Jamie Oliver to launch new restaurant in Dublin

Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

Deputy Editor

The Jamie Oliver Group is set to open a 100-seater restaurant in the centre of Dublin, as the celebrity chef's restaurant empire continues its international expansion.

The chef told the Irish Times that the restaurant, Chequer Lane, which will open in April, will celebrate the best of Irish produce, including "fresh rock oysters straight from the bay, beef cooked using a robata grill, and monkfish and scampi" - as well as the chef's trademark roast dinners on a Sunday.

The Exchequer Street restaurant, he said, "will celebrate some of my favourite comfort food and the menu will be packed with big, hearty flavours and simple, seasonal ingredients: the food I really love to cook and diners love to eat.”

Since his UK restaurant empire collapsed last year, the chef has continued to open and run successful restaurants abroad, with a grand total of 20 restaurants worldwide - including a Jamie's Italian in Dundrum, which was launched in partnership with Gerry Fitzpatrick of the Fitzers restaurant group, also teaming up with Jamie on the Chequer Lane restaurant project.

Following the closure of the vast majority of his UK restaurants - including Fifteen Cornwall, a restaurant, charity and social entreprise which was operated independently from The Jamie Oliver Group - the chef said he had experienced the most disappointing days of his life.

In a documentary aired following the demise of his restaurant empire, the chef shared his guilt and sense of responsibility.

His claims that his restaurants closing was partially due to rising food costs associated with Brexit, however, were rejected by MP James Cleverly, who said that in fact, the quality of the food at his restaurants didn't match the price, calling it the presentation "poor" and the dishes "bland."

Aside from overseeing an international restaurant empire, the chef has always been a vocal advocate for the improvement of food education, produce quality and animal welfare, and was the poster boy for Sainsbury's groceries for more than a decade before signing a deal with Tesco in 2018.

His cookbooks are still some of the most sold in the world - out of 24 published since 1999, 19 have been bestsellers - and his YouTube channel has almost 5 million subscribers.

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