11:00 - 07 December 2005
thisisCornwall
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's ambitious plans to create a restaurant where Cornish youngsters can train as master chefs has been awarded £1 million of public finance.
The money, from the EU's Objective One programme and the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), is described as an investment in the tourist industry in the county.
The cash will provide the bulk of the money for the £1.1 million building programme to create Fifteen Cornwall.
The decision was hailed as "absolutely brilliant" by tourism leaders.
The top floor of the Extreme Academy at Watergate Bay, Newquay, will be redesigned to create the restaurant, which is due to open next May.
Jamie, well-known for his crusade to improve school dinners, opened the first Fifteen restaurant in 2002. Based in Hoxton, London, it was inspired by the television chef's desire to help underprivileged young people forge themselves a successful career. Fifteen Cornwall will follow the same format.
Every year, 20 Cornish students aged between 16 and 24 from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have previously been unemployed, will have the opportunity to train and work in the restaurant, supported by professional chefs and college training. All the profits from the restaurant will go to the Cornwall Foundation of Promise to support the training of the Fifteen Cornwall trainees.
More than 60 new jobs will be created and the menu will focus on the best of local food.
Carleen Kelemen, partnership director at Objective One, said: "It will make a great contribution in supporting the development of young people and highlighting opportunities in the tourism catering sector, which plays a crucial role in our economy."
The investment package announced yesterday includes £545,430 from Objective One and £482,400 from the South West RDA, subject to final contracts being signed.
Professor Peter Gripaios, economics expert at the Plymouth Business School, told the BBC: "It seems a big subsidy going to the private sector, and the problem is whether the chefs will get jobs in Cornwall. Supply does not always create its own demand and it really needs an expansion in the Cornish economy.
"Now may not be the best time if there is going to be a recession."
Claire Morgan, from Objective One, said: "Tourism makes up 25 per cent of the economy in Cornwall and agriculture and food takes 25 per cent. We cannot guarantee that the chefs will stay here but the jobs will be here if they want to."
Stephen Bohane, from the regional development agency, said: "Whether or not they get jobs in the county is almost irrelevant.
"They will still get this training and develop good careers. In the meantime it is raising the quality of two of our most significant industries. I think it's absolutely great."
South West Tourism chief executive Malcolm Bell, who is a trustee for Fifteen Cornwall, said: "This is absolutely brilliant news for Cornwall. There are three main reasons why people should welcome this move and not dwell on the Objective One cash injection.
"Firstly this is a really cracking opportunity for young people in Cornwall to gain a first-class training in a vitally important industry.
"Secondly it's a great opportunity for Cornwall to have a steady stream of chefs a year coming out and working in restaurants they enjoy going into.
"And lastly the sheer profile of having Jamie Oliver setting up a restaurant in Cornwall is great for the area.
"Outside of London, Cornwall is the first place to have such a restaurant in the UK."
