ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Jamie Oliver’s restaurant group has gone into receivership this week amid claims he ignored patron who demanded that the chain spend more than 15 minutes making their meals.
Locally, the Jamie Oliver Italian in the French Quarter will remain open for the time being with staff having their wages guaranteed by the struggling group’s Australian creditors.
When Jamie’s Italian first opened doors in Betoota, it was quite popular with the well-heeled denizens of our cosmopolitan desert community – in particular with the ones who enjoy paying through the nose for food and drink.
But it failed to impress The Advocate‘s late food critic, Giles Pinochet, who ordered the 15-minute ragu and was left suitably unimpressed.
“It was microwaved mince with tomato sauce,” he wrote back in 2011.
“At it was $37. Mind you, it was on the table in 15 minutes but somethings in life shouldn’t be rushed. Like ragu.”
One menu item caused quite a stir in town last winter.
Jamie’s 15-minute Beef Rat (pictured) created quite a controversy last year after it debuted on the menu.
Complete with carrot slices and two apple eyes, the rat was a log of microwaved and boiled mince. A delicacy on the Venetian Lido for centuries.
It failed to woo local diners, with the resturant going under shortly after.
The Advocate reached out to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant group for comment but have yet to
