Just Desserts

‘HAS Jamie Oliver swallowed his tongue, because we’ve not heard much from the cook for some weeks?

Cuts of tongue

Worried by the lack of noise from Jamie’s kitchen, a team of restaurant reviewers went to Oliver’s Fifteen eatery to see if he and the food were okay.

Sadly, there’s still no word of Jamie, but the Mail does tell us that his restaurant is terrible.

Testers for new 2005 Harden’s London Restaurant Guide found that the place was “amateurish” and accused Oliver of charging inflated prices for mediocre food.

To the layman, this sounds very much like the tried-and-tested recipe for any successful modern restaurant.

But to the experts, Oliver’s London place is run on hype. As one reviewer puts it: “Just because it is a charity doesn’t give them the right to rip people off.”

For the record, of the 58 top class restaurants featured in the book – all in the over £65-a-head category – Fifteen ranked bottom.

However, a spokesman for the unusually quiet Oliver says things have improved.

“It’s very disappointing,” says Oliver’s mouthpiece in the Mail, “but the restaurant today is a very different one to the Fifteen which these Harden’s writers visited, probably last year.”

True. For one thing, there are no cameras following the chefs every move and keeping them on their toes. For another, Oliver is nowhere to be seen.

And for the biggest shock of all, the special of the day is “Tongue a la mode”.

Yikes!’

Posted: 2nd, September 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink