After four years, Jamie Oliver is back with a new restaurant – but can it right his wrongs?

The Naked Chef’s cheeky chappy appeal and approachable recipes changed how the nation thinks about food. After four years out of the game, can his new restaurant in Covent Garden do it again? Hannah Twiggs books a table to find out...

Art deco interiors, low lighting and Jamie’s favourite artists set the tone for this new chapter (David Loftus)

I’m a firm believer in second chances. I’m even forgiving enough for third chances, but fourth? Jamie Oliver’s first new venture since the rather embarrassing collapse of his restaurant portfolio in 2019 is more of a 90 seconds to midnight kind of last chance. If he’d been a boyfriend, he’d be dumped and I’d still be in therapy.

After the domino-effect closure of Jamie’s Italians nationwide, the not-for-profit Cornwall restaurant and chef training school Fifteen, and the steakhouse and butchery Barbecoa, the Naked Chef has been noticeably absent from the restaurant scene. There’s been pop-ups and successful franchises abroad – and TV appearances and cookbooks, of course – but nothing in the UK.

You might have thought that after his restaurant group collapsed with more than £80m worth of debt, not to mention £2.2m owed in staff wages and a second-lowest hygiene rating at his butchery, that Oliver isn’t the man to approach to consult on opening a restaurant.