Wet your knickers. Yesterday (Sunday) the Jamie Oliver road show arrived in Sydney with an entourage of about 20 so-called mates. He’s here for the launch of Fifteen Melbourne, which opens for trade Thursday 20th September.
It opens for bookings on the 13th or 14th (when the reality TV show first airs on Channel 10) of September, depending which page of the Fifteen website you believe. Apparently, ten telephone operators will be handling reservations for the 90 seater.
Fifteen, officially in the basement of 115 Collins St but with an entrance in George Parade, is training 25 unemployed young people in the fine art of cooking. Some money will go to the Fifteen Foundation charity in Melbourne and a license fee will be paid to the original London-based charity.
The real star is Tobie Puttock who ran Fifteen in London. Students, housewives and freelance journalists may know Puttock from the daytime TV show Ready Steady Cook.
Needless to say I hope to get a reservation ASAP. Why don’t we have a competition and see who can get in a blog it first?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you might beat me to it Ed…
Unfortunately that Ready,Steady, Cook show has made it difficult for me to see Tobie Puttock as a serious chef… but lets hope they can pull it together. Looking forward to reading the review.
I’d love to give it a try, but I might wait for the restaurant to establish itself first – if my memory serves me correctly, the reviews from the early days of 15 in London declared it overpriced and the food/service lacking, but slowly improved over time. Of course, I can just be lazy and see your blog of it and wait till then
Matt, agree with you on ready Steady Cook or as Gordon ramsay calls it Ready Steady Twat!
Ellie, you have a point and I think it still may be overpriced. perhaps they’ll have to do better in Melbourne where we have so much good value food.
I like the idea that he hires the unemployed and some of the proceeds go to charity… Can’t wait to read about your experience when you dine there.
Paz
Haha, “Students, housewives and freelance journalists”. So true.
Btw, Ready Steady Cook may be lame, but you guys should check out Tobie Puttock’s book, Daily Italian – I got it as a gift from my bro and it’s really really good!
xox Sarah
OK, Ready Steady Twat isn’t great as a cookery show (to say the very least), but it is entertaining and interesting to see what they come up with – presuming it’s not a set up, they are doing pretty good work that would surpass the makority of chefs that I know.
Why do people hate popular culture so much!?!
I sincerely hope that 15 has gotten off to a good start, and compliments on the great article edcharles.