| Levi Roots | |
|---|---|
Roots at the Notting Hill Carnival 2010. |
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| Born | Keith Valentine Graham 24 June 1958 (age 53)[1] Clarendon, Jamaica |
| Residence | Brixton, South London, England |
| Nationality | Jamaican/British |
| Occupation | Businessman, chef, musician, television personality |
| Years active | since 2007 |
| Known for | Reggae Reggae Sauce |
| Website | |
| Official Website of Reggae Reggae Sauce | |
Keith Valentine Graham[2][3] (born 24 June 1958), better known as Levi Roots, is a British-Jamaican reggae musician, television personality, celebrity chef, businessman and multi-millionaire[4] currently residing in Brixton, South London.
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Roots has performed with James Brown and Maxi Priest and was nominated for a Best Reggae Act MOBO award in 1998.[5] He was a friend of Bob Marley when he resided in the UK and performed "Happy Birthday Mr. President" for Nelson Mandela in 1992 on his trip to Brixton. He gained widespread fame after appearing on the UK television programme Dragons' Den, where he gained £50,000 funding for his Reggae Reggae Sauce.
Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae Sauce is a jerk barbecue sauce. In 2006, the sauce was available for sale at the carnival, with 4,000 bottles sold.
He later took the sauce to a food trade show, where he was spotted by a BBC producer who approached him to appear on Dragons' Den. He appeared in the first episode of the fourth series, and was seeking £50,000 of investment from the Dragons in return for a 20% equity stake in Reggae Reggae Sauce. Despite his low sales, and good business demeanor, he claimed that he had an order for 2.5 million litres of the sauce. There was some confusion with some of the Dragons as to the validity of the figures of order, but the Dragons decided his business was investable and he was offered the £50,000 for a 40% stake in his business by Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh. Leading from the success of his spicy sauce, Roots released an extended version of his song "Reggae Reggae Sauce" which features one of his children (Joanne) on backing vocals. The music video features a cameo from Dragon Peter Jones. All of the money raised went to Comic Relief.
Shortly after his appearance on the programme, Sainsbury's announced that they would be stocking the sauce in 600 of their stores.[6]
The song which formed part of his pitch on Dragons' Den (and also sung by Levi himself in an appearance on Harry Hill's TV Burp) was also released as a download single. "Proper Tings (The Reggae Reggae Sauce Song)" received its first play on Allan Lake's breakfast show on Core.
He spoke at the SWRDA's enterprise conference on 24 November 2008. Levi has also spoken to the Isle of Man Junior Chamber of Commerce. He is a keen admirer of children's enterprise as shown when he did a tour of Plymouth School talking about how he became a successful musician and businessman.
A news story in The Grocer magazine in 2010 states that a range of ready meals were to be launched, and that Roots had stated that the value of the brand had then increased to £30 million.[7].
Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae Cookbook was published in 2008, with a foreword by Levi's investor, Peter Jones. The book has chapters of Levi's story of coming to London and an introduction into Caribbean ingredients. To coincide with the release of his recipe book, Roots appeared on the 3 June 2008 edition of BBC's Ready Steady Cook as a celebrity. He achieved the second place against Lesley Waters.
Levi had a television cooking show, Caribbean Food Made Easy, on BBC2, with a book of the same name publishing in August 2009.[8] The show follows Levi as he travels the UK and Jamaica demonstrating easy ways to cook Caribbean food at home.
Levi appeared on Celebrity Mastermind in 2010, coming last with 13 points.
Levi made a cameo appearance in the 2001 prison football movie Mean Machine starring Vinnie Jones and Adam Chapman; he appears in the handcuffed fight scene as a bloodthirsty punter watching the fight.
Levi starred in Adam Deacon's film Anuvahood with one scene at the start singing about the Reggae Reggae Sauce and also had his own cooking episode with the cast on the extra part of the Anuvahood DVD.
Roots was sued for more than £600,000 by Tony Bailey and his financial adviser Sylvester Williams. Roots gave evidence to the High Court and admitted that marketing 'his grandmothers secret recipe' used on his products was untrue, although Levi's grandmother did inspire him to cook the sauce.[9]
On November 25th 2011, The High Court completely rejected the claims made by Mr Bailey and Mr Williams that they had any role in developing the recipe for Reggae Reggae sauce, or that they should be given any share of the Reggae Reggae business built up by Levi Roots. Judge Mark Pelling, who was sitting as the deputy high court judge, told the court: "This was a dishonest claim, dishonestly advanced. [10].
Lawyers said they estimated the legal battle had cost more than £1m in total and the judge said Mr Roots was entitled to have his costs paid.