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Jamie Oliver opens in Bangkok: how will Thais take to his fusion food?
After a bad year for his UK chains, the celebrity chef is rebranding in Asia
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Sat 11 Jan 2020 17.55 GMT
Opposite the sunglasses and handbag sections in one of Bangkok’s big shopping centres stands Jamie Oliver’s latest project. Following the collapse of his UK empire last year, the celebrity chef is having another crack at building a midrange chain, in south-east Asia. His Bangkok branch, Jamie Oliver Kitchen, is one of the latest to get a rebrand – from Italian restaurant to world fusion hub.

But, in a capital famed throughout the world for the quality of its home cuisine, the British chef could be in for an uphill struggle. On Friday night, one Thai customer, Orapan Kanjanakulkij, scored her meal a modest six out of 10. “The ingredients are quite good, but the taste needs improvement,” she said. The range on offer was disappointing compared with the thick menus available at some Thai restaurants, and the prawn soup was too bland, she added.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/j ... nt-bangkok

The last thing I'd want on a visit to Thailand is Jamie Oliver food. He should keep working to improve Britain's food reputation, a tough mission already, and leave the food arts in Bangkok to the Thais, who do it so well.

not sure how he will do but he must have very deep pockets

,,,,,,,The man who started off as the Naked Chef still has plans, however, for the rest of the world. His Bangkok venture accompanies a similar venue on Kuta beach in Bali, and an additional 19 openings are planned up until the end of this year, to supplement the 70 restaurants across 27 markets that the Jamie Oliver Group currently operates, according to his company.

techietraveller84 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 10:56 am The last thing I'd want on a visit to Thailand is Jamie Oliver food. He should keep working to improve Britain's food reputation, a tough mission already, and leave the food arts in Bangkok to the Thais, who do it so well.

he is no gordon ramsey who travels too all countries to learn, good on you tube when the thai chef ripped him apart
the khmer royal family said he cooked khmer food better than there staff
on youtube, very interesting and slightly funny being gordon Fk this and that

It will be another loss making concern no doubt. Jamie is good at making money from endorsements and media work. He's too cool for cooking now.

He was reportedly worth £150 million. He had to pour £13 million last year to save his restaurant chain going into bankruptcy. He has since shut 12 of the chain’s 37 restaurants and made about 600 staff redundant in an attempt to save the rest of the operation. The chain had debts of.... wait for it....
£71 MILLION. That's nearly £2 million per restaurant. WTF?

The chain still has a £37 million loan from HSBC, for a 25 restaurant chain. That's some leverage for a bricks and mortar, rent, rates and labour intensive business.

The problem is very few people believe Jamie Oliver is anywhere near these places, and you are paying super premium prices for the name. The food is ordinary. The holding company for the restaurants then has to fork out millions for that name to Jamie Oliver's branding operation which makes the real money. The longer he can keep the restaurant show on the road the longer he can keep milking it for his naming rights.

"At Jamie Oliver Licensing, which covers his endorsements and range of products and tie-ups, pre-tax profit rose to £7.3m from £7m in 2016, according to accounts filed with Companies House."

"Profit at Jamie Oliver Holdings, which covers his media interests, rose to £5.4m from £1m.
Oliver paid himself £10m in dividends in 2016 – £6m from the licensing business and £4m from media. He has never taken any money from the restaurant business." [But Jamie Oliver licensing has taken plenty]

Good luck to him. He will need it.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/a ... bankruptcy

The reviews on TA of Jamie Oliver's Bangkok Restaurant are mostly positive. Most of the comments there are left by tourists, so it's hard to know what the Thais think of the food there.
A comment left by a recent customer gives you some idea of the prices:

My wife and I ordered seafood skewers, salad, wine, coctails, soft-shelled crab burger, etc. - the food was great! Regarding pricing, 1 litre of wine, two coctails, water, appetizer and two mains costed around 100 euros or 3300 bahts.

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:50 am The reviews on TA of Jamie Oliver's Bangkok Restaurant are mostly positive. Most of the comments there are left by tourists, so it's hard to know what the Thais think of the food there.
A comment left by a recent customer gives you some idea of the prices:

My wife and I ordered seafood skewers, salad, wine, coctails, soft-shelled crab burger, etc. - the food was great! Regarding pricing, 1 litre of wine, two coctails, water, appetizer and two mains costed around 100 euros or 3300 bahts.

I can buy that in Red Lobster in Oshkosh Wisconsin for $50 and have the extra bonus of a sanitary inspection.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 1:40 pm It will be another loss making concern no doubt. Jamie is good at making money from endorsements and media work. He's too cool for cooking now.

He was reportedly worth £150 million. He had to pour £13 million last year to save his restaurant chain going into bankruptcy. He has since shut 12 of the chain’s 37 restaurants and made about 600 staff redundant in an attempt to save the rest of the operation. The chain had debts of.... wait for it....
£71 MILLION. That's nearly £2 million per restaurant. WTF?

The chain still has a £37 million loan from HSBC, for a 25 restaurant chain. That's some leverage for a bricks and mortar, rent, rates and labour intensive business.

The problem is very few people believe Jamie Oliver is anywhere near these places, and you are paying super premium prices for the name.

The food is ordinary. The holding company for the restaurants then has to fork out millions for that name to Jamie Oliver's branding operation which makes the real money. The longer he can keep the restaurant show on the road the longer he can keep milking it for his naming rights.

"At Jamie Oliver Licensing, which covers his endorsements and range of products and tie-ups, pre-tax profit rose to £7.3m from £7m in 2016, according to accounts filed with Companies House."

"Profit at Jamie Oliver Holdings, which covers his media interests, rose to £5.4m from £1m.
Oliver paid himself £10m in dividends in 2016 – £6m from the licensing business and £4m from media. He has never taken any money from the restaurant business." [But Jamie Oliver licensing has taken plenty]

Good luck to him. He will need it.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/a ... bankruptcy

While I have to agree whith what has been said,,, I dont believe that Colonel Sanders is anywhere near his KFC restaurants either.

WildA wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 9:57 am
I can buy that in Red Lobster in Oshkosh Wisconsin for $50 and have the extra bonus of a sanitary inspection.

That's great because Oliver won't be opening any restaurants in Hicksville anytime soon.

Hicksville is on Long Island. You are way off on your geography. But he probably could open one there, Hicksville, NY, USA has a median family income of like $100,000.