News - Bath is special, says TV chef Jamie Oliver

Naked chef Jamie Oliver was in Bath yesterday to launch a series of Italian restaurants which will be run from headquarters in the city.

Jamie’s Italian has been designed to offer traditional Italian food at affordable prices in high street locations across the country.

The chain will operate from a 200-seat flagship restaurant in the centre of Bath’s £13 million Milsom Place development.

A pilot store was launched in Oxford in June but the Bath branch will be the nerve centre for the operation when it officially opens on Monday October 6.

Jamie Oliver came to Bath as a child on holidays with his parents and said it was a pleasure to be launching a restaurant in the ‘beautiful university city’.

The 33-year-old, who is about to become a father for the third time, has trained in Italian cooking for the past 14 years.

He said: “I didn’t want to come to Bath and do something similar, I wanted to do something different.

“Bath is a beautiful place full of history with great people, wonderful produce, and it is one of those places in the world which makes you feel special just being there.”

The Bath branch of Jamie’s Italian will be run by around 65 staff from in and around the city.

The celebrity chef is hoping to increase that figure to 100 over the next two months at the restaurant which will be open seven days a week offering breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Jamie launched his first restaurant in London in 2002 as the first in the chain Fifteen which was designed to offer disadvantaged youngsters the chance to gain professional training.

He said: “The restaurant industry is a very, very hard industry.

“When a restaurant goes wrong it can be an absolute horror show.

“There were dark, dark days running Fifteen when we lost £40,000 a month but the key is good management and getting to know your community.

“I’ve learnt a lot from my time at Fifteen.”

Jamie’s Italian is one of four restaurants and 26 shops in 13 listed buildings in Milsom Place which developer The L&R Group has dubbed ‘the fashionable heart of Bath’.

L&R Group co-director Ken Elliott said Jamie’s Italian was a good fit for the multi-million pound development which has been revamped since work began on site in January 2007.

He said: “Jamie has real character and commitment.

“He’s not afraid to take things in a new direction.

“Milsom Place is an attempt to take the concept of a shopping destination in a new direction too and it's the perfect antidote to the blandness of large shopping malls across the country.”