Obama's Pukka Lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Forget "Puck": get to know the word "pukka". Word from London's Daily Mail is that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be taking President Barack Obama to Jamie Oliver's London restaurant Fifteen. The restaurant has been sweeped by security and the staffed prepared, but no one knows for sure if Obama will actually eat there or not – now that news of the dinner has been leaked to the press. [After publishing this article, Super Chef learned that there is no reservation and that the Daily Mail article was fabricated.] Super Chef wishes the reservation was true. Why? Fifteen is Jamie Oliver's flagship for a chain of restaurants that takes disadvantaged kids and turns them into cooks and chefs. Fifteen Foundation exists to inspire disadvantaged young people – homeless, unemployed, overcoming drug or alcohol problems - to believe that they can create for themselves great careers in the restaurant industry. Training and opening the restaurant was the basis for the TV show, Jamie's Kitchen. There are now additional Fifteen restaurants with their own foundations in Amsterdam, Cornwall and Melbourne. Since then, Jamie has taken on British school food and worked hard to get the government to finance better food for British kids (See Jamie Oliver Betters British School Food ). More recently, he has campaigned against battery chickens and eggs (See Jamie Oliver: Chicken Out!) and improving the British pig industry. There is no American television chef with a national presence who has yet taken on serious issues of children's nutrition and the quality of our food supply for consumer to the same degree. Michelle and Barack Obama have been vocal in their support for good nutrition and locally grown food. They support educational programs, like the Fifteen Foundation, that give kids a chance to break out of poverty. Jamie has been busy filming Channel 4's new program, Jamie in America (See Jamie Oliver's American Road Trip), which Super Chef guess will eventually get picked up by the Food Network. Even without President Obama's visit, Jamie has a opening to start his campaign for change on this side of the Atlantic – and inspire American chef and the American chief to follow his lead. What about "pukka"? Obama and Brown would have eaten a pukka meal at Fifteen – that's authentic and well built - something the Obamas would have appreciate Previous articles: Jamie Oliver: Recipease American Road Trip What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver Branding: Jamie Oliver - Watching the Salt Jamie Oliver & Paul McCartney: - Anti-Landmine Campaign Jamie Oliver Label: Sainsburys v. Tesco Jamie Oliver: Chicken Out! Jamie Oliver: Jamie At Home Jamie Oliver: Cook with Jamie Jamie Oliver Cartoon By Aardman Jamie Oliver Betters British School Food FOOD PIX: Jamie Oliver Fat Suit Nora Sands: Nora's Dinners Jamie Oliver Signs Sainsbury's Jamie Oliver New Year: School Lunch Jamie Oliver on Vodafone Live! Jamie Oliver: Real Guts Fat Lady Sings Jamie Oliver Jamie Oliver: School Lunch [Chefs & Branding - complete] [Chefs & Politics - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, cookbook reviews, Jamie Oliver --> back to Super Chef