Jamie Oliver heads to India

UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is to open his first restaurant in India.

Jamie’s Pizzeria, a 60 seat restaurant serving pizzas, salads, sides and desserts, will open in Delhi this autumn.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be bringing Jamie’s Italian and Jamie’s Pizzeria to India. Delhi is a vibrant, colourful, buzzing city with an already incredible food scene, so to be opening two restaurants there is a huge honour,” Oliver said in a statement.

The pizzeria will be the first of several planned for major Indian cities. Oliver already runs 30 restaurants globally, including in the UK, Dubai, Hong Kong, Russia, Australia, Singapore and Toronto.

The Indian business is a joint venture between Delhi-based Carnation Hospitality, which operates Wendy’s and Barista franchises in India, and UK-based International Market Management.

“We chose Delhi because we found a great launch site and feel that we can offer something new to the market, this is to say highly accessible, affordable restaurants serving great quality Italian food sourced with the greatest care,” said Jasper Reid, IMM’s founder, in an interview.

“It’s a fun and easy-going place offering customers the highest quality but at amazing value. The plan is for customers to get a yummy pizza and a drink for around Rs 400 to Rs 450. We feel there may be a gap in the market for this quality and this price,” Reid said.

He added that the partnership will launch the other Jamie Oliver brand, Jamie’s Italian, in India as well.