He presides over a culinary empire and single-handedly tried to revolutionise British school dinners.

But celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has revealed he had to turn down what could have been his biggest on-screen appearance yet, in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy Lord of the Rings.

Speaking during the recording of his Channel 4 series, Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, Oliver revealed that in 2001 Jackson had offered to fly him to the set in New Zealand and give him a cameo part playing a hobbit in the final film in the trilogy, The Return of the King, in exchange for cooking the director’s 50th birthday meal.

The chef expressed his regret that he had not been able to take up the offer because of prior commitments and described it as “the worst thing that happened to me”.

He said: “I got phoned up by the exec producer and asked did I want to go and cook for Peter Jackson’s birthday, the big birthday.

“And if I did, they would fly me over and I could be a hobbit in the film. But I was working, I couldn’t get out of it.”

He added: “I really wanted to do it, I would have got right into it as well, I would have taken the costume home and said ‘Jools, let’s make love!’.”

Oliver, who runs a global chain of restaurants, Jamie’s Italian, as well as having a range of kitchenware, has built up an estimated wealth of around £240m since he made his first television appearance on the BBC as the Naked Chef in 1997.

The first episode of Oliver’s new six-part series, which is filmed in a pop-up cafe on Southend pier in Essex, is due to be screened on 2 January, with guests including Hugh Bonneville, Tinie Tempah and Michael Sheen.