Jamie Oliver has admitted that his ‘hero’ Marco Pierre White still ‘doesn’t like him at all’.
The chef, 49, addressed their old feud in detail as he said Marco, 63, ‘destroyed’ him when they first met.
Marco famously previously described Jamie as ‘a fat chef with a drum kit’ during a 2007 interview with The Sun. Jamie hit back at this calling Marco a ‘Mafia-don-type character’.
Marco later hit out at him again for being ‘delusional’ and refusing to admit he had ‘f***ed up’ after Jamie had blamed Brexit for the collapse of his restaurant empire.
Speaking on the Louis Theroux podcast this week Jamie addressed the feud saying Marco ‘still doesn’t like him’ – but still praised his fellow chef.
Jamie said: ‘Oh he doesn’t like me at all, still doesn’t.
Jamie Oliver has admitted that his ‘hero’ Marco Pierre White still ‘doesn’t like him at all’ as he addressed their long-running feud this week
The chef, 49, addressed their old feud in detail as he said Marco, 63, ‘destroyed’ him when they first met
Speaking on the Louis Theroux podcast this week Jamie addressed the feud saying Marco ‘still doesn’t like him’ – but still praised his fellow chef
‘I don’t know (why). I have no shared history with him, working under him, so, he doesn’t have a sense of control.
‘I mean, I could easily start saying, look, we don’t get on, more importantly, he was really important for the industry.’
He said of Marco: ‘When I was a very young chef, the industry was quite dark and boring, and it felt like from a different era and he came along, and he was incredible, and his sort of energy and attitude was so cool, he was my hero, for sure.’
Jamie continued: ‘We went on a shoot one day, spent a day with him and it was perfectly lovely, and then a week later he just destroyed me on a double-page spread.
‘I was really pleased to meet him, but he just destroyed me. And then you sort of think, well that was sort of a bit low.
‘But, you meet people you love and often they’re like, they clearly think you’re a w***er. So that’s fine. I don’t need anything from him.
‘I still think he was a game changer. He was still my hero for that period of my life. But, that’s life and it’s not just Marco, it’s lots of people it’s happened to.’
In 2019 Marco hit out at Jamie for blaming Brexit over the collapse of his restaurant empire.
Marco famously previously described Jamie as ‘a fat chef with a drum kit’ during a 2007 interview with The Sun. Jamie hit back at this calling Marco a ‘Mafia-don-type character’
In 2019 Marco hit out at Jamie for blaming Brexit over the collapse of his restaurant empire (pictured one of his restaurants)
The pair have been embroiled in previous war of words over the past decade, with Jamie calling him a ‘psychological bully’ in 2014
The ‘Naked Chef’ saw 25 of his Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen eateries close in May of that year when the brands went into administration with around 1,000 jobs lost.
Speaking on Radio 4 at the time Jamie blamed the failures on the high street becoming ‘Uber-fied’ and the uncertainty of Brexit causing people’s eating habits to change.
But, speaking at his Steakhouse Bar & Grill restaurant at The Cube in Birmingham, Marco then dismissed the claims and questioned whether Jamie was ‘delusional’.
He added he had previously had a ‘horrific’ experience at a Jamie Oliver restaurant at Gatwick Airport the year before due to the wait for his food, suggesting the service may have also had an impact on a drop in trade.
Marco said: ‘I have read Jamie is blaming his business failure on Brexit but I really don’t understand that at all.
‘Wouldn’t that mean then all restaurants have gone bust too?
‘I don’t think he can blame Brexit. It’s the lamest excuse in the world. I think it is wrong to blame Brexit. We’re all in the same boat. If it’s Brexit’s fault, we’d all be bust.
‘How can you blame everyone but yourself? Is he delusional?’
On his previous experience dining at a Jamie Oliver restaurant, Marco said: ‘The only time I’ve ever dined at a Jamie’s was at Gatwick Airport. I’ve dined twice there, most recently, last year.
‘Both times I had to wait a very long time for my food. It was horrific. We all make mistakes, we all have bad days.
‘But I’ve got to say it was consistently bad on both occasions. It wasn’t my decision to eat there both times – the people I was with chose to go there, but you wouldn’t want to go to another Jamie’s after that.
‘Even if you enjoyed your food, bad service always leaves a sour taste in the mouth.’
The pair have been embroiled in previous war of words over the past decade, with Jamie calling him a ‘psychological bully’ in 2014.
Marco also criticised Jamie in 2010 over his campaign to ban turkey twizzlers from schools five years earlier, claiming it was ‘unfair’ of his rival to label the product unhealthy
But he added he did not ‘hate’ Marco and added he was once his childhood hero.
Marco also criticised Jamie in 2010 over his campaign to ban turkey twizzlers from schools five years earlier, claiming it was ‘unfair’ of his rival to label the product unhealthy.
It came after Marco signed an advertising deal for Bernard Matthews, which produced the twizzlers.
A year later he claimed Jamie was ‘not a real chef’ because he ‘never won a Michelin star’ and was therefore ‘not accepted by the chef world’.
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