Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall restaurant closes with loss of 100 jobs leaving just two eateries left in his UK empire
- Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall restaurant announced its sudden closure today
- 70 people work at the restaurant and a further 30 work for its charitable trust
- Comes seven months after 25 Jamie Oliver restaurants shut, costing 1,000 jobs
Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall restaurant announced its sudden closure today – with 100 jobs axed and just two eateries left from the celebrity chef’s UK empire.
Staff at the restaurant, which uses the chef’s name under licence but is owned and run by the Cornwall Food Foundation, were told the business would be shutting its doors on Thursday afternoon.
About 70 people work at the restaurant and 30 more work at the Cornwall Food Foundation charity, which will also be wound up.
Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall restaurant announced its sudden closure today – with 100 jobs axed and just two eateries left from the celebrity chef’s UK empire
The announcement comes just seven months after Oliver’s UK restaurant business – which included the struggling Jamie’s Italian chain, Barbecoa and his flagship Fifteen in London were all shut down, leaving 1,000 staff redundant.
Despite carrying the chef’s name above its door, Mr Oliver had no financial stake in the company, which was often had chefs from his other restaurants doing stints in Cornwall.
‘I am very surprised and saddened to learn that Fifteen Cornwall and the Cornwall Food Foundation have closed,’ Mr Oliver told the Guardian.
‘Both organisations have always been run separately from us but the team has done an amazing job with the trainee programme, training over 200 chefs and reaching so many more along the way – so this is a huge blow.
‘My thoughts are with everyone affected.’
In a statement, Fifteen said: ‘We are deeply saddened to announce that Fifteen Cornwall will close and cease trading with immediate effect.’
Matthew Thomson, the chief executive of the Cornwall Food Foundation, said: ‘This is an incredibly sad day for everyone and we will try our best to support those who have been impacted.
‘I am profoundly sorry for the hurt, loss and distress this announcement will undoubtedly cause.
‘We are extremely grateful to all our loyal customers and amazing suppliers and to the partners, staff and trainees that have made Fifteen Cornwall and the Cornwall Food Foundation so special for almost 14 years.’
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JAMIE OLIVER’S FIFTEEN: SUCCESSFUL SCHEME SCARRED BY TRAGEDY
Fifteen Cornwall opened in May 2006 and with more than 100 apprentices graduating since.
Around 80 per cent of those who passed out from the chef academy are still in the kitchen today.
However, while the restaurant is keen to discuss its successes – there have also been many stories that end in tragedy.
One of Jamie Oliver’s first Fifteen apprentices was Kevin Boyle, a 26-year-old Crystal Palace supporter from Purley, Surrey.
A keen and talented chef, he worked for Vinoteca restaurant in London and cooked for the Prince of Wales and former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, after finishing Oliver’s scheme.
But in October 2011, the Lancaster University graduate, then 26, was reported missing from his home. In January 2012, he was found dead in a garden in nearby Coulsdon, and his mother, Patti, 54, said he had committed suicide with a kit he had bought for £44 over the internet.
At the time, Oliver said: ‘I’m deeply saddened by this tragic news. I am proud to have been able to call Kevin a friend for ten years.’
It was the second tragic death to hit the chef’s trainee scheme.
In 2008, Christopher Pethick, 20, was found hanged a few miles from the Fifteen restaurant in Watergate Bay, Cornwall.
He dropped out of the course in 2006 after two months with severe depression.
Crime has touched the Fifteen trainee scheme, too.
In 2009, a former apprentice on Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen scheme was sent to prison after admitting taking part in a £3million jewellery heist in Southend Airport.
Former drug addict Tom Baisden, then 28, from Thundersley, Essex, admitted theft, conspiracy to steal, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by plotting to steal gems, Cartier watches and designer handbags.
He told the court he was inspired by his celebrity chef mentor to confess to his crimes, after Oliver told him: ‘You can’t run away from things or hide from them.’
While in October that year Christopher Murray, 21, was jailed for sexually assaulting two women on the London Underground.
Murray, who trained as a fishmonger before joining Fifteen, was sentenced to two years after he admitted the offences at Southwark Crown Court.
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