The young will be better at different things. But long hours in hot kitchens is not one of them!
As he is a man who employs quite a few young people, how does he expect they'll react to that comment? If I were a young aspiring chef I wouldn't want to slog my guts out for a boss who thinks so little of me.
Besides most chefs do start pretty young, at the bottom of the heap, washing up and chopping veg then working their way up (not all of them go to a fancy cookery school and are offered a job on the back of that or leave to start their own restaurant). I'm sure many of his cookery heroes started that way.
Just because you set up Fifteen doesn't mean you can come out with any bullshit and expect people to ignore it, Jamie. Nor does the fact that many of those kids are from working class backgrounds make you an expert on how they live their lives or how their parents spend their money. I do enjoy that Charlie Brooker rant about Jamie Oliver, and it does remind you of the overblown the level of mawkish adoration he received at the time. I get the feeling he let that adoration go to his head.