The British celebrity chef who has more than 30 UK branches of Jamie’s Italian, as well as three branches of Fifteen, where young unemployed people are taken on as apprentices, told Good Housekeeping magazine British youngsters were ‘wet behind the ears’ often ‘whingeing’ when they had to work a 48-hour week. He said he worked twice as hard when he was 20.
He thought immigrants were cut out for hard work and if he didn’t have immigrant workers all of his restaurants would close tomorrow. “There wouldn’t be any Brits to replace them.”
“It’s all very well when people are slagging off immigration and I’m sure there are problems. Older people always complain about youth and I think it’s a good thing because it is always changing. The young will be better at different things. But long hours in hot kitchens is not one of them. I have never seen anything so wet behind the ears [as British kids] I have mummies phoning up for 23-year-olds saying to me, ‘My son is too tired’.”
