Chef’s journey from pub to a pasta master

MENTOR Chef Gennaro & Jamie 1975: James Trevor Oliver is born in Essex to pub-restaurant owners Sally and Trevor.

1988: A young Jamie is put to work at his parents’ pub in Clavering, The Cricketers.

1991: Jamie leaves Newport Free Grammar School at 16 with just two GCSEs, to study home economics at Westminster Technical College.

1993: Jamie and Jools start dating – they’ve been together ever since and have five children. 1994: He starts working at Antonio Carluccio’s Neal Street restaurant as a pastry chef, where he meets his mentor, the Italian chef Gennaro Contaldo. 1996: He begins working as a sous-chef at Fulham’s trendy River Cafe restaurant.

1999: The Naked Chef debuts on the BBC. In the same year, his debut cookbook is a bestseller. 2000: Begins an endorsement deal with Sainsbury’s, which earns him around £1.2million a year. He marries Jools at All Saints Church in Rickling, Essex, near his parents’ home.

2002: Jamie moves to Channel 4 after he refuses a BBC demand to drop his Sainsbury’s deal. 2003: Awarded an MBE for his work with Fifteen.

2005: Jamie’s School Dinners is launched, in which the chef waged war against junk food in school canteens. It prompts the Feed Me Better campaign. 2006: He is named the ‘Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005’ in a Channel 4 viewers’ poll. 2007: Jamie at Home is broadcast on Channel 4.

2008: He launches his first Jamie’s Italian restaurant in Oxford. At its peak, there were 42 branches in the UK.

2009: His chain of delis, Recipease, are opened.

2012: Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals airs for 40 episodes.

2016: Eight-part series Jamie’s Super Food Family Classics airs. 2017: Eight episodes of Jamie’s Quick & Easy Food begin.

2018: Jamie Cooks Italy airs. He injects nearly £13million of his own money into Jamie’s Italian to save it from bankruptcy. Twelve restaurants have since been closed and about 600 staff have been made redundant.