''Jamie's Kitchen'' is a five-part British

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

television series that aired on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

from 5 November to 10 December 2002. It follows chef

Jamie Oliver Jamie Trevor Oliver Order of the Star of Italy, OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English celebrity chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and o ...

as he attempts to train a group of 15 unemployed youths, who will—if they complete the course—be offered jobs at Oliver's new restaurant Fifteen. The series was executive produced by Peter Moore for

Talkback Productions Talkback Productions, commonly simplified to just Talkback (formerly known as Talkback-UK from 2003 to 2006), was a British television production company established in 1981 by comedy duo Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. History Talkback was so ...

, and has since spawned several others along similar lines.

Original show

Of the original 15 cooks, five went on to secure cooking careers. Elisa Roche (the only girl to graduate), Ralph Johnson, Tim Siadatan, Ben Arthur and Warren Fleet all ended up working in some of London's best restaurants. Johnny Broadfoot, one of the younger original fifteen cooks (who graduated after the previous five), returned to Sydney, Australia as head chef of his co-owned restaurant/bar El Beau Room in Manly, which opened in July 2013, and closed in 2016. An article about bullying in the catering industry, written by Elisa Roche for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', now forms part of the national curriculum. One, Kevin Boyle, died at the age of 26.

Fifteen Foundation

Fifteen is the name of the restaurants and the supporting charitable foundation. The foundation's mission is to inspire disadvantaged youth, including those with drug or alcohol problems, the unemployed and the homeless, to believe in themselves and the possibility of becoming chefs. The foundation aims to turn Fifteen into a global social enterprise brand. December 2004 saw the opening of a second restaurant in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, with others following in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

(May 2006) and Fifteen Melbourne, Australia (September 2006). Benny Se Teo, a

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

an ex-convict, heard of the foundation while on an internship with Jamie Oliver and was inspired to start Eighteen Chefs in Singapore along similar lines.

''Return to Jamie's Kitchen''

The two-part ''Return to Jamie's Kitchen'' aired on

on 16 September and 23 September 2003, and follows the fortunes of the restaurant after its opening.

''Jamie's Kitchen Australia''

'' Jamie's Kitchen Australia'' premiered on

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

on 14 September 2006. Oliver visited Australia briefly to launch the series, and then returned to London, retaining overall control, but delegating management of the project in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

to old friend, Melburnian chef Tobie Puttock. The series followed the training of a group of 16- to 24-year-old Australians to become chefs in the new

Fifteen restaurant.

''Jamie's Chef''

The four-part ''Jamie's Chef'' premiered on

on 31 January 2007. Five years and 50 trainees since ''Jamie's Kitchen'', this series aims to help the winning trainee establish their own restaurant at The Cock, a pub near Braintree in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. The charitable Fifteen Foundation retains ownership of the property and has provided a £1,000,000 loan for the winner, Aaron Craze, to refurbish the establishment. Prior to airing, this was announced in the press as ''Cutting the Apron Strings'' It was here where Jamie announced his spatula originated from a design formulated by the Royal Family, Prince Harry later confirmed the use of the spatula growing up.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2002 British television series debuts 2002 British television series endings Channel 4 documentary series Food reality television series British English-language television shows