Chef Jamie Oliver launches new restaurants six months after UK chain collapsed
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has launched a new mid-range restaurant chain just six months after his UK dining empire collapsed.
Two of his restaurants in Southeast Asia — one in Bali, the other in Bangkok — will adopt a new all day dining format. They will be called Jamie Oliver Kitchen and will be partly inspired by local cuisine.
The Jamie Oliver Group, which operates 70 restaurants in 27 markets, will launch Jamie Oliver Kitchen on November 21 in Bali and on November 28 in Bangkok.
In a statement, Jamie Oliver said he had acquired many influences from 20 years of traveling around the world, adding that the new restaurants “will bring those inspirations to life.”
The Jamie Oliver Group said in a press release that it plans to open a further 19 restaurants before the end of 2020
In May, Oliver announced that his UK restaurant empire was placed into administration, or bankruptcy protection. The group included Jamie’s Italian chain and steakhouse Barbecoa.
KPMG, the company acting as administrator, said at the time that 22 of the group’s 25 restaurants had closed, leading to the loss of about 1,000 jobs.
Prior to his UK restaurant chain going into administration, Oliver had pumped millions of pounds into the business in recent years.
He eventually had to admit defeat in the face of what he described last summer in an interview with the Financial Times as a “perfect storm” of rising rents, wages, food costs, as well as the impact of Brexit and changing shopping habits.
