Chef Jamie puts family first

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is taking a year’s break from TV to concentrate on family life, he has revealed.

The stress of combining his hectic career with having two babies in little more than a year has taken its toll.

Now Oliver has scaled his work commitments down to running his restaurant Fifteen so he can finally “have a bit of fun for a change”.

The 28-year-old chef and star of the Sainsbury’s adverts said he would not be making any new TV shows or writing a book this year.

He told Now magazine: “For the first three or four years of my career on telly, even though I enjoyed it, I was pushed around quite a lot. But in the last couple of years I’ve finally learnt to say no.

“That’s why this year I’m not writing a book and I’m not doing any telly. I’m just going to be working at Fifteen, doing charity work, a bit of travelling, some reading, cooking and having a bit of fun for a change.”

The past 18 months of Oliver’s life have been devoted to getting his Hoxton restaurant Fifteen up and running.

His progress was charted in a TV series, Jamie’s Kitchen, which showed him turning 15 young people into chefs.

At the same time, Oliver’s wife Jools was at home raising their two baby daughters, who were born just 13 months apart.

Poppy Honey was born last March and two months later they were stunned to discover Jools was pregnant again with Daisy Boo, now three months old.

“Opening a restaurant is a big enough challenge, but taking on 15 students, starting a charity to help change their lives and having two babies all at the same time was a nightmare,” Oliver admitted.

“Doing it all at once has meant triple the pain and triple the problems - it’s been a completely crazy 18 months. But I have no regrets. I wouldn’t want to change a thing because doing this has been really good for me. I’ve grown up a lot in the last year – it’s made me a man.”

He praised Jools for her patience, saying: “Juggling kids and a new venture like this has been really hard. I couldn’t have done it without Jools. My wife’s been fantastic, she deserves a medal for putting up with me.”