The cult British chef's new dinner show comes to Germany - By Bettina Wiess

What does celebrity chef Jamie Oliver do when he is not cooking in his famous home kitchen or one of his many restaurants?  He lets other cooks prepare the Jamie Oliver Dinner.

Even the appetizer sounds fantastic: Scallops marinated in Japanese yuzu lime with crisp ginger and shiso cress. Jamie Oliver loves the extraordinary and he loves to convey that sense of the unusual to his audience as well.

At the introduction to his new dinner show on stage in the Festhalle Frankfurt exhibition center, the celebrity chef explained the deal with the shiso cress and why the yuzu lime goes so uniquely well with scallops. He patiently answered questions from the audience. Yes, he was looking forward to the lively cities of Frankfurt and Hamburg, he said. And no, the menu wasn't really family food but every now and then, he likes to prepare dishes for special occasions.

Those dishes are now being prepared in Frankfurt and Hamburg by German chefs and by some of the staff from Oliver's London restaurants. As many as 500 guests a night can sample the dishes, prepared from regional produce and freshly caught fish. The events are initially scheduled to run until April.

"Obviously we will have to be very organized," said Oliver, at the same time acknowledging that he was in good hands with German event caterer Matthias Hoffmann. Hoffmann turned the "Eckart Witzigmann Palazzo" into the most successful dinner show in Germany, and has most recently produced the well-received "AFRIKA! AFRIKA!" spectacular. Now, he has persuaded the young British TV chef to do the Jamie Oliver Dinner and has engaged Michael Kunze as the scriptwriter for the show. Audiences can expect an entertaining parody of the numerous German TV cooking shows, enriched by music and acrobatics.

At the tender age of 33, Oliver is already a cult figure famous enough to have his own wax likeness at London's famous Madame Tussaud's wax museum. "It's no problem when you're doing something you like and you're good at, " said Oliver as he looked down from the balcony of the Festhalle to the square below, dressed in his trademark grey hooded sweater. A specially built steel-framed structure will be erected in the square to house his dinner shows.

In contrast to the sober industrial-design of the exterior, the emphasis inside is on elegance with comfortable leather furniture in the lounge area and elegantly set tables in the dining hall. The Jamie Oliver Dinner premieres on Nov. 13 in Hamburg and November 20 in Frankfurt.