DINNER tonight was at Jamie’s Italian on Upper St Martin’s Lane in the Covent Garden.
"I should have been Italian," Jamie Oliver said when the first of his affordable Italian restaurants opened in the Oxford in 2008.
"There is such diversity in lifestyles, cooking, traditional and dialects – this is why, as a chef, I find this country so exciting and what inspired me to create Jamie’s Italian.
"(Covent Garden) is our flagship central London site, (it’s) a beautiful diverse place and the restaurant reflects the hustle and bustle of the `neighbourhood’ just perfectly."
Now there are 18 versions of Jamie's Italian around the UK, with another five opening during the British summer, and you can't make a reservation to eat at the Covent Garden establishment on a Friday or Saturday night until the start of September.
Now there are 18 versions of Jamie's Italian around the UK, with another five opening during the British summer, and you can't make a reservation to eat at the Covent Garden establishment on a Friday or Saturday night until the start of September.
Just for the record I had the crab & squid ink risotto – "black, creamy rice with hand-picked Start Bay Devonshire crab and crunchy herb breadcrumbs" – and, for dessert, the Tuscan "Eat & Mess" which was described on the menu as ``fruit-rippled meringues with cream and summer fruit berries’’.
