Naked Chef lands record deal

Cooking up a storm: Scarlet Division

Not content with a TV series, two best-selling books and huge acclaim as a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver has landed a record deal.

Oliver, the 25-year-old star of BBC Two's The Naked Chef, has secured a two-album contract with Sony Music for himself and his band, Scarlet Division.

A compilation of the songs he likes to listen to while working his culinary magic, plus a second record by the band will be released by the music giant, the band's manager announced on Friday.

"Jamie's always loved music, it's just there's never been any money in it," manager Alan Seisert said.

Jamie Oliver's culinary principle is to "strip it bare then make it work"

The star, once branded a 'rock 'n' roll chef' because of his youth and no-frills culinary style, has been drumming with Scarlet Division since he was 14.

Back-burner

He met the five other band members at school and they have been writing songs and gigging in London ever since.

Oliver, who describes the band's sound as "somewhere between Texas, the Pretenders and modern techno", insists the record deal has been earned by the band and has nothing to do with his fame.

"My name has never been mentioned on any promotion for the band," he told BBC News Online earlier this year.

"NME even gave us a pretty favourable write-up."

But he admitted music commitments "could mean putting the cooking to one side for a while".

Scarlet Division's debut single will be released in October.