Fifteen

Site Description:
Fifteen is Jamie Oliver’s restaurant off Old Street in London. It is coupled with the Fifteen Foundation, which takes care of Jamie Oliver’s various projects such as the young chef apprentice scheme. The restaurant has fine dining downstairs and an Italian restaurant upstairs. There are also two floors of offices above the restaurant.

Storytelling:
‘Interviewer 2: What do you think about the idea of growing food in a restaurant?
(Participant B): I think it’s a brilliant idea, I really do. I think it should be everywhere… people come here because of what they see Jamie do on television. Get it upstairs, downstairs, in the toilets, everywhere. People will still look at it, they’ll find it funny or they’ll ask you about it, they’re not going to be offended or insulted, they’re probably going to think it’s a good idea. I mean, if you look at the River Café, one of the things it’s famous for is growing it’s own herbs and certain vegetables…’ (March, 2009)

Opportunities:
A curious chef and engaged staff involved in the participating team.

Challenges:
The most commercial of the four sites, the space at fifteen is more aesthetically demanding than the other sites and the grow structures need to fit in with the restaurants branded image. The grow kit also needs to sit within a very busy dining room full of customers. The space is highly functional, design and programmed. The staff rotas mean that tending time must be carefully planned. ‘Kids on a Saturday morning’ (participant B) create havoc in the space. The participant interviewed was not comfortable using social networking website.

The Aims:
The aim here is to develop imaginative ways of integrating planting into decorative spaces in a busy restaurant environment. Also, another aim is to be able to use the produce in the restaurant kitchen.

Intervention:
Replace decorative spaces in the upstairs dining room with planters growing herbs and chard.

Background Research & Expertise:
‘I think it’d be nice to take some pictures, because the Romanesque that I’m growing at home, the seeds are only about that big at the moment, but they’re the same colour as the florets of Romanesque, which I wasn’t expecting. And chard, is meant to be really good, when it gets to about that big, you get like red, orange, yellow, green sprouts.’ (Participant B)

Dream scenario:
‘capture people’s imagination and be a talking point.’ (Participant C)

Key insights/ inspirational triggers for design:
‘why pay for it when you can take the seeds that you put in the bin.’ (Participant B)

See our photo journal for Fifteen on Flickr here!