The trouble with celebrity chefs

In our last newsletter, we linked to an article questioning whether we are witnessing the "twilight of the celebrity chef", following the closure of a number of restaurants whose high-profile benefactors apparently weren't enough to keep their establishments afloat. Last weekend the Financial Times published a profile of Jamie Oliver, whose restaurant empire appears to have been particularly hard hit by a combination of poor management, politics (Brexit!), and other factors one can sometimes be fooled into imagining that rich famous people never have to deal with:

"'We had simply run out of cash,' he recalls, as we sit on a vintage sofa at Oliver headquarters in north London nine months later. 'And we hadn’t expected it. That is just not normal, in any business. You have quarterly meetings. You do board meetings. People supposed to manage that stuff should manage that stuff.' A surprisingly sharp tone in his voice suggests that someone let him down and he was none too pleased. Oliver was left with no choice but to instruct his bankers to inject £7.5m from his own savings into the restaurants. A further £5.2m of his own money would follow over the next few months. Last year, Oliver was said to be worth £150m. Even so, £12.7m is not the kind of money that slips down the back of a sofa, vintage or otherwise".

It's a far cry from the cheeky young fellow we got to know zipping around London on his Vespa who would go on to become "Britain’s most successful media chef of all time. With sales of more than 40 million books, he is the UK’s best-selling non-fiction author". Still, as the same article details, "as his celebrity has increased, so has the backlash — his campaigning on obesity has been accused of being 'anti-poor' and of 'fat shaming'; while recently he was charged with 'cultural appropriation' for marketing a new line of 'jerk rice'".

It's of course unclear whether Oliver's rise to fame is directly related to his ability to irritate people, and whether that irritation has anything to do with why his - and others' - restaurants are no longer printing money by virtue of the famous name that adorns their signs. But it seems to be a time when (some) chefs may have reached peak celebrity, and might now be wishing that they'd kept their kitchen doors closed to cameras all those years ago to focus on just getting the soufflés right instead of perhaps being blinded by the limelight.

Which is not to say that famous chefs don't get their soufflés right, nor indeed that public attention is something anyone should resist. But the lessons of Jamie Oliver and his colleagues who have suffered similar fates may be a useful tale about the vagaries of pursuing a public life that could come crashing down because of an unexpected recession and poor accountants that no amount of perfect rice recipes (jerked or not!) can fix - and as the link in "Bits and Bites" below to the latest Freakonomics episode suggests, it's not as if it's not difficult enough to run a restaurant, even for the most organised and talented of chefs!

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Speaking of soufflés, for his latest review Jean-Pierre returns to Overture Restaurant at Hidden Valley Wines, where chef Bertus Basson has been perfecting the art for many years now. The restaurant recently underwent extensive refurbishments, resulting in a "light-filled interior [which] has been elegantly enhanced in a modern contemporary idiom and is more mature in its feel: lovely organic touches against modern, bold contrasts such as concrete and plain metal tables against supremely comfortable leather seats. The whole has been simplified and straightened-out without losing any of its relaxed charm".

Orange soufflé with vanilla ice cream at Overture

Perhaps most importantly - apart from a meal that promises value which is "very good at this level of cuisine" - is an attention to service which is too often overlooked in high-end restaurants that attract return visits from both local and overseas patrons: "Service here has always been personal but with good 'generals' keeping an eye on matters. The very experienced Mathias Heinz currently holds the floor. For any diner, the reassurance of a 'host' is not only welcome – it used to be a sine qua non of any decent restaurant. However, for reasons that usually include a lack of resources and/or experienced individuals, but can simply reflect a lacklustre restaurant culture, this vital role is so often lacking, even in top-end establishments".

Bits and Bites

Convenience meat: A butcher shop in New York state recently pioneered a 24-hr (raw) meat-vending machine. Wondering why you'd need an uncooked steak in the middle of the night? Apparently the concept was more geared to providing a "seamless" shopping experience for busy families (who perhaps only have time to shop in the middle of the night?) than to people who might actually feel the need to cook in their sleep. Still, it's only the latest in the long line of existing strange things you can buy from a machine, like oysters in France, and, in Japan, pretty much everything.

Uncaging zoo biscuits: Well, fortunately no one's actually after Zoo Biscuits (yet), but in the US, the famous Barnum's Animal Crackers, which used to be pictured on the front of the box in their circus cages, have finally been "emancipated" thanks to the efforts of animal activist group PETA. Of course not everyone is happy about the new look, with some arguing that the circus images connoted fun and memorable family experiences, which PETA have now effectively snatched out of the hands of little ones.

Why you shouldn't open a restaurant: Fans of the Freakonomics podcast and Kenji López-Alt from Serious Eats will enjoy the latest instalment, where Kenji speaks about his experience of opening a restaurant in San Mateo, California. For a guy who's as nerdy (by which we mean extremely organised and meticulous) as Kenji is, it's incredible to hear how much can still go wrong in the hospitality business!

Please share this newsletter with your food-loving friends, and feel free to email us with any queries, suggestions, or eating recommendations!

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