Jamie Oliver's 'new book' is just an electronic hoax

Book publisher Penguin is trying to find the source of an e-mail purporting to be a book written by this year's Catey Special Award winner, Jamie Oliver.

The e-mail, entitled "The Naked Chef 2", appears to be a compilation of recipes and text from previous books written by Oliver. It is being e-mailed as an attachment with a message stating that it had been sent out by a member of the Penguin team accidentally.

A spokeswomen for Penguin said: "Our lawyers are looking into the copyright infringement in association with the e-mail. But it did not originate from any part of Penguin."

She went on to say that the book does not appear to contain any new material.

Oliver's books to date comprise The Naked Chef, The Return of the Naked Chef, Happy Days with the Naked Chef and Jamie's Kitchen. He has not published a book called The Naked Chef 2.

Anders Baath, general manager for Oliver's London restaurant Fifteen, said: "I haven't spoken to Jamie about it personally, but the matter is currently with our lawyers."

Baath said that celebrities such as Oliver were often the target of this sort of thing. "When you're a public figure, these things happen," he observed.

Anyone with any information about the source of the e-mail should contact Baath at Fifteen on 020 7251 1515.