Jamie Oliver: celebrity chef takes children’s book off the shelf

There’s a lot of excitement about Jamie Oliver’s (49) new book: The star chef recently published his first children’s book called “Billy and the Epic Escape”. Now he has taken it off the shelves again and apologized several times.

“I am shocked that I have caused offense and apologize from the bottom of my heart,” the British celebrity chef said in his latest statement, . It continues: “It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful subject. Together with my publishers, we have decided to remove the book from sale.”

The main character in the book “Billy and the Epic Escape” is a girl from the indigenous population of Australia. However, Oliver doesn’t seem to have done his homework. Among other things, his book is said to have incorrectly used and assigned indigenous words and portrayed its main character in a stereotypical manner.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Commission, or Natsiec for short, criticized the book many times. It is “harmful” and “disrespectful” to Indigenous culture and people and contributes to the “erasure, trivialization and stereotyping of First Nations peoples and experiences.” Prominent representatives of indigenous literature joined the criticism.

The publisher Penguin Random House UK admitted to the Australian Guardian that there had been no consultation with an indigenous organization, community or person who could have carried out a so-called authenticity reading. It goes on to say that the author asked for one.

On Sunday, Penguin told the Guardian that Billy and the Epic Escape would be withdrawn from sale in all countries where it owns the rights, including the UK and Australia.