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Fri
06
jamie’s italian in cardiff opening
Fri 06 Nov 2009 @ 16:32 | story by Danny McCubbinThe new Jamie’s Italian opens in Cardiff November 16th at the St David’s 2 shopping center in The Hayes. This is the first restaurant in Wales and spanning two floors the restaurant will have the capacity for 190 covers. It will feature a stunning wrought iron and stainless steel bar and an anti pasta counter centrepiece. On the wall next to the stairs up to the mezzanine level a graffiti artist has spray painted a glorious red Welsh dragon.
The management team is spearheaded by Tom James who joined as General Manager in Bath last year and has come home to his roots (he’s a Cardiff boy) to be General Manager in Cardiff. The Jamie’s Italian team are very excited to be in Wales and Cardiff is a fantastic city – full of history yet vibrant, cosmopolitan and definitely fun.
Sarah Stephenson, Recruitment and Communications for Jamie’s Italian, shares her insight on what is involved with training when new members of the team come on board.
“The first 2 days of staff training for any brand new Jamie’s Italian are vitally important and ‘LOADSA’ fun! It’s all about team building, sharing knowledge and letting everyone get to grips with what really makes Jamie’s Italian tick,” says Sarah.
Day 1
Manager Introductions. The managers and openings team introduce themselves. It’s no run of the mill intro either. Louise Ludlam, Talent Manager, tells the story of when she was bitten by a chimpanzee and Jules Hunt, Executive Chef, slightly ‘bends’ the truth about a pike bite he got on a fishing trip once. One manager shared the fact that she’d kissed Richard Branson, one had de-horned and castrated a goat and one had waltzed with Ronnie Corbett. Once these memorable introductions are over and all the new recruits are wondering what on earth it is they’ve let themselves in for the Godfather theme tune starts and in comes Gennaro Contaldo.
He needs no introduction! A long term friend of Jamie Oliver, Gennaro is a talented chef himself and has been closely involved in the development of Jamie’s Italian. He talks about happy eggs and shows everyone how to make pasta and he makes sure that everyone truly understands that the most important ingredient in food is love.
Our butcher, Pat Hurlihy, from Russell Hume brings in a selection of animals and does a fantastic demonstration of where all the cuts of meat come from. We even get to try some lamb carpaccio straight off the knife with nothing but a splash of orange juice for seasoning.
Creativity is the name of the game, as this exercise ends the first day of training. Everyone gets to extrude a handful of fresh pasta to take home. They’re given strict instructions about their homework – come up with the best use of the pasta to win a bottle of bubbly.
DAY 2
Pasta challenge results . This has previously been a pretty hotly contested battle and with Gennaro judging anything can happen (and usually does!). In the past, uses for the pasta have included ‘Rasta pasta man’ (a kind of Rastafarian action man), an Amy Winehouse style wig, all sorts of jewelry and even a short animated film (I kid you not). Unfortunately the winner tends to be the person sitting nearest to Gennaro and is NEVER the one who’s asked about a) gluten free pasta or b) vegetarianism.
Fifteen. Our Jamie’s Italian teams always get asked hundreds of questions about Fifteen so Robin Souter comes in and tells them all about it. Robin is one of the floor managers at Fifteen and is head of training for any new starter. Normally we get somebody wanting a transfer to Fifteen Melbourne at this point!
Desserts and Anti Pasti. Jules, Gennaro and Marcos Georgiou, Senior Head Chef, take over and everyone gets their first taste of Jamie’s Italian desserts and everything they ever needed to know about cured meat but were afraid to ask.
Martin the Veg man. Martin Levy works for Fresh Direct (Gourmet Fresh Direct) which is the company which supplies our fruit and veg. They also supply the armed forces, Harrods and they supplied produce for the G8 summit dinner which Jamie cooked for this summer. Martin sets out a wonderful spread of the most weird and wonderful veg known to man including ‘Brollyflower’ (a cross between cauliflower and broccoli!) and the highlight is the tasting of Szechuan pepper buds. The idea is to let everyone experience just how crazy food can be and what sensory tricks it can play on you! Everyone eats one at the same time and experiences a tingling followed by frothing of the mouth and a rush of saliva. After that the mouth goes “as dry as a camel’s arse” (Jules’ exact description) then you’re hit by a bout of severe dribbling and mouth numbness. Nice.
THE GRAND FINALE
Quiz show. This is a chance for the Managers to really let their imagination and creativity run riot! Launched at the second opening in Bath (to great acclaim) everyone’s put into teams and the knowledge gained in the past two days are put to test. We’ve had The X factor, The Generation Game, ‘I should have been Italian get me out of here’ (complete with gorilla suits, cavewomen and a giant crocodile) and the Cardiff team have threatened to stage a Challenge Anneka style interactive treasure hunt involving high footfall venues in the city, bad taste lycra trousers and fake moustaches. Watch this space! The quiz shows culminate, traditionally, with a Panacottaroff (it’s a round of the quickest non-handed panacotta eating not a Russian dance) and a round which involves a 30 second impression of Jamie. (The words ‘Pukka’, ‘Bish Bash Bosh’ and ‘Bruv’ feature strongly, oddly enough).
It’s a belly laugh finish to a fantastic two days and everyone who has been hired feels transformed from strangers into a team. Now the hard work begins. We look forward to hosting you down at the restaurant soon!
About the author: Danny McCubbin is the website editor for JamieOliver.com
For more information on Jamie’s Italian
Comments
Negative comments like those on this site are not representative of all clients. Like other sites like tripadvisor, you will always find that people are far more likely to make the effort to leave feedback if they've had a bad experience than a good one.
He's an inspiration to so many people & Cardiff FINALLY has a decent restaurant.
I've been to Jamie's Italian a few times & I love it. OUTSTANDING Service, OUTSTANDING Food, OUTSTANDING Cocktails (Especially the Cosmopolitans) and Great surroundings, Well done.
This is exactly what Cardiff needed! Simple, Classy & stylish.
Thanks Jamie!
I now have somewhere to go on the weekends that doesn't involve me sitting in a restaurant filled with Hen & Stag do's
God Bless Ya!
In summary, an excellent front of house, food is good but the noise levels are too high for a meaningful conversation. As for customer feedback - its needs serious improvement. Jamie, if you want a 'silent shopper' to help the organization learn, count me in.
I think that most of you people commenting know nothing about food or are simply going to the wrong restaurant.
I spent a fantastic Saturday afternoon in Jamie's Italian Cardiff, the service was excellent, I was not rushed in any way (you must eat too quick) and the food was exactly what I expected.
One of the most amazing comments I have seen is someone complaining that their children didn't like the food because perhaps the burger was too fussy!!! Listen, take your kids to Burger King or McDonalds.
Even more bizarre is the man who says his thinly sliced beef was bland ! Does he not know what Carpaccio is ? its thinly sliced raw beef, next time go to a Harvester and have a well done steak and put ketchup on it.
Someone has also said that they have been four times and each time it gets worse!!!! Why keep going back? it doesn't agree with you, go somewhere else.
I also like the comment about the surroundings being very basic!!!! There is a man stood in the dining area constantly making fresh pasta (is this a common sight in restaurants hmm) there are all manner of meats hanging behind the bar where they are being freshly prepared for platters and there is a constant buzz, they even have long mirrors at head height so that when you are the person who ends up sitting with your back to everything, you can still see everything, pure genius
Basically I would warn anyone reading the nonsense on this page to ignore it, these people live to complain, I bet they are all the type of people who demand to change rooms as soon as they check into a hotel.
The food was excellent, its rare that we have three courses but were compelled to by the choice on the menu, my son who is seven had a pasta dish which he wolfed down, anyone with seven year olds knows that this is a great sign. The Lemon pollenta cake with orange drizzle was quite simply the best i have ever tasted.
The queues say it all, the people queueing are not the people complaining on this page, i had to write this because i'm sick of people in this country running everything thats great down to the ground, its why Britain never wins a World Cup.
RESTAURANT IS ALWAYS PACKED AND VERY NOISY AND FOOD COMES FAR TO QUICKLY. YOU ARE IN AND OUT IN LESS THAN AN HOUR WHICH IS NOT WHAT I CONSIDER IDEAL FOR A NICE EVENING DINNER! FOOD IS OK NOT GREAT! CONSIDERING ITS NOT THAT CHEAP.
THERE ARE MANY BETTER ITALIAN RESTAURANTS IN CARDIFF AND SWANSEA WITH BETTER FOOD JUST NOT THE KUDOS OF JAMIES NAME.
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. BY THE WAY BY GF IS A FOOD CRITIC AS SHE WASNT IMPRESSED WITH THE SALTINESS OF HER MAIN MEAL WHICH SHE INFACT LEFT UNEATEN.
The recorded message is extremely abrupt and not friendly at all.
When I did get through, the girl on the end of the telephone was more interested in telling me what she had left, rather than asking me what I wanted.
"We only have one at 5." Came her stern reply.
Well Jamie, some people don''t want to be dictated to and told they can eat dinner at 5.So I guess I won't be eating in your restaurant, and there is no way I would ever stand in the street outside and wait.
Not impressed with the resterauntor the food, all packed in like we were at a cattle mart sitting on plastic chairs, the food was ok my husbanc commented that his flash stake was like "posh kebbab meat" my lamb was ok told it would be medium rare - great then it came nore well done with burnt bits. getting the waitres' attention was impossible as she was to busy, the men on the table next to us couldnt read the menu as it was to dark and had to use his mobile phone as a light!
overall i would not go to jamies again there are much better places to eat in cardiff and i will be spending my money in those in future.
In contrast the meal that we had on Friday evening at Jamies's was at best ordinary and at worst evidence that Jamie Oliver is trading on his name and name only. If Jamie serves food like this in London I doubt his restaurant would last a week.
Again, in contrast, we had lunch at a cafe called The Plan in one of Cardiff's arcades. That was better value for money in every respect than the so called Italian that we had at Jamies.
I won't be eating at Jamie's again. My wife's risotto was over salty and my steak could have been bought anywhere. There was nothing special about it. The whole point is that we went to this restaurant expectuing to be wowed because it is 'Jamie's'. There was no wow factor and I think Jamie has forgotten all those lessons he told us that he has learned during his TV series set in Italy.
I have eaten in many simple Italian village cafes and I have rarely, if ever, not been wowed so I think it is disrepsectful to the tradition of Italian cooking to claim that the food we were served on Friday night is anything near to being Italian.
I suggest that Jamie sends his chefs on holiday to Italy and to only eat in village cafes and to take notes and learn! Of course it may be that he isn't interested so long as the less discerning think that what they are eating in Jamies Italian is anything like Italian.
This is the first time I have visited your resturant and I was very impressed with the quality of the food and the friendliness and efficiency of the staff. No doubt I'll be returning soon. If you've not yet tried this resturant then please give it a go (sit near the kitchen area if you can, it just like a scene from hells kitchen and riveting to watch as you sip your wine!)
I think we need to send Gordon in to sort this place out
Very poor show for such "A Showman"
From what I could see, the people who were happy enough to queue were studenty types (Nothing derogotory meant), so how do older people get to eat there? We decided to go for a drink and come back but a local bar man told me it was like a factory in there. 12 mins from ordering your main course to eating it.
Hmmmmm! I guess I'll never know as I won't be going back.
Over crowded or Bustling? - Staff Friendly or Annoying? - Trendy or Pretentious? - Food Great or Average? - Expensive or Reasonable?
Guess the answers are largely dictated by our expectations? Personally I shall not rush back, there must be better Italian food in Cardiff !
For the total cost of over £42.00 it was far too expensive. Sorry it's a thumbs down.
very very impressed !!!
One of our friends was ill afterwards. We later found out that other people had been ill as well.
When we informed the restaurant their response was also disappointing
It was an experience a bit like school dinners.
Jamie you need to do better!!
I want to bring my husband to your new Cardiff restaurant for a January birthday meal as a joint celebration for his birthday but also because he has made a fantastic recovery from testicular cancer and has been such a great inspiration to me and lots of other people. I can't seem to find the contact number - also do you still do gift vouchers for your restaurants?
Many thanks
Kayla
Russ in Cardiff.
the best meal i have ever tasted whell werth the money
goergoes..
Please let me know your tel. #, so we may enjoy your special cooking!!! Thank you,
all the way from Canada....please....let us know....
Thanks
You've come to a city which already has a number of really excellent Italian Restaurants. Competetion is already fierce and it's good to see another one join the list.
My husband and I visited Cardiff on Tuesday and had a t Jamie's Italian and it looks amazing, also had a look at the menu - can't wait to try it. Good luck Jamie from two Welsh Wrinklies xxxx
This adds to the prestige of the city and is a welcome addition.
Good luck and best wishes for success from a vegetarian.
cant wait to dine here bet the food is pukka...




