90yr high for trains
RAIL passenger numbers this year are on track to be the highest since the 1920s, figures reveal. There were 314.3million trips made over the summer — up 5.3 per cent on the same period last year. And the annual total is likely to be more than 1.3billion, making it the busiest year on the UK’ s railways for 90 years. High petrol prices are one of the reasons for the rise, according to the Association of Train Operating Companies.
COWS TRAMPLE 2
A couple were taken to hospital after being trampled by cows near Ledbury, Herefordshire.
Imam is a paedo A PAEDOPHILE has been convicted of abusing three girls — while an imam at a mosque. Ebrahim Yusuf Kazi, 67, indecently assaulted them at the place of worship between 1979 and 1986. All were under 13. His offences, in Swindon, Wilts, only emerged after one victim contacted police. One cop said: “He abused a position of responsibility and trust.” Kazi will be sentenced at Swindon Crown Court on November 2.
MY DAY OFF-ICE
Nearly half Britain’s workers — 48 per cent — check office emails while on holiday, a study says.
JAMAICAN IMMIGRANT WHO
IMPRESSED TELLY FOOD GURU IT’S OLIVER’S ARMY OF LITTLE ONES
By
SHARON HENDRY IT IS nearly 15 years since Jamie Oliver was first talentspotted by TV producers as he prepared veg in the kitchens of a London restaurant.
JAMIE continues to be equally motivated by social campaigning and cooking. But after years of lobbying the Government on issues such as school dinners and childhood obesity, he is tired of red tape and is preparing to go it alone. He says: “Me and my team love food and in the next ten years we want to do stuff on our own because we haven’t got anywhere with a Government role. “I want a model in hundreds of schools where we come up with the education and the feeding elements. “It’s simple – if we feed kids right and teach them about food, we will be much better off as a country.” Despite the intensity of his work life, Jamie is still a devoted husband to Jools and dad to Poppy Honey, nine, Daisy Boo, eight, Petal Blossom, two, and 13-month-old Buddy Bear, below. But he jokes: “Poppy and Daisy are already better parents than I am. “We are like a big Irish family where the kids bring each other up.” And he says of latest arrival Buddy Bear: “It’s so different having a boy around, I was in shock for three months. “But it’s wonderful. It’s the little differences you notice. He gets clocked around the head with toys and just gets on with stuff.”
His appearance in the resulting documentary put him on the path to a multi-million-pound fortune and made him famous for his cooking and campaigning.
Now Jamie has turned talent-spotter himself — and reveals for the first time how a humble Jamaican immigrant chef has become his greatest inspiration. Branatic Neufville is a shy man who prefers to be known simply as Chef — but he is about to be catapulted into the culinary limelight after Jamie devoted two pages of his new cookbook to him and his small Bristol restaurant. Jamie, 36, says: “Chef has become an inspiration to me. He is wise, he is a one-man band, give or take, and he makes my hair stand on end. “Recently I met Desmond Tutu and Bob Geldof and they were amazing but I enjoyed the time I spent with Chef just as much. He has come to this country and contributed in a beautiful way. “When it comes to this business we’re in, a lot of people talk the talk but he is doing it with a sense of grace, authority and wisdom — he does his job effortlessly. Just being in his presence is something special. “I remember coming out of his restaurant thinking, ‘That’s the most inspiring person I’ve met for a long time.’ He represents hope and success and in my opinion he is a big talent.” Jamie first discovered Chef while on a ten-month tour of the country doing research for his new book, Jamie’s Great Britain, which accompanies a Channel 4 series starting on October 25.
Soul For the tour last year, Jamie and his team packed up a Land Rover, complete with kitchen and bar, and in Bristol he visited Chef’s humble 12-table Jamaican restaurant and takeaway, Rice & Things. Since then, the pair have struck up a friendship and Jamie has even asked Chef to help him mentor graduates from his Fifteen chef training scheme. Chef, 34, recalls their first encounter: “Someone phoned the restaurant saying they worked for Jamie Oliver and asked if they could come and see me cook. At first I thought it was a wind-up but I decided to see what happened and invited them along. “They said they liked what I was doing and the next thing I knew Jamie was walking through the door. “Immediately we struck a good chord as he was passionate about his job. Like me, he isn’t just in it to win it — he is in it because he has a heart and soul.” Chef’s culinary career was set in motion after his mum died suddenly when he was just 18 months old. He went to live with his granny Henrieata in St Mary, Jamaica. She adored him and taught her grandson to cook. Chef recalls: “My granny was known in our neighbourhood as Ma Jewel and she was just that — the most loving person in the world. “She was the cook of the village and taught me manners, morals and every recipe from chicken stew to sweet potato cake. From an early age I dreamed of being a chef.” But Chef’s happy home life ended when he was eight when his granny went blind. He says: “Life for me went downhill then. I had nowhere to live and ended up on the street selling peanuts, labouring . . . doing anything to survive. “I kept getting mugged by older boys and eventually had to go to live in a children’s home.” Despite his poverty, Chef never gave up on his dream and even won a school competition for barbecue chicken aged just ten. He was the first child from the children’s home to become head boy of the local secondary school and he excelled at food and nutrition studies. His first full-time job was as a hotel waiter. He recalls: “I worked from 6am
until midnight doing any job they would allow me to do. “One night, the prime minister of Jamaica was visiting and the chef walked out so I put on his apron and took over. Looking back, I suppose that was my big break.” In 2000, Chef’s second cousin suggested he consider bringing his cooking skills to Britain and sent him a plane ticket and directions to Bristol, where she was living. But Chef’s entry into the country was not problem-free and he says: “I’ll never forget the experience of being interrogated for 12 hours at Heathrow. “But I got through it, determined to contribute anything I could to Britain. And to this day I have never claimed a
single penny in benefits.” After a series of low-paid kitchen jobs, Chef eventually set up shop doing the catering in a pub, with one pot and three baking trays bought from a pound shop. It was not long before locals came flocking to taste his legendary Jamaican home cooking and his business began to take off. In 2009, with loans from the
bank and a butcher friend, Chef started Rice & Things. Now he employs four full-time staff and last year saw a turnover of £100,000. Sadly his beloved granny did not live to see his success, dying in 1996 aged 96. Chef, who will appear in Jamie’s forthcoming TV series, says: “It feels as if she is still here with me in this restaurant, cuffing me round
the ear when she thinks I’m not listening and glowing with pride to know Jamie Oliver came to eat with us.” Like Jamie, Chef is also cooking up his own brand of social consciousness alongside his cuisine. He is active in the Bristol community, where riots erupted in August. Currently assisting young boys in an attempt to prise them away from gang culture, Chef also opens up Rice & Things to community meetings, where he recently helped to launch a mentoring scheme. Jamie has been inspired by Chef’s determination to succeed against the odds and how he is contributing to his community beyond his restaurant. Jamie says: “In my new series, I want
- JAMIE OLIVER to introduce people to the new wave of immigrants who are doing amazing things with food. Chef is doing that and more. When I invited him up to London for the graduation ceremony of my latest Fifteen students, he made a big impression on them that has lasted.” Chef himself says: “Am I interested in money in my pocket? No. What I like is coming out of the kitchen and seeing happy faces in my restaurant and knowing I might help inspire another kid from a background like mine. “It’s not what you can take from society, it’s what you can give.” s.hendry@the-sun.co.uk