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Jamie cooks up another £2 million deal
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25 April 2007
Having cooked up an estimated £25 million fortune for himself, Jamie Oliver claimed that he was 'totally prepared for the end of fame'.
But after securing a new £2 million advertising deal, fame, it seems, is not quite finished with the 31-year-old Naked Chef.
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Jamie Oliver has almost doubled his money as continue as the face of Sainsbury's
Following several weeks of negotiation, the charismatic celebrity chef has renewed, and almost doubled, his seven figure deal with Sainsbury's.
Under terms of the improved one year contract, Oliver will film a new TV and poster campaign, as well as becoming increasingly involved in the supermarket chain's behind the scenes, day to day decision making.
It is understood that Oliver hopes to play a particularly key role in continuing to boost the supermarket's organic food range as well as nurturing Britain's grassroots farming industry.
The move means that the father-of-two, whose televised campaign to improve school lunches earned him a Bafta award, is likely to spend more time away from the family home as he travels nationwide to source fresh ingredients and work in product development.
"Jamie is so passionate about fresh foods and encouraging Britons to eat more healthily that he wanted to start using his association with Sainsbury's to do just this," said a source close to the chef.
"It basically means that Jamie could be on a free range chicken range in Somerset one minute and a supplier in Newcastle the next, and really putting in the hours to try and find the best, grassroots ingredients and organic farms.
"Jamie is probably the first to admit that he's a workaholic so for him, this is the perfect deal. It may well mean that he's working longer hours than ever but this is what he is being handsomely paid to do."
Since first signing up with the retailer in 2000 for a reported fee of £250,000, the so-called 'Jamie Oliver effect' has dramatically boosted the supermarket's profile - and its profits.
Indeed, at the end of last year, the store revealed a 60 per cent increase in profits, with a focus on fresh and healthy food - the subject of an advertising campaign fronted by Oliver - said to have returned the store to favour with customers.
With seven cookbooks to his name and several television cookery series', sales of more unusual ingredients featured in his recipes, such as vanilla pods and truffle butter, have soared.
Indeed, his first campaign for Sainsbury's, the Pukka Tukka adverts which featured him cooking a prawn curry for friends, saw sales of the ingredients rise by 900 per cent.
But just two years ago, Oliver, who married his childhood sweetheart Jools in 2000, insisted that he wanted to reduce his work load, saying that he was 'looking to wind it down in the next three years'.
And earlier this year the Essex-born star claimed that he had started to spend more time in the family home at the insistence of his wife, a former model.
"I don't take problems home and I've changed quite a bit since we had the kids," he said.
"I have seven weeks' holiday a year and I'm off every weekend, which isn't bad for a chef. She [Jools] always says she wants me to take more time off, but I know for a fact that if I was hanging around the house more I'd drive her insane because I'm so hyper.
"If I get a recipe idea, I'll be up till 2am working on it. I've got things in my head all the time. I have to be doing things."
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