Jamie Oliver Reflects on Lessons Learned from Restaurant Empire Collapse

Celebrity chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver has opened up about the downfall of his former UK restaurant group, acknowledging that overlooking business fundamentals played a key role in its collapse.

In a candid conversation with Davina McCall on her Begin Again podcast, Oliver admitted that his struggles with numbers and financial management were a contributing factor.

“Sometimes I failed because I was too early, sometimes because I was too late,” Oliver shared. “But ultimately, I got the basics wrong. I spent a lifetime avoiding responsibility around numbers and maths, which goes back to school. When I lost my restaurants, all the hard stuff we got right, the things most people struggle with, but it was really the basics that brought us down.”

At its peak, Oliver’s UK restaurant portfolio spanned nearly 40 locations under the Jamie’s Italian, Barbecoa, and Fifteen brands. The group went into administration in May 2019.

Reflecting on the early days of his career, Oliver recalled the challenges of launching his first restaurant, Fifteen. “I spent everything I had building it. At one point I was even a couple of hundred thousand pounds in debt because the builders and designers were clashing, and I didn’t fully understand business.”

Since the closure of his restaurant empire, Oliver has refocused his efforts. He recently launched Jamie Oliver Catherine Street in Covent Garden’s West End and opened a flagship cookery school inside John Lewis & Partners on Oxford Street.

Speaking previously to The Times in 2023, Oliver admitted the Jamie’s Italian concept was “wrong from day one” and reflected that a “feeling of cockiness” influenced some of his business decisions.

Despite the setbacks, Oliver continues to champion accessible cooking, education, and food culture, applying the lessons learned from past challenges to his new ventures.