LOGO

Jamie, Nigella, Heston, Delia. You know to whom I refer.

As instantly recognisable as Brad or Angelina, or those celebrities who seemingly don’t even have a surname, like Adele. Just Adele.

Anyway, these chefs/cooks/culinary gods and goddesses are all brands. Or are they Personalities? No, they’re definitely brands, each with their own distinct personality whilst cooking at the centre of a huge cookery empire bubbling with branded books, kitchenware, restaurants and supermarket endorsements.

Like that crowd-splitting brand Marmite, these brands have a similar effect. Okay, ‘hate’ is a strong word… maybe ‘irritate’ is a better one.

Let’s face it, cooking programmes are a huge part of our TV-watching habits, and whilst TV has allowed and empowered these food-personality-brands to grow to the extent they are, on- and off-screen, there’s a chance that without one, there may not be the other.

All food programmes and spin-off merchandise have an audience. But despite their variety of cooking styles, you’d think that all food programmes would be of interest to any foodie, whether it be molecular or good old home cooking. However, these brands can’t just rely on a generic audience. These are branded Personalities; you buy or don’t buy into them for their personalities as presenters, not chefs.

If Jamie irritates you, you probably love Heston. On the other hand, you might respect Heston’s talent and skill, but you don’t fully buy into him if he makes your cooking hands shake with irritation.

But with 15 on-screen years under his tight belt, there seem to be enough people out there yet to tire of Jamie. Every year, he grows bigger in stardom, money and tubbiness (with 5 different TV programmes on a night, he must eat a fair bit).

With his ‘Fifteen’ restaurants, numerous branches of self-named chain ‘Jamie’s Italian’ cross-country, ‘Barbecoa’ in the City of London, and most recent venture ‘Union Jacks’, he’s doing pretty well for himself. But as a punter, you don’t visit one of these restaurants for the influence of Jamie’s cooking expertise on the food being served (like you would, say, for a Marco Pierre White restaurant), you go for the atmosphere, the laid-back vibe of the original ‘Naked Chef’. These restaurants are brand experiences – an experience of Jamie Oliver’s lifestyle.

And it doesn’t stop there. Only this Saturday, we hosted a dinner party. I did the cooking – recipes from none other cookbook than ‘Cook with Jamie’. Holding any sense of modesty back, it was, quite frankly, an amazing meal. I did well. But when mentioning to my loving guests that these were Jamie recipes, I couldn’t help but feel I was handing away some of my new-found glory, that all I’d done was religiously follow a set of instructions cast from the mouth of that very man-brand. Had I just released all credit to the hands of a brand named Jamie?

Hmm, maybe he does irritate me after all.

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