All of us around at the time will remember the drum rolls, the fanfares and general fervour which in 2008 greeted Jamie Oliver’s unveiling in Oxford of the first branch of his chain Jamie’s Italian.

“Oh, no he isn’t,” I joked pathetically. And now it isn’t – around any longer, I mean. No more are the many branches that followed (save the one at Gatwick Airport, now in other hands).

Like that “traveller from an antique land”, in P.B. Shelley’s Ozymandias, one surveys the colossal wreck of Oliver’s business and ponders the truism that all things must pass.

Well, yes; but so quickly?

It seems only yesterday that we first stood in line for a table at the Oxford Jamie’s in George Street. The premises (still empty eight months after closure) had previously been Young’s Cock and Camel pub and before that Rollers, a shop that seemed to sell everything.

Queueing, moi? No – nor was it exactly the metier of the lady in line beside me on that early visit, the Oxford Preservation Trust’s boss Debbie Dance.

At the fall of the chain, we looked back incredulously at the way things had been. Why had we – everyone – been so determined to try the flavour of the moment?

In my case it was professional duty. I delivered a moderately enthusiastic appraisal of the grub on offer, though it never appealed, then or later, to the lady in my life.

“Ghastly as ever,” was her verdict on the occasions – they became less frequent – when social obligation required our presence. It may go some way to support Rosemarie’s opinion concerning the ‘authenticity’ or otherwise of the dishes that the biggest of the chain’s 288 creditors (£850,000 owed) is the food firm Brake Brothers.

My first visit was on the day after the opening ‘do’. “Jamie was sitting where you are now,” I was told by an excited member of the staff. It occurred to me to ask for the seat to be given a thorough wash-down, so slobbery and unsavoury did I judge the TV chef to be.

It was left to city commentators to explain what went wrong with his restaurant empire in financial terms, principally that he didn’t really have a business brain. In which case one wonders at the wisdom of his risking his and others’ money in a new global chain offering ‘all-day eating’.

His latest plans especially stick in the craw of his many UK creditors hit by the Jamie’s Italian collapse. These include Oxford City Council, owed £113,000 in rent for the George Street premises.

It is instructive to consider when things began to go wrong there. The consistency of its dishes was certainly an issue, as disobliging on-line reviews complained. As these proliferated, the queues quickly subsided, replaced, I noticed, by eager punters in line outside Thaikhun opposite.

There were so many other shows in town, especially after the opening of the new Westgate Centre.

My own view is that those eager for Italian food would do well to seek out restaurants owned and staffed by Italians, authenticity thereby more likely, if not guaranteed.

Oxford used to boast many, including the Saraceno in Magdalen Street, the Luna Caprese in North Parade Avenue, the Cantina di Capri in Queen Street and Rimini in Hythe Bridge Street.

Today, the banner of traditional Italian is fluttering in very few places, far and away the best being La Cucina in St Clements, expertly run by chef Alberto Brunelli.

The reputation of the chain-operated ‘Italian’ restaurants – never up to much – will have been further tarnished by recent revelations concerning ASK Italian.

The company was fined £40,000 after three years of deceit over the most expensive dish on its menu.

Aragosta e gamberoni, priced at £14.95, described as lobster and king prawns in a tomato and chilli sauce, turned out to be made with a product called Lobster Sensations, costing 70p a portion and containing almost as much white fish (34 per cent) as lobster (35 per cent).

A doctor, writing to The Times, said this could have led to a life-threatening reaction for people allergic to white fish, as he is.

Dr Bernard Norman wrote: “[I] would have ended up in a hospital emergency department, possibly en route to the hospital mortuary.”