching it grow to outposts in Amsterdam, Melbourne and Cornwall.

Morris knows how it works as well anyone and I ask her about the trainees: where do they find the young would be chefs who spend a year training here? She quickly explains that they must be 18 to 24, living in London and essentially have "no prospects": they cannot be in school or in any way employed. Many are just out of prison, or drug rehabilitation or both. In fact, the selection process is tricky since the ideal candidate must be nearly hopeless, yet possessed of just enough competency that there's a reasonable chance they can make it through the program. Interestingly, Morris adds, the ambition to be a chef is not a prerequisite - it's the desire to change their life that counts. Cooking is the means to that end.

The Fifteen program costs £30,000 per trainee (roughly $CAN 50,000), and includes a college certificate (the new trainees were at class the day I visited) as well as intense counselling and social support. Morris explains the pasta bar is an effort to maximise the earning potential of the foundation as it can serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Though she adds that Fifteen, the fine dining restaurant, has managed to weather the current financial crisis despite the overall dip in restaurant sales.

Do people wonder about their food being cooked by young convicts, I wonder? Morris gives me a patient look and calmly explains that no plate ever, ever leaves the pass at Fifteen without being checked by the extensive professional staff and the wouldn't have been in business for seven years if the food wasn't at its best. Point taken.

Find out more about Fifteen at fifteen.net, or visit Fifteen's YouTube Channel.