Jamie Oliver
- Profession: Celebrity chef
- Place/Date of Birth: Clavering, Essex, 27 May 2020
But Greenwich Council leader Chris Roberts said: "There is absolutely no truth in the suggestion that Nora is leaving due to concerns over budget issues.
"She has made clear to us that her reasons are personal and health-related.
"The council is very grateful for all that Nora and all our school meals staff have done to create healthy and nutritious food for the children at Kidbrooke over many years."
Irish-born Nora became the star of Jamie’s School Dinners with her no-nonsense approach.
Celebrity chef Jamie told the Daily Mirror he was bitterly disappointed that she was leaving.
"It’s a great shame. Nora has made incredible changes at Kidbrooke and really struggled over the past four years without support."
Jamie offers recipe to Prince - Feb 16 2007
Jamie Oliver offered the Prince of Wales one of his recipes for Charles’ Duchy Originals range.
The Prince hosted a reception at Clarence House for cooks and headteachers from 60 schools to stress the importance of giving pupils healthy meals.
Jamie, known for his crusade to banish unhealthy school dinners, was among the guests who mingled with Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.
The celebrity chef told the Prince he could use a gingerbread recipe he developed recently for a new Duchy Originals product.
Charles and Camilla revealed they were fans of the star’s TV series Jamie’s School Dinners, in which he campaigned to improve the quality of food served in schools.
Jamie said he was "very much in awe" of the good work done by the Prince’s Trust charity, which receives the profits of sales of Duchy Originals produce.
The chef, who wore a grey suit, was accompanied by Nora Sands, a dinner lady featured on Jamie’s School Dinners.
Jamie said he was currently in a "stage of observing" how Government pledges to improve school meals were working.
"In a year or so we will review what’s happened," he said.
"We will study where the money’s gone. As usual with politics there’s a lot of detail involved.
"It has captured the public’s imagination and lots of good stuff’s happened."
The chef indicated there would probably be another series of Jamie’s School Dinners "in the next few years", when it was "relevant".
Jamie discusses dinners with Charles - Feb 15 2007
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and more than 60 school cooks will meet the Prince of Wales today.
Charles is hosting a reception at Clarence House to stress the importance of providing pupils with healthy meals.
Jamie is well known for his crusade to banish unhealthy school dinners.
The Prince will also meet representatives of The School Food Trust, which oversees the Government’s school food reforms.
It was set up after the TV chef’s Feed Me Better campaign two years ago.
School cooks from across the country, along with their headteachers, will chat to Charles about the standard of food being offered to youngsters.
The Trust is aiming to increase the uptake of school meals and improve food skills through education.
Prue Leith, the Government’s new school meals adviser and chair of the Trust, said last month that parents should ration children’s pocket money to stop them buying sweets and fizzy drinks on the way to school.
The food writer and broadcaster warned that the decline in traditional family meal times meant growing numbers of children could not use a knife and fork.
Jamie stalls on running restaurant - Jan 24 2007
Jamie Oliver might be a veteran when it comes to campaigning for healthier meals, but it seems the TV chef is still not ready to run his own restaurant.
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The young person’s, modern day Delia, Jamie Oliver catapulted himself to fame following a chance meeting at the River Café, he now commands millions for advertisements, has created a socially aware restaurant empire and influenced what our children eat at school.
Despite his slightly grating, ‘cockney’ accent, our Jamie’s actually a born and bred Essex boy. Having been raised to landlord parents he started working in a professional kitchen at the tender age of 11, when he used to peel the veg for the Sunday Roast at the pub.
He trained at Westminster Catering College and spent some time studying in France. On his return to London he bagged himself a job as head pastry chef at the Antonio Carluccio restaurant on Neal Street, before heading over to Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers gastro-delight The River Café. It was here that he was apparently ‘spotted’, whilst a television crew were in doing a dash of filming, and the result was ‘Naked Chef’ in 1998.
His new, fresh and relaxed approach to presenting and food in general went down a storm with the British public and another series followed shortly after in 1999. Over the years his stake in primetime television has grown with a number of successful programmes, including Jamie’s Kitchen, Jamie’s Great Italian Escape and Oliver Twist.
In 2000 Jamie became the ‘face of Sainsburys’, which saw the chef earn a reputed £1.2 million per year, whilst appearing in rather cringe worthy ads left, right and centre of the television scheduling programme. His over exposure led to a bit of a backlash with caricatures of him springing up on the comedy circuit; think big lips, wads of cash, ‘mockney’ accent and floppy wife.
If the Sainsburys deal signalled a temporary fall from grace for the Essex boy, then the series Jamie’s Kitchen saw him return from the back of the pack to take gold. The programme followed the chef as he launched his flagship Fifteen restaurant in London. Part of a charitable foundation, the business offers training for underprivileged kids and branches have gone on to be launched in Newquay, the Netherlands, Amsterdam and Melbourne.
Jamie’s social conscious doesn’t end there either – in 2005 the geeza chef took on the British education system, with a good, long, hard look at what we were feeding the minds of tomorrow – fat, salt and sugar being the main ingredients. The series signalled a social crisis in parliament and forced the Government to reassess school dinners around the country, with the aim of educating our kids about food and it’s origins, whilst providing them with a well-rounded diet.
In 2003 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
He married Juliette Norton in 2000 and the couple have two daughters.
November 2007