Curtis Stone: ‘My heart goes out to Jamie Oliver’
As a restaurateur himself, Aussie chef Curtis Stone says it was tough to read about the recent collapse of Jamie Oliver’s empire, saying the stunning collapse of the British star’s restaurants could have happened to anyone.
Curtis Stone believes the stunning collapse of Jamie Oliver’s restaurant empire recently could have happened to anyone in the business given the volatility and risk that comes hand-in-hand with being a restaurateur.
More than 1000 jobs were lost in May when almost all of Oliver’s British restaurants, including the Jamie’s chain, Barbecoa and Fifteen, were shut down after being placed into the hands of administrators KPMG.
Stone says it was difficult reading about the fate of Oliver’s restaurant business but understood how his fellow celebrity chef could find himself in that position.
“It’s very, very tough to read what Jamie’s going through and what so many people in our business go through and my heart goes out to him,” Curtis tells dailytelegraph.com.au.
“They’re relatively high turnover businesses but they’re also high risk and you’ve got to invest a lot of money to open one.
“God, it happens to you constantly in this business because there are people always opening and closing restaurants, some don’t even make it a year and it breaks your heart to think someone’s put that much hard work into something and it’s not only is it all for nothing, but you lose money out of it.”
Sometimes there are also forces beyond anyone’s control.
Stone was running a popular restaurant in London when terrorists struck the World Trade Centre and Pentagon on September 11 2001.
“The West End of London totally died overnight — we went from being a busy, successful restaurant to being … not very busy,” he says. “We went from doing 120-130 covers a night to doing 15 and 20 covers a night and it was a terrorist attack that happened on the other side of the world.
“As the operator of a business you stand there scratching your head asking ‘what could I have done differently?’ and sometimes the answer’s ‘nothing’. You were doing your best and the rug can get pulled from under you.”
The LA-based Aussie, who returns to MasterChef Australia this week for the final Masterclass of the season, runs two successful restaurants, has a major sponsorship deal with Coles (where he is also a health food advisor), has many other business ventures on the go and is the father of two young boys.
He is constantly on the go and, similar to Oliver, has many business interests that take him away from his first love — the kitchen. He admits he has yet to work out exactly how to make everything gel perfectly.
“If I told you I’ve got the perfect balance I’d be lying to you, it wouldn’t be true,” he says. “You find your rhythm in some respects and mine is spending time with the kids in the morning.”
It’s Stone’s personal time that suffers most in the mix — not that he’s really complaining.
“I’ve never been good at balancing my personal stuff, I probably let that suffer a little bit — my golf game sucks put it that way, I should be half decent at this point in my life because I don’t make enough time for that kind of thing,” he says. “But I feel really grateful to be honest that I found something that gets me out of bed in the morning and I love it.”
And he loves coming home to take part in the MasterChef challenges. He is constantly surprised by the level of skill in those kitchens given that many have had little experience outside of their homes.
“It’s quite amazing to me,” he says. “We do a couple of sessions called Keeping Up With Curtis and they can keep up pretty well and
I think ‘am I getting old or they super talented?’ ”
The time these amateur chefs spend in the MasterChef kitchen is akin to some of the best apprenticeships the industry can offer, he says.
“If you think about it they’re exposed to so much unbelievable stuff in such a short amount of time,” he says. “They have the best chefs in the world cycling through that place giving them recipes and mentorship.”
Airing on Sunday, the remaining contestants flip the tables on Stone, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan, where they set their own mystery box challenge for them to cook with. By the time the celebrity chefs try their hands in the kitchen, the competition will be down to the final four.
Stone will be looking for the win, but won’t be getting the knives out.
“It’s light-hearted, we’ve been friends for a long time,” he says. “It’s not like we’re out to scratch each other’s eyes out or sabotage one another but we still take it very seriously, we still want to win.”
MasterChef, Channel 10, Sunday-Wednesday 7.30pm
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