Jamie Oliver's on-camera appeal is all about the way he seems to reach straight through the lens and into your ordinary life, and it was that crazy-enthusiastic energy and personable nature that charmed staff at his Canberra restaurant on Friday.
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They were primed, waiting for well over an hour to meet the man under whose name they work, but whom they had never expected to meet so early in the life of the eatery.
So by the time he arrived, excitement was already bubbling over, and when he pushed open the door, he was greeted like a star, with screams, yells, laughter and applause. To be a celebrity to your own employees is surely the dream of every boss.
Oliver didn't disappoint, brushing aside the urgency of his minders and insisting "a little bit of a hug and a bit of a selfie" with every staff member.
In person, he was switched on, talkative, passionate and full of all the cussing and heartfelt opinion you see on the television screens as he blusters and grins his way into corners of the world with a mission to change the way we eat.
He swears on the life of his children that his deal with Woolworths has nothing to do with money and everything to do with his life's passion – improving the cooking ability and the eating habits of a world on the slippery slide into "nutrition transition which is a posh word for crappy junk food overthrowing the kind of foods of their history and their culture".
He said his visit to Australia had been "mental" and the declared the stuff he does works better here than anywhere, including his home country, presumably because of the intensely democratic posh-can-push-off Australian attitude.
He likes his restaurants to be proficient, but with "a bit of a swagger" and a laugh, Oliver said.
And while he was not averse as a dad to "a cycle of tears", he had been incredibly moved by the applications from communities around the country to host pop-up kitchens.
Oliver wears his heart on his sleeve and expends enough passion wherever he goes that he leaves Australia on Friday afternoon, in his words "trashed", by which he means exhausted and wrung out.
His staff, after an early start and an hour of high spirits with the man, were probably feeling a little of the same.
