The 10 tricks that make Jamie Oliver tick

“Part of loving someone is also knowing how to not like them.”

When Jamie Oliver first appeared on our TV screens back in 1999, little did he realise he’d still be around 16 years later. Then, he was the upstart chef who couldn’t believe his luck at being on TV. Now, as he approaches his 40th birthday later this month, he reveals the 10 tricks that make Jamie tick.

1. Build the perfect partnership

Jools and I have have been together since we were 18. The secret of our success? Being patient. A long-term relationship has amazing moments and it gets better, but part of loving someone is also knowing how to not like them in a good way. Do you know what I mean? I find a lot of young people expect too much from a relationship, they think it will be wonderful all the time. If you knuckle through, you get all the benefits.

I’m not saying I’m an expert but sometimes you’ve just got to try to be content and let it roll and not expect everything to be amazing all the time.

2. Always speak your mind even if it means you’re being a troublemaker!

The best decision of my life was to start using TV as a place to talk about food politics, school dinners and stuff like that. It hadn’t really been done before and felt right. Sometimes it got me into lots of trouble and created reactions that I wasn’t too sure about but it helped me to see what a brilliant opportunity broadcasting is.

3. Help others

I’ve never been jealous of new talent. I’ve had a good, long career. So Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube, which we set up last year, is all about helping new talent. When my first TV programme, The Naked Chef happened I was 23. There’s plenty of room for everyone and you need young ones coming through. I can say ‘young ones’ now I’m going to be 40! I’m not necessarily slowing down. I’m looking forward to doing more of that mentoring, maybe a bit more travelling as I get older.

4. Forget about first place

Fashion guru Sir Paul Smith gave me great advice never try to be the best. Second best is always really good. I think what he meant is maintaining first place in this world is impossible. But to be second best, to be good and keep grafting, gives a great opportunity for a long career. It may seem strange advice but it’s right. Sir Paul is the most successful fashion dude in Europe, he’s the Don and he’s been very good to me.

5. Have a little bit of what you fancy it does you good

Everyone has their own idea of what comfort food is. In TV these days we’re obsessed with turning cooking into a game. But when you see my programmes, I’m just cooking. It could be a pie, it could be a sandwich. In my series Comfort Food and the book of the same name, there’s about 70% of familiar dishes like shepherd’s pie and scrumptious sticky toffee pudding that people will get and understand. Then they can try the 30% of new things that they’ve never heard of.

6. Look after the ones you love

Jools is a great cook for the kids. She’s really good at that. I always cook for me and her. She likes me to look after her, which is fair enough. She probably cooks for me a couple of times a year enough said! I love cooking for my kids, though I can’t every day. I’m not really around Monday to Friday, so I work hard Monday to Thursday, then finish about four o’clock on a Friday. Then it’s the weekend and Daddy’s cooking. I’m sort of a weekend parent while Mum holds the fort.

7. Keep it in the family I love my family’s recipes

My mum’s sticky toffee pudding was handed down to her from her mum. It was a big part of our childhood. If it was a sticky toffee pudding day it was a good day, and life was good! And Dad was a fully-trained chef, he worked in France and has had a restaurant for 40 years. We do a really beautiful version of chicken Kiev which is quite unfashionable now but was very popular in the ’80s. People had loved it but it had been forgotten. So I do that with Dad as we used to cook it so much. It’s great!

8. Pass on the skills

My two eldest are good all-round chefs. I don’t force it on them, but I try to get them involved, contributing to the lunch, just a little something. Daisy always makes the dressings and picks the salad. Poppy hasn’t done anything for about six months, but the year before that she was laying the table and doing the baking and the bread. She’s 12 now, so she’s getting into clothes and pretending that she hates boys when she really doesn’t! Petal and Buddy love to cook. They love to grow things. And Buddy keeps telling me he wants to be a chef, a “cooker” when he gets older. I wouldn’t force him to do it but secretly I’d quite like an apprentice.

9. Work hard

I think generally modern kids are spoiled, regardless of what their families come from. If you pull out a section of the community which is supposed to be working class or whatever you want to call it, they’ve still got smartphones, so I think all kids are pretty spoiled these days. Most importantly, with my kids, is teaching them the value of money. I live in the same village I grew up in and it means I can send my kids to my dad to work. They do exactly the same jobs as I did at their age. I think young kids having a job on minimum wage is the best thing on the planet. It teaches you so many things.

10. Be proud of your achievements

I am so proud of Fifteen, the restaurant I started and staffed with young, unemployed people, often from troubled backgrounds. Over the last 13 years we’ve graduated more than 360 students. It’s the hardest thing we do but the radical transformation of ex-criminals to fully-employable Michelin Star chefs, we’ve proved you can do that. When I started it I was definitely stupid, young and naive. But I wanted to do it, and I could do it, because I had the cash. And we did it.