Jamie Oliver’s humbling interview

When Jamie Oliver burst onto the scene in the late 1990s, his star ascended with astonishing speed. The young chef quickly established a media empire through television programs and a string of successful cookbooks. Not content to limit himself to being a TV host, he tackled childhood obesity and worked to improve school lunches.

It seemed as though Oliver was unstoppable. He opened a string of restaurants, both high-end and chains, that spanned the globe. However, Oliver ended up stretching himself too thin, and the empire began to unravel. In a recent documentary, he talked about coping with the failure of his restaurants, which went into administration earlier this year.

Oliver admitted that he was among those who felt he was unstoppable, saying that “We got cocky, we thought anything we did would work.” The hardest part of the collapse of his restaurant empire was not being able to properly notify his employees, he says. “Sadly you can’t practically give employees notice that you are about to make them redundant in administration,” he explained.  The chef admits that he made mistakes like opening grand scale restaurants when the dining public preferred smaller spaces.

The documentary, titled Jamie Oliver: The Naked Chef Bares All, aired on Channel 4 last Wednesday.