At the time the dish, Best Baked Bean Bruschetta, was unveiled, it raised eyebrows over the price -- £7 a serving when a tin of Heinz Baked Beanz sells for around 44p. Now it has been revealed that Heinz paid the restaurant to feature a recipe with baked beans.
Oliver, who has earned millions from his position as the spokesman for Sainsbury's, is distancing himself from the deal, saying that he did not realise that the Heinz marketing department would use it to get publicity. The dish has also been dumped from the menu at Fifteen.
According to an interview with the Evening Standard's ES magazine, Oliver said: "I should have been brighter. Baked beans have got no place in any restaurant with integrity.
"Heinz came to us and offered £15,000 for us to put something cool made with baked beans on the menu. That funds one student for a whole year. Am I going to do it? Of course I am."
Heinz, understandably, is not best pleased with Oliver's comments regarding the humble baked bean, saying that it had made a charitable donation to Cheeky Chops, the foundation set up by Oliver to teach cooking skills to young people.
Michael Mullen, a spokesman for Heinz, said: "At no point was Heinz involved in setting a price for the beans in the restaurant. We had meetings with Jamie's representatives and showed him all the details of the marketing."
Hoxton-based restaurant Fifteen was set up in 2002 and is staffed by disadvantaged young people going through Oliver's training scheme.
After Channel 4 made a series about it, called 'Jamie's Kitchen', the restaurant was an enormous success. But it has also been at the centre of some bad publicity. Along with the baked beans story, the press has leapt on a Harden's review that described the restaurant as "amateurish". Nonetheless, it remains popular with London's diners.
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