So Jamie Oliver PLC is going to open a chain restaurant in Winchester. My immediate reaction was to be annoyed at the idea. I still am to a certain extent but less than I was. My key objection remains that I am sick of "celebrity" chefs trying to build restaurant empires based on their ability to cook a decent meal and get their heads on TV.
I'm not against chains at all. I take great pleasure in going to Zizzis and varying their hottest pizza to significantly hotter and it is delicious! Zizzis though is unrepentantly a chain and doesn't pretend to be anything else. They, like Loch Fyne, operate to a standard and do it quite well.
The problem with chains operated by celebrity chefs is that there is an implied level of quality beyond your normal chain. Almost "come to my restaurant and you'll be getting food as if it was cooked by me". Unfortunately this is impossible.
The "celebrity chain" has to be the antithesis of what got these guys into cooking in the first place. Instead of innovation, imagination and fine cooking skills we're now being subjected to cookie cutter menus with the emphasis on strict copies of the centrally developed and managed menus. Of course Gordon Ramsay took this to its logical conclusion by centrally preparing meals and simply heating them on site.
Consistent Quality is always an interesting challenge here and I am sure that Jamie Oliver will appear at the opening to wheel out another "trusted lieutenant" (do they all have batallions of these guys constantly in training?) and assure everyone that Jamie himself will periodically be checking in to ensure things are always up to standard.
This argument is specious though and I'm pleased to see that the people in Cape Town and Melbourne voted with their stomachs and money with Gordon Ramsay's "Maze" chain. A colleague who lives in Cape Town said that once people they realised that Ramsay wasn't cooking in the restaurant on a regular basis people simply stopped going. In our case this is simply going to be a Jamie Oliver PLC restaurant and any contact with Oliver's cooking will be through a lens of rote learning and standardisation by the local staff.
Finally the chain restaurant is not local and, in the Winchester case, I assume is there to gain access to the tourist money and an increasingly healthy food scene in town. Certainly a lot of the money that would stay locally with a non chain is going out of the local economy now.
So I'm probably not going to bother with Union Jacks when it opens. There are simply too many other excellent restaurants in Winchester - and beyond - for me to care. I'll go for food that is imagined, developed, prepared and served on site every time. There are some fantastic chefs and restauranteurs out there and I will be supporting them massively in comparison to the cookie cutter "celebrity" chains.
I'm not against chains at all. I take great pleasure in going to Zizzis and varying their hottest pizza to significantly hotter and it is delicious! Zizzis though is unrepentantly a chain and doesn't pretend to be anything else. They, like Loch Fyne, operate to a standard and do it quite well.
The problem with chains operated by celebrity chefs is that there is an implied level of quality beyond your normal chain. Almost "come to my restaurant and you'll be getting food as if it was cooked by me". Unfortunately this is impossible.
The "celebrity chain" has to be the antithesis of what got these guys into cooking in the first place. Instead of innovation, imagination and fine cooking skills we're now being subjected to cookie cutter menus with the emphasis on strict copies of the centrally developed and managed menus. Of course Gordon Ramsay took this to its logical conclusion by centrally preparing meals and simply heating them on site.
Consistent Quality is always an interesting challenge here and I am sure that Jamie Oliver will appear at the opening to wheel out another "trusted lieutenant" (do they all have batallions of these guys constantly in training?) and assure everyone that Jamie himself will periodically be checking in to ensure things are always up to standard.
This argument is specious though and I'm pleased to see that the people in Cape Town and Melbourne voted with their stomachs and money with Gordon Ramsay's "Maze" chain. A colleague who lives in Cape Town said that once people they realised that Ramsay wasn't cooking in the restaurant on a regular basis people simply stopped going. In our case this is simply going to be a Jamie Oliver PLC restaurant and any contact with Oliver's cooking will be through a lens of rote learning and standardisation by the local staff.
Finally the chain restaurant is not local and, in the Winchester case, I assume is there to gain access to the tourist money and an increasingly healthy food scene in town. Certainly a lot of the money that would stay locally with a non chain is going out of the local economy now.
So I'm probably not going to bother with Union Jacks when it opens. There are simply too many other excellent restaurants in Winchester - and beyond - for me to care. I'll go for food that is imagined, developed, prepared and served on site every time. There are some fantastic chefs and restauranteurs out there and I will be supporting them massively in comparison to the cookie cutter "celebrity" chains.
I wonder if you're a bit premature in writing off the Oliver franchise before it even opens. It's entirely possible that it could be good. Winchester already has a Brasserie Blanc, which I have found to be pretty good on several occasions. Would you class that as a celebrity chef chain outlet?
ReplyDeleteTrying not to condemn it out of hand, I'm merely commenting on the expansion of chains on the back of cheffy fame and my preference for things that are local and unique of which there are loads in Winchester and surrounding towns.
ReplyDeleteBrasserie Blanc - yep, chain. We go there occasionally because the menu is quite interesting but the food is incredibly and frustratingly variable. The same restaurant without RB's name on it I'd assess differently. Unfair? Possibly.
My issue is that most of these celebrity chain restaurants promise a level of quality and food commensurate with the best of the patron chef but in practice it is just cookie cutter copies. I have limited time and money ans I'll continue to explore the non chains far in preference to things like Union Jacks.
Eventually I also have a preference for supporting local businesses anyway!
Thanks for the comment.