Took me a second cause i didn’t remember the guy from Last Week Tonight owning any restaurants.
RainMakerJMR
“The food is great, the concept works super well, we just didn’t make money because of math.”
At least he’s honest. He knows the basics of business math and ignored it against probably tons of advice. If the math doesn’t work, the business doesn’t work.
vonsnape
not good enough imo. is that what he’d say to the staff by way of explanation?
Hughdungusmungus
Nothing to do with his mediocre food that was overpriced.
lowfreq33
Usually when things fail it isn’t the food, it’s spreading yourself thin and trying to do too much at once without a solid team supporting you. If you’re going to operate that many restaurants at once you have to have an A+ team supporting you, which takes time to build. You can’t be everywhere at once. I’ve seen some great concepts go right down the drain because they tried to open a second or third location before they had the right people in place.
PinchedTazerZ0
Mentally or physically?
Weak-Expression-5005
I swear most restaurants are fronts for the owner growing pot. How any turn a profit is beyond me.
inferni_advocatvs
He is definitely a thicko.
Head-Impact2789
I don’t know a lot about this guy but how many restaurant did he own that 22 closed?
PantsDontHaveAnswers
Responsible-Panic-56
I remember working in Scotland about 20 years ago with a cook that worked with Jamie Oliver when he got his first TV gig that told me that the only reason Jamie Oliver got the TV show was because the guy who was supposed to be there was out sick and Jamie Oliver was a smooth talker but a shite cook 🤣
philosopod
Me pre-BBL
Chef_Ben_G
About 20 years ago I worked for a guy who was the financial organ grinder for Jamie Oliver, he was definitely making his cut, several gastro pubs, big houses, fleet of super cars, pretty obvious how it was all paid for. This was the same guy who systematically pulled the plug on Jamie’s restaurants.
HELLFIRECHRIS
Worst burger i ever had was from Jamie’s diner, don’t know it was possible for a burger to be so greasy it actually shoots out of the bun when you try to eat it.
Billyredneckname
The same maths that makes him fail to understand why dinner ladies can’t produce meals to his standards.
Martissimus
They were really good at the hard stuff, but failed to get the basics right, he claims.
Apparently having a profitable cost effective operation with decent return on investment is the basics, and not the hard stuff.
Supposedly the concept worked really well. Apparently the concept didn’t include being a profitable business. Perhaps next time he should bring that idea forward in the conceptualization phase.
bearsfan0143
Zallarion
I worked with a guy who claims having been sous-chef to Jamie as one of his accolades here in NL. He really stressed how Jamie believes in people and gives them chances, etc, etc. Thing is the guy managed a catering kitchen for refugees at the time (I had the same job for a different location). It genuinely wasn’t a hard job but this guy was so bad at it. 90% was just ordering the right amount of food and just make sure “everything is there” and I would start checking when filling in at his location. And his orders were just incomplete. Forgetting to order meat, stuff like that.
When confronted he’d blame anybody but himself and then bring up the Jamie thing again 🤪
All due respect. But as a former very mid chef I don’t think having Jamie Oliver’s name stickered on anything is that big of a flex
RocasThePenguin
Why anybody would visit Jamie’s Italian is beyond me. I only made that mistake once, and never did it again. Average is a kind word for his cooking.
urzrkymn
Want it because of the shite food?
Cryptid-Weregoat
The silver lining here is the fact that he paid the workers final pay from his own funds. Lots of fuck ups, but he did show integrity as a person there. Just never should’ve had the places open to begin with xd
Duotrigordle61
From reading Wikipedia, he has severe dyslexia and read his first novel at 38.
Does that also affect accounting?
FalkunPawnch
Mr. Chilli Jam does it again!
KrayzieBone187
So he’s honest about not being a business guy? I’m so thrown off by this lol. Why isn’t he blaming everyone and everything else?
dead-human-ape
Aw man we should team up. I’m practically thick but conceptually smart.
Born_Anywhere_3231
MtnMaiden
Nope.
Restaurants.
Trying to sell fresh food as quick as possible. Grocery Store.
Trying to hold fresh food as long as possible. Retail store.
Doing two industries at once.
Optimal_Mention1423
There are many similar restaurant chains that have stayed open through sound financial management. I’ve no doubt there’s a scenario where Jamie’s Italian could have been successful, probably by growing the brand a lot more slowly.
For varying reasons, I ate at six of the restaurants and the quality varied from underwhelming to really pretty good for the price point. That suggests training and management issue overall. I respect what Oliver has done for British food a lot more than I respect most of the ghouls howling at his “downfall”.
DramaLamma
This is disingenuous at *best*.
He had the back up (management and financial teams) necessary at the level he was at to take care of the “maths”.
publiavergilia
I know he doesn’t control every individual restaurant but we went to the one in Oslo airport and they let us order and then came over just after our food had come and said we’re closing in 15 minutes. Would have been alright if they were closing the kitchen and let us finish eating but I had to try and force down a whole pint and a pizza as they were essentially turning the lights off around us.
VoteForsen
i remember a story about a family friend who went out to jamie olivers restaurant and the waitress said jamie is actually in tonight if you guys want to go to the kitchen and meet him for photos etc
they got their photos and food and when the bill came they added a fee for meeting him and getting a photo lmao
sipmargaritas
Conceptually thick like, oversized menu lead to huge sums of money sitting in freezers and pantries not being sold or like, he says he’s not clever?
Pantomimehorse1981
I’d say the main reason his chain failed from a consumer point of view was the lack of quality and consistency as it rapidly expanded way too fast. When the first place opened it London it was decent enough, then it turned into a poor Olive Garden
36 Comments
At least he’s owning it?
I’m conceptually thicc, myself.
Took me a second cause i didn’t remember the guy from Last Week Tonight owning any restaurants.
“The food is great, the concept works super well, we just didn’t make money because of math.”
At least he’s honest. He knows the basics of business math and ignored it against probably tons of advice. If the math doesn’t work, the business doesn’t work.
not good enough imo. is that what he’d say to the staff by way of explanation?
Nothing to do with his mediocre food that was overpriced.
Usually when things fail it isn’t the food, it’s spreading yourself thin and trying to do too much at once without a solid team supporting you. If you’re going to operate that many restaurants at once you have to have an A+ team supporting you, which takes time to build. You can’t be everywhere at once. I’ve seen some great concepts go right down the drain because they tried to open a second or third location before they had the right people in place.
Mentally or physically?
I swear most restaurants are fronts for the owner growing pot. How any turn a profit is beyond me.
He is definitely a thicko.
I don’t know a lot about this guy but how many restaurant did he own that 22 closed?
I remember working in Scotland about 20 years ago with a cook that worked with Jamie Oliver when he got his first TV gig that told me that the only reason Jamie Oliver got the TV show was because the guy who was supposed to be there was out sick and Jamie Oliver was a smooth talker but a shite cook 🤣
Me pre-BBL
About 20 years ago I worked for a guy who was the financial organ grinder for Jamie Oliver, he was definitely making his cut, several gastro pubs, big houses, fleet of super cars, pretty obvious how it was all paid for. This was the same guy who systematically pulled the plug on Jamie’s restaurants.
Worst burger i ever had was from Jamie’s diner, don’t know it was possible for a burger to be so greasy it actually shoots out of the bun when you try to eat it.
The same maths that makes him fail to understand why dinner ladies can’t produce meals to his standards.
They were really good at the hard stuff, but failed to get the basics right, he claims.
Apparently having a profitable cost effective operation with decent return on investment is the basics, and not the hard stuff.
Supposedly the concept worked really well. Apparently the concept didn’t include being a profitable business. Perhaps next time he should bring that idea forward in the conceptualization phase.
I worked with a guy who claims having been sous-chef to Jamie as one of his accolades here in NL. He really stressed how Jamie believes in people and gives them chances, etc, etc. Thing is the guy managed a catering kitchen for refugees at the time (I had the same job for a different location). It genuinely wasn’t a hard job but this guy was so bad at it. 90% was just ordering the right amount of food and just make sure “everything is there” and I would start checking when filling in at his location. And his orders were just incomplete. Forgetting to order meat, stuff like that.
When confronted he’d blame anybody but himself and then bring up the Jamie thing again 🤪
All due respect. But as a former very mid chef I don’t think having Jamie Oliver’s name stickered on anything is that big of a flex
Why anybody would visit Jamie’s Italian is beyond me. I only made that mistake once, and never did it again. Average is a kind word for his cooking.
Want it because of the shite food?
The silver lining here is the fact that he paid the workers final pay from his own funds. Lots of fuck ups, but he did show integrity as a person there. Just never should’ve had the places open to begin with xd
From reading Wikipedia, he has severe dyslexia and read his first novel at 38.
Does that also affect accounting?
Mr. Chilli Jam does it again!
So he’s honest about not being a business guy? I’m so thrown off by this lol. Why isn’t he blaming everyone and everything else?
Aw man we should team up. I’m practically thick but conceptually smart.
Nope.
Restaurants.
Trying to sell fresh food as quick as possible. Grocery Store.
Trying to hold fresh food as long as possible. Retail store.
Doing two industries at once.
There are many similar restaurant chains that have stayed open through sound financial management. I’ve no doubt there’s a scenario where Jamie’s Italian could have been successful, probably by growing the brand a lot more slowly.
For varying reasons, I ate at six of the restaurants and the quality varied from underwhelming to really pretty good for the price point. That suggests training and management issue overall. I respect what Oliver has done for British food a lot more than I respect most of the ghouls howling at his “downfall”.
This is disingenuous at *best*.
He had the back up (management and financial teams) necessary at the level he was at to take care of the “maths”.
I know he doesn’t control every individual restaurant but we went to the one in Oslo airport and they let us order and then came over just after our food had come and said we’re closing in 15 minutes. Would have been alright if they were closing the kitchen and let us finish eating but I had to try and force down a whole pint and a pizza as they were essentially turning the lights off around us.
i remember a story about a family friend who went out to jamie olivers restaurant and the waitress said jamie is actually in tonight if you guys want to go to the kitchen and meet him for photos etc
they got their photos and food and when the bill came they added a fee for meeting him and getting a photo lmao
Conceptually thick like, oversized menu lead to huge sums of money sitting in freezers and pantries not being sold or like, he says he’s not clever?
I’d say the main reason his chain failed from a consumer point of view was the lack of quality and consistency as it rapidly expanded way too fast. When the first place opened it London it was decent enough, then it turned into a poor Olive Garden
I always think of this [video](https://youtu.be/mKwL5G5HbGA?si=Cv-aexW227ruVRZY) of him preaching to kids of chicken nuggets. His reaction at the end cracks me up every time.