The 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

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