Jamie Oliver has described the moment when a diner in his Fifteen restaurant mistook Oprah Winfrey for Whoopi Goldberg as the “worst thing” to happen to him.
Jamie Oliver was left embarrassed when a diner mistook his guest Oprah Winfrey for Whoopi Goldberg.
The 49-year-old chef had worked hard to create a “lovely” environment for the talk show legend when she visited his now-defunct Fifteen restaurant in London in 2004, but things went awry at the last minute when an over-enthusiastic customer made a gaffe.
Jamie told Nova FM’s Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips: “I think I’ve got nervous cooking for Oprah just because I think she’s really interesting. She came to my Fifteen restaurant.
“As soon as she walked through, the whole restaurant stood up and clapped. We had a lovely, lovely time, and we cooked her a lovely meal.
“She loved the concept, and then as she left, they stood up and again started clapping, and one customer went: ‘We love you, Whoopi.’
“And it’s like: ‘Shut up!’ It was the worst thing in the world.”
Jamie recently recalled another time he was “embarrassed” as he felt awkward when he and wife Jools – who he married in 2000 – decided to renew their wedding vows during a “posh holiday” in the Maldives last year with their five children, Poppy, 21, Daisy, 20, Petal, 14, Buddy, 12, and seven-year-old River.
Appearing on the ‘Newlyweds’ podcast, he said: “We were going to renew our vows at 20 years and then covid happened.
“So, it was at 23 years. The girls were leaving for university and stuff, so it did feel like the nest was starting to break up’.
“We’d never been on what you would call a posh holiday, so we went to the Maldives.
“I was a bit embarrassed about the whole thing, if I’m really honest, and I wasn’t so into it until we got there.”
However, Jamie ended up loving the whole experience “more than anyone”, and he insisted it was much less “awkward” than his actual wedding day.
He recalled: “The first time you get married, it’s like, it just feels a bit awkward and embarrassing.
“But if you ever get married again, if you get to 10 years or 20 years, the words are different. Because you’ve earned every single line and it was really, really emotional.
“The words are still the same words, but they mean different things.
“Basically, like s*** we’ve done it like, wow. And then you look around, there’s all these amazing kids that you’ve made. Yeah, it was incredible.”
Jamie Oliver had ‘worst’ moment in front of Oprah Winfrey
