Jamie Oliver buys back his name from Keystone
You can’t control something after you’ve sold it. Which is why Jamie Oliver is smart to buy back his name in Australia.
Like a band that can sell a lot of music and still get great critical support, Jamie Oliver is that rare thing in the food world: a chef and entrepreneur who retains credibility, despite being bigger than Ben Hur.
But Jamie’s Italian, in Australia at least, has stretched the friendship. They are not restaurants for food lovers; they are slickly packaged, highly systemised pastiches of eating out in Italy.
So news that Oliver intends to buy back the Australian franchise and its six restaurants from the failed Keystone Hospitality Group can only be seen as a positive. With his well-documented affection for this country, and a swag of mates here, we’d like to think Oliver will put a bit more time into restaurants he actually owns, as opposed to the formulaic franchises that have passed for the Oliver brand Down Under since Keystone acquired the master franchise in 2011.
Oliver was reported to have been furious, even considering legal action, over the failure of Keystone and the damage that he felt had been done to his brand in Australia. But when you sell something, you lose control. And I reckon the damage had been done before the substantial hospitality group — Jamie’s Italian was just one of its brands — went into receivership earlier this year.
Sydney or Canberra, Adelaide or Perth, I’ve never really felt the humour, spontaneity or generosity of Jamie Oliver in one of the Australian restaurants that carries his name. Certainly there are a hundred more interesting Italian restaurants in every city. Mr O, it’s time to take control.