seriously ten

Jamie was born in May 1975. At a young age, Jamie found himself fascinated by what went on in the kitchen at his father's pub-restaurant, The Cricketers in Clavering, Essex where he grew up. It just seemed to him, "such a cool place, everyone working together to make this lovely stuff and having a laugh doing it," explains Jamie.            

"When I was about seven or eight, they let me peel the potatoes and pod peas, that kind of thing. By the time I was 11, I wasn't half bad at veggie prep and I could chop like a demon! A lot of the boys at school thought that cooking was a girlie thing. I didn't really care, especially as I could buy the coolest trainers with what I'd earned from working at the weekend."         

When Jamie turned 16, finding he didn't have the results to stay on at school he decided to pursue a career as a chef, "I knew by then that I wanted to be a chef," says Jamie. Jamie went to Westminster Catering College for training and then spent time in France, learning as much as he could as he went along, eventually coming back to London to work as head pastry chef for Antonio Carluccio at the renowned restaurant, The Neal Street Restaurant.    

Jamie then moved on to work for Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers at the famous River Café in London for three and a half years, "Those two ladies taught me all about the time and effort that goes into creating the freshest, most honest, totally delicious food." 

It was there that Jamie first got in front of a TV camera while a documentary was being filmed on the River Cafe restaurant. The editors of the documentary were intrigued by the young chef who was inthralled in his cooking and would cheekily answer back to the crew. The day after the program was aired on television, Jamie was contacted by five different production companies all wanting to talk about possible television programs.

The result was the program, The Naked Chef. Since then, Jamie's television career has sky-rocketed. Keeping him even busier are his family - his wife Jools, and his daughters Poppy and Daisy.