It is the final of Germany’s biggest cooking competition and the celebrity judge has called in via videophone from London to wish the contestants well.
”Guten Appetit!” says the grinning face looking down at the kitchens from a big screen. The accent is more Essex than Essen, but no one seems to mind. After all, it belongs to Jamie Oliver, and this — Das Jamie Oliver Dinner (”Ein kulinarisches Theater-Spektakel”) — is his latest show.
Premiering on Thursday night in a tent pitched by the side of a road in Frankfurt’s exhibition district, Das Jamie Oliver Dinner is not actually Germany’s answer to MasterChef. Instead, it is a rather curious, big-budget cabaret show endorsed by the 33-year-old chef, who has received a fat fee in return for making a tiny, pre-recorded cameo and allowing his name and face to be plastered on Warhol-style posters all over the city.
It’s all a long way from teaching young mums to cook in Rotherham. Ostensibly a pastiche of German cookery programmes, the show is part circus, part musical, part panto and part fan convention. Guests pay between €89 and €129 for tickets to the three-and-a-half hour show, which includes a four-course menu designed by Oliver, who is a huge star in Germany, where he has sold more than two million cookbooks.
It is quite a departure from the philanthropic work Oliver has been doing in Britain of late, sorting out Rotherham’s eating habits and appearing in front of a select committee telling the government how to curb the nation’s obesity crisis.
”He’s very popular in Germany and when this was suggested, everyone thought it would be a fun way of bringing something different to the lovely audiences in Germany,” said Peter Berry, Oliver’s spokesperson, when asked to explain the chef’s involvement. ”He’s involved in all aspects of the menu creation and ongoing consultation on the food side. He’s also had input on the creative side,” Berry added.
But one fan attending a preview of Das Jamie Oliver Dinner in Frankfurt this week was disappointed at how little Oliver appeared to be involved. ”I love Jamie, I really love him,” said Nicole Pittelkow, who attended with husband Eric. ”But if it’s called Das Jamie Oliver Dinner you expect him to do more than just pop up a few times and read from a script. I do wonder how much creative control Jamie had over it. I really enjoyed the food, but the play was silly.”
The script for Das Jamie Oliver Dinner was written by Michael Kunze, who has written several German musicals. But according to the director, Karl-Heinz Helmschrot, Oliver was consulted, and insisted that a scene featuring the Queen was cut. ”I met Jamie three times, and he checked everything to make sure it was good for his image. He wanted to make sure it embodied his philosophy,” said Helmschrot. But as he can’t speak German, it is unclear quite how much Oliver understood when he attended the premiere alongside a score of German celebrities — and, curiously, Larry Hagman from Dallas.
The idea for Das Jamie Oliver Dinner came from Matthias Hoffmann, a well-known German promoter, who has recently had a worldwide hit with the circus show Afrika! Afrika! Das Jamie Oliver Dinner is scheduled to run until May in Frankfurt, then move on to Hamburg. With the wages of nine actors, seven acrobats, a band, at least 15 waiters and a kitchen of chefs to pay (plus Oliver himself), it is an expensive show. The producers are hoping to do brisk business with office Christmas parties.
Das Jamie Oliver Dinner is just one of the many projects Oliver is juggling. He has just signed up to design kitchens at a luxury development in Dubai, he is filming a show about travelling across America, and then there are his long-term projects — branches of his social enterprise restaurant, Fifteen, in London, Melbourne, Amsterdam and Cornwall and his Jamie’s Italian chain. Plus, his third child is on the way. ”Do you think,” said his Frankfurt fan Nicole, ”he has taken on too much?” – guardian.co.uk