Jamie Oliver takes over Jamie’s Italian restaurant in Adelaide
GLOBAL chef Jamie Oliver will highlight local producers and offer more SA wine on his Adelaide menu, now that he has taken over his Australian arm of restaurants.
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GLOBAL chef Jamie Oliver will highlight local producers and offer more South Australian wine on his Adelaide menu now that he has taken over his Australian arm of restaurants.
Today marks the official handover of his chain of Jamie’s Italian restaurants in Australia to Jamie’s Italian Group, after former owners Keystone Hospitality Group collapsed in June.
The Adelaide restaurant, at 2 King William St, is also looking for a new head chef.
In an effort to appeal to local diners, a new menu will name local producers including Goodwood bakery Boulangerie 113, which supplies bread to the restaurant, and Goolwa pippis.
“The menu now is all about recognising these producers,” said restaurant group managing director, Ben Shaughnessy.
“Identifying the suppliers and producers that share Jamie’s philosophy and shining a light on their stories.”
The wine list will include growers from across the state, including Tscharke, Ben Riggs Zonte’s Footstep and SC Pannell. The restaurant was criticised when it opened in 2014 for not featuring SA wine on the regular wine list.
“There is certainly a focus to get more local growers on the menu,” Mr Shaughnessy said. “All the Australian wines will feature on the everyday wine lists, with regular features of other varieties on the daily blackboards.”
The new menu, including wild mushroom ravioli, oxtail lasagne and stuffed pork belly, will be introduced in May.
The restaurant will also attempt to lure diners with a weekly changing $10 pasta dish from May 8-29, and a kids-eat-free special during Easter.
Television chef Oliver announced his business would buy back his six Australian Jamie’s Italian restaurants in November, for an undisclosed sum.
“This is a process that I’ve never been through so it’s all very new, but it’s a really happy ending,” Oliver said. “I wish I could have done it sooner but we got there and it’s safe to say that every cloud has a silver lining.”
Ben Shaughnessy moved to Sydney to take up the MD position for the Australian portfolio earlier this year, after seven years in the UK role.
Oliver will return to Sydney in May, but will not be visiting Adelaide.
