Jamie Oliver's family pub is hit by robbers

Five men armed with baseball bats and hammers raided The Cricketers at Clavering, in Essex, where the celebrity chef learned to cook.

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Jamie Oliver, and father Trevor, left: The celebrity chef has offered a £150,000 reward to help catch the armed robbers who raided his father's pub

The gang pushed an 80-year-old kitchen worker to the floor and took cash from a till and a safe at closing time on Sunday.

Oliver's father Trevor said: 'About four armed men came on to the premises and demanded the safe to be opened.

'I wasn't in but my staff were and there was one customer inside. I think they were pretty frightened.

'They told one man to lie on the floor and he wouldn't get hurt.

'Everyone was pretty shaken up by it. The good thing is that no one was hurt.'

Oliver is on a business trip in America. But his spokesman said the chef would hand over the money to anyone who could produce information that would lead to an arrest and conviction.

'He is angry. He grew up in the pub and first started to learn to cook there.

'These guys have gone in armed with a hammer, scared the cusseemedtomers, scared the staff and pushed an elderly member of staff to the floor.

'He's offering £150,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any of these people responsible.

'He's disappointed and shocked that this kind of thing happens in a small Essex village.'

Oliver talks about growing up at the pub on his website. His father has appeared with him on TV food programmes.

'My dad runs a lovely pub-restaurant, The Cricketers, in Clavering, Essex, where I grew up,' writes the chef.

'I remember being fascinated by what went on in the kitchen. It just such a cool place, everyone working together to make this lovely stuff and having a laugh doing it.'

His father added: 'I have been here 32 years and there has not been a whisper of anything potentially dangerous or threatening.

'We are very honoured in this part of Essex that we are very sheltered, we are not used to things like this in this area - it is very hard to take in.

'Everyone who was working last night is in this morning and police are taking statements.

'I would ask anyone with information to let the police know.

'We are hopeful that good will always overcome evil and these people will be caught.'

Staff at the 16th-century inn were preparing to close up at about 11pm when the gang burst in demanding cash.

Witnesses said there were between five and eight people, mainly staff, in the pub.

One man who worked at the pub was hit over the arm with a weapon.

The gang demanded cash from the till and the safe and escaped in a large, dark-coloured saloon car which had a noisy exhaust.

The five or six members of the gang had their faces hidden, but onlookers said that one spoke with a South African accent and two others spoke in an unknown foreign language.

Police said they had no evidence to suggest that the pub might have been targeted because of its celebrity link.