There’s no shortage of celebrity chefs launching their own restaurants, but cheeky-chopped TV chef Jamie Oliver has given the whole thing a distinctive flavour by staffing his new kitchen with teenage wannabes plucked from obscurity – and filming the process.
"I've had an easy life," says Jamie, who’s invested £800,000 in his new brainchild. "Some of these haven't had an easy life, but they have a passion for learning about food."
His restaurant’s called Fifteen – reflecting both its 15 Westland Place, London address and the number of novices who’ll be manning the pans as it opens this week. The aspiring chefs were picked nine months ago from a motley field of 1,000 hopefuls, and the whole process has been captured on film for a five-part Channel 4 documentary which starts tonight.
Jamie's Kitchen shows the journey of the finalists – some of whom were unemployed or homeless and none of whom had cooking experience – through three months’ training at Jamie's alma mater, Westminster Kingsway College, and Hammersmith College. Next, the youngsters received courses from Jamie himself and then went on to do work experience with exclusive eateries such as The Ivy and Le Caprice.
Though viewers can get a taste of Jamie’s make-or-break approach on the box, Fifteen is only serving up to friends and supporters over the next few days, and won’t open its doors to the general public for at least another week.
All profits from the restaurant will go to Cheeky Chops, a charity which Jamie - who hopes to turn out 30 fully-fledged chefs a year if his recipe for success works out - set up to run the training programme for his rookie team.
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