‘I HAD THE WORST TIME AT SCHOOL – I WAS A FAILURE'

FOODIE LEGEND JAMIE OLIVER ON HIS SONS FOLLOWING IN HIS FOOTSTEPS AND WHY HE AND HIS FAMILY ARE TRYING TO LAUGH MORE

- ELLIE KIRWIN-JONES

Jamie Oliver – doting father-of-five and Britain’s favourite chef – taught us all that anyone can knock up a pukka Mediterranean salmon or get the gang round for a Sunday roast with a twist.

Now, as we’re shown around Jamie Oliver HQ in London, The Naked Chef himself tells us he’s on an exciting new quest. He’s hoping to find the next cookbook star, someone to follow in his footsteps, with a Penguin Random House book deal up for grabs in a brand new Channel 4 competition.

Since Jamie was discovered while working as a sous-chef 25 years ago, he has barely stopped and he now has 24 best-selling cookery books to his name. So it’s no surprise that when he walks into the room, he tells us he is always the first person to arrive at HQ at 6am every single day.

But Jamie, 46, also reveals that he’s been enjoying a bit of a break lately, having recently moved out of the capital with his wife Jools, 47, and their children – Poppy, 19, Daisy, 18, Petal, 12, Buddy, 11, and River, five.

“We moved out of London and we’re sort of trying to laugh more and have less pressure on our shoulders,” Jamie says.