If you have a query about a book order you've placed via this website then you can either email the customer services team: jamieoliver@grenvillebooks.com or call them on 0870 191 9970.

I'm sure you can imagine that I get requests from loads of different worthwhile charities and organisations, every single one of which I would dearly love to support. However, I'm already involved with quite a few and so if you have a charity request I hope you can appreciate that I'm simply not able to support them all.

My diary is pretty busy and it's frustrating that there aren't enough hours in the day for me to go along to all the events I get lovely invites for.

The Fifteen restaurants receive loads of letters every day with requests for different types of donations to go to some great charities. We have set Fifteen up as a non-profit making organisation - that means that all funds go to the Fifteen Foundation charity. That money's used to train disadvantaged youngsters to become chefs - so we're unfortunately unable to offer those kind of donations from the restaurant right now. Take a look at the Fifteen website - it's got loads of info about what's going on at the mo.

visit the Fifteen website

As much as I'd love for you all to take a look in the kitchen at the London restaurant to see all the guys in action, it's actually quite small in there so there's just about enough space for the staff and students! Unfortunately this means we can't offer any tours behind the scenes.

You can get some great cooking lessons from your local college or at evening classes - if only I had the time to do some good old lessons myself! I haven't been able to give any for a while now but do check out what's on offer in your area - I started in my own parent's pub kitchen!

I'm always very flattered when people ask me to cook for their dinner parties and the like. However, I like to spend any spare cooking time in Fifteen with the staff and trainees. That pretty much takes up all the extra time I have, so I myself can't really cater for private dinner parties right now. However, the lovely folks at Fifteen Events can assist you with this.

I currently work with a few companies on getting my recipes published so it's only fair to keep things with them right now. Contracts and copyrights get pretty complicated!

Those college guys work you hard don't they? Take a look through the recipes in one of my books or here on this website and choose those that you reckon might be relevant for your project. You might also want to try asking the guys on the forums - they're a helpful bunch and they know their stuff...

visit the forums
visit the recipes section

You can check out Royal Worcester's website to find out the address of a friendly stockist in your area.

visit the Royal Worcester website

Check out Tefal's website to get stockist details of the Tefal range at the moment.

visit the Tefal website

If you have a question about this website, you can contact my team here at mission control. Please be aware that the team are busy guys as well so they cannot guarantee an answer to every question they receive.

Because you’ll use them all the time it’s really important that you get yourself some great, sturdy pans. For home use it’s best to always go for non-stick if you can — it’s definitely the way forward! After working with Tefal I can say that their Professional Series would be my first choice. They’re widely available, so try to pick up a few from that range.

In my opinion, gas hobs are far superior to electric hobs. I’d go for them every time because they’re more robust and give you more control over temperature. The ideal scenario would be a gas hob and an electric oven. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for, but when using cheaper-to-medium price ovens I would most definitely say go for the larger, better-known companies like AEG, Hotpoint or Smeg. These tend to have very good warranties, spare parts ands servicing departments, as opposed to other makes which can be a bit pretentious and more about design-over-content.

When it comes to knives, you really do get what you pay for. What I don’t want you to do is go out and buy a large, cheap set, because they won’t last very long. There are three brands which I think are great; Victorinox, Global and Sabatier. You won’t go far wrong if you buy a large and small chopping knife, a paring knife and a serrated bread knife from one of those brands.

The only ones to go for are charcoal or wood barbecues. Gas ones just don’t give you that wonderful, smoky flavour that makes barbecued food so brilliant. When you’re making stuff on the barbecue it’s easy to burn things on the outside and not cook them through on the inside. To make sure this doesn’t happen, organise your charcoal high on one side (hot end) and low on the other. This way, you can use one side to get fast, hot, direct heat to achieve good colour and the other to cook the food slowly and evenly. That should give you lovely tasty and moist food.

I bought myself the most amazing hand made barbecue off a bloke in Oxford. It was about two or three times the price of a really good standard barbecue, but it should last years because it’s stainless steel and incredibly thick. So if you’re interested in the best barbecue in the world go to www.caribbeancookers.com. If you don’t want to splash out too much it’s pretty easy and cheap to make a barbecue of your own. Give it a go!

All you need to do is put a couple of bricks on the ground with a very large old, 8cm–deep roasting tray on top of them. Scrunch up some paper and place it in the tray with some dry kindling wood to give you a kind of pyramid shape. Light the paper and kindling and watch carefully to make sure the flames don’t go out. When the fire has burnt down and the coals are white-hot and ashy, place a metal cake rack on top of them. Easy! For more info about barbecuing and recipes take a look at my book Jamie at Home, there’s a whole section dedicated to tips and recipes!

Whether you’re peeling veg, shaving Parmesan or finely slicing veggies for salads, a good-quality speed peeler is a godsend in the kitchen. Quick and precise, I think it’s a genius piece of kit.

Tongs give better control when grilling or turning meat on the barbecue. They’re also perfect for picking up hot things and serving food.

A pestle and mortar is my ultimate kitchen gadget. A Flavour Shaker™ is a modern, downsized version of a pestle and mortar and is really user-friendly. Either one of these will help you bash, bruise and get as much flavour as possible out of loads of ingredients.

You may have seen me in Jamie at Home cooking on a wood oven which I had built in my garden last year. These ovens reach very high cooking temperatures so they’re perfect for cooking bread and pizza. If you’re keen to get an oven like mine you can get one from a company called ‘Orchard Ovens’ in Lancashire. Although Orchard ovens provided the oven and installed it, my own builder built the brick facade around it and the swirly chimney. Further information about these ovens and contact details can be found on the company’s website: www.orchardovens.co.uk

If you don’t want to go to that expense you can get a similar affect in your own oven. Here’s the trick… buy yourself a pizza stone from a good cookery shop or a thick piece of marble or granite from your local builders’ merchant or stonemason. The great thing about these slabs is that you can measure up your oven and have a piece cut to size. Just preheat the oven stone or slab in a very hot oven and your pizza bases will turn out really well when cooked on them — almost giving you wood oven results! You can also roast whole fish, big T-bone steaks and lamb chops on a pizza stone or slab. Treat yourself to one – you won’t regret it!