Happiness on a Plate

Foodies all over the world know chef Nobu Matsuhisa for his black cod with miso. One of Gordon Ramsay’s signature dishes is his ravioli of lobster and langoustines poached in lobster bisque on a bed of crushed garden peas. And Jamie Oliver? Well, he does a mean kedgeree.

The 26-year-old wunderkind, a.k.a. the Naked Chef, has dished up his unpretentious food — "tasty grub," he calls it — on TVs around the world, and his cookbooks (The Naked Chef and The Return of the Naked Chef) have sold millions. Despite the name, he’s no culinary Chippendale’s star performing Ginsu-knife stunts: the "Naked" label refers not to Oliver, but rather to his back-to-the-basics cooking. Now, with his third book, Happy Days with the Naked Chef (Penguin; 320 pages), just out, he is taking his celeb-chef gig on the road for the first time and back to the small screen for his third BBC series.

Simplicity is at the heart of the book, the TV show, which began airing in Britain last week, and the Happy Days tour, which hits Australia later this month. The book has chapters called "Comfort Grub" and "Nice Bit of Meat," and Oliver is as happy to teach his fans how to make a good sandwich as roasted monkfish. On stage, he packs "spoofy attitude" and "two days in the life of me" into two hours, with 12 samples of his trademark fare. "His recipes are things you can make at home," says Chris Lansdown, a 25-year-old student and longtime fan. "It’s not haute cuisine." Add his relaxed manner and banter peppered with words like pukka (Oliver-speak for good) and sexy (how else would you describe your favorite sandwich?), and you have someone American chef Bobby Flay describes as "a rock star who cooks."

Oliver believes that anyone can make simple dishes well, whether it’s as basic as roast chicken or something that sounds complex, like his Sicilian roasted brill steak with lemon, anchovies, capers and rosemary. "I feel like I’ve got a responsibility to communicate how easy it is," Oliver says. "Sheila from Sheffield and Billy from Bognor — how can I make their lives taste a bit better?"

Oliver has been thinking about that since he first started helping out at his parents’ Essex pub at the age of six. "My mates thought I was a right wussy for cooking," he says. Still, he packed picnic lunches for them and worked in the pub’s kitchen to earn pocket money. At 16 he left for catering college in London. After completing his studies, he got an entry-level job at Antonio Carluccio’s Neal Street eatery before talking his way into the kitchen of the River Café. It was at the famed modern Italian restaurant that a BBC documentary crew captured Oliver on camera. Soon after the show aired, the agents came calling for the junior chef with the cheeky grin and tousled hair.

If Oliver’s reach is global — his show airs in 50 countries and his books are available in nine languages — so are his influences. "If you look in the book, it’s all quite worldly," he says. "There’s American stuff in there, Japanese, Asian, Australian, fusion food." He travels at least two months a year, visiting the U.S. six times and Australia twice. He’s in France and Italy all the time, sourcing produce and tasting olive oils. Last year he went to Japan for three weeks and returned with the idea for seared tuna with grated ginger and chives, which appears in the Happy Days cookbook. On his list of places he’d like to go next: Turkey, Morocco and Vietnam.

Of course, every artist needs a canvas on which to experiment. Oliver’s is Monte’s, the tony London restaurant where he serves as consultant chef. "Everything outside my chef life — the books, the telly — has been so frantic and fantastic, and I needed to keep my end in it," he says. "Consultancy is a bit like baby-sitting instead of being a mother." That means he’s only at Monte’s once or twice a week, just enough to oversee the seasonal menus and to indulge his own passion for finer food. The job seems to be working — for Oliver and for Monte’s. Since he joined, the dining room has been packed most days. "Restaurants are all about balance. It’s not all about being beautiful," he says. "It’s where the restaurant is, what it feels like, who you’re shouting out to."

At Monte’s, that’s usually businessmen at a deal-making lunch or a couple out for a fancy dinner, willing to fork out $25 for a grilled spatchcock poussin seasoned with preserved lemon, parsley, sweet garlic, chunky chips and aioli.

But next year Oliver’s culinary shout-outs will be answered by a new audience: a baby. He and his wife Jools are expecting their first next March. He has pledged to cut out the seven-day workweeks, schedule some proper vacation and, eventually, teach his kid to cook "whether he likes it or not. He’ll get it naturally from me because he’ll wonder what I’m so excited about." Which will probably be another novice-friendly recipe: pureed chicken with roasted garlic, anyone?