By Jennifer Sergent
Scripps Howard News Service
LONDON—The diners who arrived on June 30 at Fifteen, one of London's hottest restaurants, were unwitting guinea pigs in a final exam for the student chefs who a year ago had no culinary experience.
Fifteen is celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's experiment to take 15 disadvantaged youths, train them, and then send them off into culinary careers. British television filmed a documentary of the experience, which will be broadcast on the Food Network in October.
After the first group of students completed 16 weeks of basic culinary training and short apprenticeships at restaurants in London, Fifteen opened to great fanfare last November. It still gets rave reviews.
But until June 30, there was always one professional chef in the kitchen for every two students. That Monday morning, however, the trainees were told they would be alone in the kitchen that night.
And television crews documenting Fifteen's progress were there to film it, while Oliver personally served much of the food.
"I was quite scared, but excited at the same time," trainee Kerryann Dunlop, 19, said. "It was like our final challenge."
On their own, they divided up duties, wrote the menu (which changes daily) and stocked the ingredients.
"We all just delegated jobs to each other and just cracked off and put our heads down," added Tim Siadatan, 19.
The night appeared to be successful: Nothing was returned to the kitchen, and no patron complained about the food, Oliver said.
"Not one meal comped. There was not one issue. Everything I tasted was excellent. I was so proud, it was killing me," said Oliver, 28, who's also known as the Naked Chef and the host of Oliver's Twist on the Food Network.
Over the year, the students prepared meals for the likes of talk-show diva Oprah Winfrey and Virgin Airlines founder Richard Branson. They've been taken to the Champagne region of France to learn about grape varieties and food pairings. They've gone to Italy to taste wine and olive oil.
And, thanks to the charity that's funded by Fifteen's profits, the students received scholarships to go on to restaurants all over England and as far away as the United States, Japan and Australia.
The restaurant has proved so successful that Oliver is "slowly, slowly" planning to open Fifteens in the United States and Australia, he said.
In addition to the expansion plans, Oliver wrote a cookbook on the experience called Jamie's Kitchen, which will be published in the United States Oct. 1 by Hyperion.
British television aired a five-part series of the same name documenting the students' progress, and the Food Network will broadcast it in the United States each night Oct. 13-17 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The series will be rebroadcast as a five-hour "marathon" on Oct. 19, beginning at 6 p.m. ET/PT, and Oct. 25, beginning at 2 p.m. ET/PT.
Now that the first year is over and Oliver is training a new set of students, he now calls the experiment his lifelong commitment.
"It was worth it. I feel as inspired as the kids do," he said. "The nice thing is, it works. The attitude of the kids far surpassed anything I ever dreamt of."
The trainees feel the same.
"It's changed my life," Siadatan said. "It's given me a passion for something I never thought I'd do. It's opened my eyes up to dreams I never thought were possible before."
Although the students still have several years to go in low-paying kitchen jobs before they are elevated to the chef level, their experience with Oliver has them surprised at what they've done so far.
Dunlop, for example, said she's already developed a cooking "style" similar to Oliver's. In fact, at Oliver's recommendation she's planning to go on to London's River Cafe, where Oliver got his own start.
"I like to just use good, simple food," she said, echoing the Naked Chef mantra. "Full of flavor, but not too complicated."
She's come a long way. At first, she was skipping training classes for weeks in a row. The Jamie's Kitchen series portrays her as one of the delinquents in the bunch.
"It's not all bad!" Dunlop protested, explaining how she's developed a particular expertise in pastry and dessert-making.
Siadatan, who plans to go on to Salt, a trendy restaurant in Sydney, Australia, shook his head when asked about his progress.
"This is incredible, how much in a year's time we've actually managed to achieve," he said. "Last year, some of us couldn't even boil an egg. Now we're making some of the best food London has to offer."
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