'You can taste the woke': Jamie Oliver faces backlash over employing 'offence advisers'

23 January 2022, 19:57 | Updated: 23 January 2022, 20:03

Jamie Oliver has been criticised for the "woke" move.
Jamie Oliver has been criticised for the "woke" move. Picture: Axel Heimken/dpa/Alamy

By Emma Soteriou

Jamie Oliver has been criticised for employing 'offence advisers' to avoid accusations of cultural appropriation with his dishes.

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The chef confessed to employing "teams of cultural appropriation specialists" to ensure he did not make any mistakes in naming his dishes.

"Your immediate reaction is to be defensive and say, 'For the love of God really?' And then you go, 'Well, we don't want to offend anyone'," Mr Oliver told the Sunday Times Culture magazine.

However, following the revelation, people accused the chef of being too "woke", sharing their anger online.

One Twitter user said: "Unbelievable left wing woke cancel culture."

Another Twitter user said: "Definitely on the woke boycott list."

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Meanwhile, one user tweeted in response to Mr Oliver accepting that his Empire Roast Chicken from 2012 - seasoned with turmeric, cumin, coriander and garam masala - would not be acceptable today.

"Love how Jamie Oliver absolutely has to call it Empire Roast Chicken, if you call it anything else it becomes an entirely different recipe," she said.

"You can taste the woke on it."

The move comes after the chef previously face criticism for the name of several of his dishes.

In 2018, Mr Oliver was accused of cultural appropriation by Labour MP Dawn Butler over the name of his "punchy jerk rice".

Ms Butler tweeted: "I'm just wondering do you know what Jamaican jerk actually is?

“It's not just a word you put before stuff to sell products."

However, Mr Oliver claimed it showed his culinary inspiration.

He also came under fire in 2014 for his interpretation of Jollof rice.