ARISE, SIR JAMIE OLIVER

This account of Jamie Oliver's ambitious culinary career and widely publicized campaigns to ban unhealthy food in schools captivates. Selecting the narrator of this book must have been especially challenging, given the celebrity chef's well-known on-screen charisma. Jerome Pride falls short both in his stolid reading of the narrative and his delivery of the many quotes from Oliver. At first, Pride makes an attempt at Oliver's self-described "Mockney accent and estuary English," but the accent is quickly dropped. This inconsistency, combined with a lack of pauses before quotes, makes it frustratingly difficult to distinguish between the text and quotes. While the story of the chef star's rise to fame is intriguing (although little beyond 2001 is covered), the content is repetitive. Let’s hope Oliver will write an autobiography—and read it himself! A.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2012]