Chef Jamie Oliver has launched a delivery-only pasta service - and says he is ready 'to go again' after the collapse of his restaurant chain three years ago.
Oliver’s new venture, Pasta Dreams, with delivery-first restaurant group Taster, will see his Italian-inspired dishes available on Uber Eats, Deliveroo and other platforms. Two pop-up spaces in London and France were opened on Thursday (October 13), giving customers the chance to click and collect their dishes.
The shops will be running from Archer Street, Soho and Rue Descombes, Paris until January 1, 2023. The 47-year-old hopes for the service to be rolled out across London and other UK cities at a rate of two sites a month.
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Pasta felt like the “natural” choice for Oliver to build a delivery brand around. “It’s something I’ve done nearly every day for 30 years,” he says. And the public may see elements of the old Jamie’s Italian chain in it: “Because ultimately, it’s from me and my palate. No matter what I do, there’s a little bit of JI (Jamie’s Italian), in a way. JI was just part of me.
“But it’s definitely different,” he said of the new venture. The dishes have been designed so that they travel well and the pasta will all be made fresh, with a specific blend of flours and organic eggs.
Pasta options include spaghetti pomodoro and a fresh take on carbonara, called a ‘cacio e pepe x carbonara’ that combines two classic dishes, but travels well. The menu also includes antipasti, garlic focaccia, salads and tirimisu and is delivered in plastic-free packaging.
Oliver says he has learned from the collapse of his restaurant chain in 2019 – and is ready “to go again” after the “minor blip”. The celebrity chef’s restaurant chain suffered 22 closures and about 1,000 job losses.
When asked if he’d learned from what happened, Oliver says: “Yeah, for sure, and every other failure that I’ve had – which is about 50%. But I’ve never been more rounded, I’ve never been more experienced. It happens, and I would call it a minor blip really, in the vision and the dream.
"A very painful one. But definitely, I’m better for it. We had 13 amazing years and learned loads. I was a young man when I started, I’m much older and wiser now."
With 23 years of TV work and cookbook publishing under his belt, selling more than 48 million books worldwide, Oliver says his job has been to “take something that’s a hard technique as a chef” and adapt it for supermarkets and home cooks – and Pasta Dreams is in the same vein.
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