Jamie Oliver hires cultural appropriation advisors for recipes

The Naked Chef says he has hired “cultural appropriation specialists” to avoid further offence and embarrassment caused by his recipes.

The celebrity chef-turned-restaurateur Jamie Oliver described his ongoing battle with borrowing exotic recipes for his cookbooks in an Interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, this weekend.

In 2018 the Essex-born chef was lambasted for selling bags of microwavable “Jerk Rice”, co-opted from a Jamaican recipe.

The chef also told the Times that he found a recipe for “Empire Roast Chicken” published in a 2011 cookbook, was now in bad taste.

The recipe celebrating the UK’s “Indian love affair” took flavours from the subcontinent in what he called a “full-on collision between beautiful British roast dinners and gutsy Asian spices.”

With a tongue in cheek toast to “the Empire”, the chef said he realised that a television show exploring the flavours of the British Empire and “trade winds”could be seen as insensitive.

Following the controversy Jamie Oliver tried to defend the dish, explaining that the Cumberland sausage is originally German and the popular Indian dish chicken tikka masala was invented in Britain.

Can travelling restaurateurs have an authentic love of a place? Photo / Wahaka

Oliver said he had initially been defensive about his exotic recipes, but later decided to seek help with flavours borrowed from other cultures.

“For the love of God, really?” And then you go, “Well, we don’t want to offend anyone,” he told The Times.

Oliver, 49, rose to fame on the UK cooking TV show The Naked Chef in the late 1990s. Today he has published over 11 books and has a chain of international restaurants under his name.

In a statement seen by CNN a spokesperson for the chef said Oliver would continue to explore international themes and flavours.

“Food is all about sharing inspiration from around the world, and we’re proud to work with some incredible experts to continue to learn about different cuisines and to help us deliver content that is culturally sensitive and inclusive,” they said.

Essex pasta or cultural appropriation?

Keith Floyd once said “British chefs cook like they sing: badly, in a foreign accent.” But can we forgive them? There’s only so far ‘bubble and squeak’ and ‘spotted dick’ will go.

There is a fine line between culinary detour and ‘cultural appropriation’. It all depends on where it is coming from.

In 2008 the UK celebrity chef opened a chain of Mediterranean diners called Jamie’s Italian inspired by a love for the country and time spent travelling there.

Oliver attributes his love of the country to an apprenticeship with Milanese chef Gennaro Contaldo.

There’s a whole history of restaurateurs co opting cuisines from a love of travel, particularly in the UK.

Gloucester-born Thomasina Miers launched an ‘authentic’ Mexican restaurant after travelling to Mesoamerica.

But there’s a new era of pantry politics which questions this approach. Can you launch a restaurant just because you’ve had a ‘lovely holiday’?

In 2019, chef Gordon Ramsay, was criticised for opening an “authentic Asian” restaurant Lucky Cat with no Asian chefs.

Food writer Angela Hui criticised the lack of diversity, writing for Eater that it was “more seedy nightclub than Asian eating house.”

With international travel curtailed for the moment, exotic cuisine is a good substitute to slake frustrated wanderlust. Even if it’s just an approximation.

However, it is often hard to tell if a recipe is coming from a place of gastronomic admiration or just plain greed.

As London MP Dawn Butler said of Jamie’s Jerk chicken, after seeing it on a supermarket shelf:

“It’s not just a word you put before stuff to sell products. This appropriation from Jamaica needs to stop.”