Cliff Notes – Jamie Oliver ‘can’t return’ to his UK restaurant location after terrorism plot nightmare
- Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall, which opened in 2006, faced threats from a local extremist group, leading to bomb squad presence at its launch.
- The restaurant aimed to train disadvantaged youths in culinary skills and contributed significantly to the local economy before its closure in 2019.
- Oliver expressed deep emotional ties to the location, stating he cannot return due to the memories associated with it, despite the restaurant’s charitable impact.
Jamie Oliver ‘can’t return’ to his UK restaurant location after terrorism plot nightmare
Jamie Oliver has described how he opened Fifteen Cornwall in 2006 with the bomb squad in attendance (Picture: Rocket Weijers/Getty Images for Royal Caribbean)
Jamie Oliver has reflected on an unexpected complication with his charitable restaurant Fifteen Cornwall, which opened in 2006 with the bomb squad in attendance.
The 50-year-old TV chef’s mission to train up disenfranchised youngsters to become top chefs began in London four years earlier, and local Cornish councillor Betty Hale contacted Oliver’s team in order to bring the same apprenticeship opportunities to Cornwall.
And so Fifteen Cornwall was born with 15 young recruits, at its peak welcoming 80,000 guests a year for 14 years until its 2019 closure.
‘I can’t go back because I have too many feelings towards it,’ Jamie reflected on Watergate Bay in a recent podcast episode of Full Disclosure with James O’Brien.
Profits of the restaurant – which was run by charity the Cornwall Food Foundation but used the celebrity chef’s name under licence – was closed following an independent financial review.
‘When I opened Watergate Bay in Cornwall – which was 15, it was a charity, we were buying 90% of our product from 20 miles away, obviously we imported the Italian stuff,’ he said.
The charitable restaurant closed in 2019 (Picture: SWNS)
Jamie explained how Cornish extremists threatened his restaurant (Picture: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
But there was an issue. A group calling itself the Cornish National Liberation Army – who wanted independence for the county – threatened attacks on Fifteen Cornwall.
‘I had bomb squad there when I opened, because I was English, Cockney apparently. We had death threats from the Cornish terrorists,’ Jamie said in a light-hearted retelling on the podcast.
‘I found out a year after that that I was 400 years Cornish, from Penzance. Olivers come from Alverton. The guy who did the death threat who licked the stamp and got done for another crime was only second generation Cornish and came from up North,’ he laughed.
‘Everyone that came to the launch was like, “Why is bomb squad here?” It was like, “Don’t worry…”.’
The Cornish extremists branded Oliver an ‘incomer’ and accused him of hurting locals by driving up house prices and living costs, despite profits going to charity.
Fifteen Cornwall trained up deprived youngsters in the area (Picture: Gordon Scammell/Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Eventually, a 36-year-old man from Padstow was arrested for threats to destroy property, including Rick Stein’s Cornwall eateries.
Oliver previously shrugged off the threats, saying: ‘I do not feel threatened by it because actions speak louder than words… I just think the answers to their worries is government not a couple of poxy chefs.’
Referring to his fellow chef, he said: ‘Rick, for instance, yes he has made a lot of money out of Padstow.
‘You cannot knock the man after 30 years for making good. What a wonderful thing to get people right down there to the skirt of Cornwall.
He opened a number of Fifteen iterations around the world (Picture: Arsineh Houspian/Getty Images)
Jamie said he can’t return to Watergate Bay as he has ‘too many feelings’ about it (Picture: Kristian Dowling/Getty Images)
‘For me it is the government’s problem. If there is an affordable housing problem that is government’s problem – local government and government.’
He explained Fifteen Cornwall pumped ‘millions’ into the local economy, with its year-round use of Cornish produce, and by training up deprived youngsters in the area, many of whom, according to the restaurant, went on to form their own local businesses.
Chatting on the recent podcast episode, Jamie reflected that he has a ‘very strong’ moral compass, which has driven his life-long work.
‘I like to make crazy stuff not happen and try and aspire for people to have hope or wish better,’ he said.
While financially independent from one another, 22 of Jamie’s Italian UK outlets closed in the same year as Fifteen Cornwall. In 2023 Jamie opened a new venture, Jamie Oliver Catherine St, in London’s Covent Garden, marking his return to the UK restaurant scene.
His latest book, Eat Yourself Healthy – one of over 30 in his roster – is this month UK’s bestselling cookery book.
On Fifteen Cornwall’s closure, Jamie said: ‘I am very surprised and saddened to learn that Fifteen Cornwall and the Cornwall Food Foundation have closed.
‘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.’
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